Fruitastic

So when we started in the Peace Corps they gave us little tips about shopping in the market, how to bargain, how to ask for the yappa or the extra. I went with my host mother in Cayambe to the market in Ibarra and watched the way she mildly refused to buy anything until it was approximately a third of the quoted price. This is this stuff that Peace Corps does really well, how to go and do all the things in your community that every else does, and not look like a tourist doing it. The advantage of living a ten minute walk from a huge market, is that you can buy things there, and its way cheaper than at the Supermaxi, so off I went yesterday with my little basket willed to me by another volunteer who was leaving. "Use it well" she said to me, "take it to the market."

So there I was in the middle of El Arenal, like any Ecuadorian housewife, with a list of things to get, prepared to bargain for the best price. The trick though is, nobody sells anyone two avocados in the market, so when I asked how much they were, I heard four for a dollar. Not wanting to be cheated I made this face like I was thinking it was "demaciado caro" and couldn´t she give me five? The señora was happy to comply. And I walked off to the next stall feeling very good about myself. You can probably see where this is going. There were mangoes, where a similar negotiation was successfully executed and I found myself with enough of them to feed several families for a week. The thing is though that I got a blender last week and so I have a monton of time on my hands, so every morning I make myself a smoothie. Theoretically most of the fruit I got can be put in a blender with yoghurt, so the plan is to eat it all, but when I got home and cleaned everything and put it away, it became clear I got an extraordinary amount of fruits and veggies for one person.

Here´s a an inventory of everything. I figured when I got home that I spent $5.60.

6 Mangoes
1 bag of blackberries
1 bunch (8) carrots
5 avocados
15 tomatoes
1 bag (20) mandarin oranges
1 bag (20) apples, small
cilantro
1/2 a bunch of bananas

I´m eating.