Day of the Mangoes

It’s mango season in Trinidad and I’ve been pigging out. Yesterday was total mango overload. Started out with a visit to the market in Chanaguas where Dilly (left) was selling green mangoes that had been sliced, drizzled with lime and sprinkled with salt and hot peppers. A bagful (30 cents) was breakfast.

Bought a bag of Julie mangoes, the sweetest of the sweet, from another vendor in the market (10 for $1.) Snacked on a couple of them on the ride up the coast, then stopped at a roadside stand where the vendor was selling all kinds of sliced and prepared mangoes—peppermint mangoes, mangoes preserved with molasses, spicy mangoes. Bought some of everything.

Later in the afternoon, I stopped at yet another stand where I picked up a bag of Zadaki mangoes, which are even sweeter than the Julies, plus some tiny little mangoes that no one knew the name of. I felt kinda sorry for them, so I bought them, too. They are a tad stringy but I don't hold that against them.

I’ve got all my mangoes sitting on the window sill of my hotel room. I’ll be flying home tomorrow and can’t bring them with me. So I am writing a little, then stopping to eat some mango, then writing some more. I am a happy man ...