I have yet to post pictures from Utila, I know, but I must write about the wonderful day I spent I la granja (the farm) on Saturday. While I learned to scuba dive in Utila, my good friend Gabbi fell in love with a Honduran family with three kind, energetic boys and loving parents.
One day, about two weeks ago, Gabbi was approached by Mario, one of the boys who lives next to her apartment. He wondered if any of his North American neighbors could give him piano lessons. By the time I returned to Tegus from my tropical adventure, Gabbi was spending about an hour every night at the Salinas' house, teaching Mario on his table-top keyboard and hanging out with his younger brothers, Alisandro and Juan Angelo. She refused pay, but was then given generous portions of jamaica (a delicious spiced juice) and hearty Honduran food.
I loved every minute of the drive. The Honduran landscape (if you haven't noticed in previous posts) is filled with broad green mountains, beautiful valleys, and colorful architechture. As we drove, we passed the weekly market where fresh, local produce is sold de la tierra a la mesa (from the land to the table). We stopped to buy tortillas made from scratch and Sra. Salinas insisted (congenially opening my door) that we stop in the kitchen and see the process; how the tortilla dough is made, shaped into dough-balls, put through a press, and then cooked on a flat stove lit by fire beneath. As we left Tegus, the Salinas' explained which crops grow where and why. Because only the boys speak English, I used my Spanish the whole day, even interpreting for Gabbi. I almost forgot I was speaking a different language by the time we left.
As we left Tegus, we passed Zamorano, a prestigious agricultural school, and Sra. Salinas explained that the university students tend to all the neatly-planted, fertile fields in that particular valley. As we left the valley to wind our way around a trio of mountains, Sr. Salinas asked, "You see that mountain peak in the middle there?" I did. "That's where we're going."
Pretty soon, the road turned to dirt and mud.
This is the farmhouse:
Another view of the house. This is the same side as the above picture; the house is really long. To the right is a pile of coffee beans drying on the concrete.
This pavilion, situated in front of the house, is used for cookouts and meals eaten outside.
The land on the Salinas farm is like a natural fun-house. We took a long walk around the property and sampled all kinds of fruits and burned all kinds of calories.
Gabbi and Juan Angelo on the trail. A lot of my pictures are similar to this one, but I couldn't resist. They make a very photogenic pair.
From the left: Sr. Salinas, Alisandro, me, and Juan Angelo.
A guanabana. Sr. Salina knocked it down with a long branch and I took this bad boy home to Tegus.
Mandarinas de limon. I find that what we call "oranges," Hondurans call "lemons."
Young coffee plants.
This coffee fruit is tierno, not yet ripe.
When the fruit is ripe, it's red in color and sweet. In order to taste the fruit, one bites into the red berry and sucks up the juice without actually eating the fruit. Inside one finds the golden coffee bean. This bean is then washed, dried, and roasted in a very fussy process.
More lemon-oranges.
Sacate de limon, or lemon grass. Sra. Salinas used this to make tea later.
Like so, combined with jengibre, ginger root (pulled straight out the ground by Sr. Salinas). It was truly the most delicious tea I have ever tasted. Upon leaving, the Salinas's gave me a huge bundle of sacate de limon and jengibre to make my own tea, plus the rest of the tea we made that day.
Cacoa. Chocoate is made from the bean-esque things inside this fruit.
This is a cacoa fruit cut open. Inside one finds (to be precise, if a little graphic) a number of filmy sacks that contain the beans that hold the chocolate substance. You can enjoy the fruit juice by (once again) chewing but not eating the fruit and spiting out the beans. I got to pick my own cacoa fruit to take home.
Mango.
These are ripe red beans. And this might possibly be the best picture I've taken in my life (no editing involved, people!)
The stalks are all dried out and they provide great fertilizer.
Yuca, a potato-like root.
The yuca made a delicious snack with garlic/cilantro mantequilla. Cooking with yuca is like cooking with fool-proof, guaranteed-perfect potatoes. Eat it, Idaho! Sra. Salinas gave me some yuca to take home. I cooked it this morning for Gabbi's last breakfast in Honduras.
I'm not sure what kind of tree this is (maybe banana?), but the circles inside the trunk tell it's age, just like with sturdy midwestern trees.
Some favorite pics from the day:
Gabbi and Juan Angelo.
Flowers.
.
A view of the valley.
Gabbi, Juan Angelo, Alisandro, and Mario.
Eating sugar cane. Sr. Salinas peeled the stalk with a machete.
More flowers!
Juan Angelo. If only he was cute. . .
Sra. Salinas explained that, in order to control deforestation, only the marked trees can be cut down.
The reservoir. This wall was built into the moutain to catch the run-off water. There is a pipe on the front of the wall that runs all the way to the house.
El arbol pino, the pine tree is the national tree of Honduras.
This is a stick-up.
Sra. Salinas (right) cooked up a mean feast: chorizo (a spicy sausage), pollo (chicken), carne (red meat), frijoles (beans), chismol (homemade salsa), queso semi-seco (semi-dry cheese - white, crumbly block cheese), homemade tortillas, arroz (rice), fresh fruit, fresh cilantro, etc. She's supermom.
Standing by the lake. Friends.
The elusive turtle. This is one of maybe fifteen pictures I took, trying to catch this guy at the surface.
Fresh starfruit. Sra. Salinas gave me these, too.
The beans end up in the bottom basin, drying.
A view of the valley and the fields harvested by the agricultural school.
Gabbi and the boys just chilling.
Mario picked flowers for Gabbi's hair.
A nest? Looks like one of those decorative twig-balls people put in fancy bowls nowadays. Who needs Crate and Barrel?
Pine cones.
A picture of what Sra. Salinas jokingly calls the bodega (grocery store). She gave me about ten of those little bananas to take home; they'll ripen in about ten days.
Here's a video of the us throwing food to the fish. One of the boys shouts, "Tortuga! (Turtle!)" and this causes quite the commotion.
As you might have guessed, the Salinas family is extremely generous. After the trip to the granja, I have enough fresh fruit and vegetables to open a bodega of my own. Since Gabbi was going to leave the next day, she didn't take home any produce. However, on the way back to Tegus, Sra. Salinas insisted on making a special stop to show us around the Zamorano store with all the products grown and made by the school. There, Sra. Salinas bought Gabbi so many Honduran treats, kindly insisting that they are para su madre (for her mother), that both Gabbi and I were overwhelmed her kindness, by how someone we've known only a few weeks (and me only a two days) could give us so much. The Salinas' constantly reiterated that we are always welcome on the farm and in their house in the city.
I'm so grateful that the Salinas family allowed me to enjoy the granja with them. When I think of Honduran families, and especially Honduran mothers, I think of the Salinas family and of Sra. Salinas; of their generosity and the pride they take in their family and their work. I think of my full stomach, the tea, the yuca, and the bananas I will enjoy in about a week or so.
Utila pictures soon!
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