Under Construction!
I am starting to put a scrapbook of pictures of Cali on this page with brief explanations.
A couple of weeks ago, Jorge the trusted cab driver and I went for an excursion to Chorrera Del Indio (Indian Pool) about twenty minutes from Cali. A bit south of Cali, the Andes split into three ranges, and we are in the foothills of the westernmost one.
One of the waterfalls in Chorrera Del Indio...
Back in Cali, to get from the hotel to the big shopping center called "Unicentro", you have to cross "La Quinta", known by Shoshi and me as "Bad Street". There are several medians to cross and the easiest place to do it is in the middle of the block. If you cross at the corner in the pedestrian crosswalk, you actually have less time to react to vehicles coming at you from unexpected directions. I haven't really captured yet in a photograph what this means, but you basically have to play chicken with hurtling buses, cabs, cars, bikes, motorcycles, and carts. Speed, agility, good peripheral vision and luck help a good deal.
Once you make it across La Quinta, you enter Unicentro. Here there are guards and drug or bomb-sniffing dogs, but you get used to it, just like in Israel.
This is the official crossing of "La Quinta", where vendors sell their wares. I think that the majority of the buyers are Colombians, that is, the wares are not just for tourists, though I am not sure.
And a closer look at the vendors...
The lady below is selling a palm fruit called "chontaduro". After explaining that we do not have this fruit, I asked if I could take a picture to send to my friends. She said, "Sure, if I can have copy of it! When will it be ready?"
The chontaduros are boiled in water for about one and a half hours. Each chontaduro costs $0.20 or about $0.40 for a bag of six. She peels it and gives you salt and honey to put on it. The fruit has a strange texture, and its taste is kind of smokey, a little sweet, and definitely an acquired taste. I have actually gotten to like it, but the first one was a shock to the system.
Hearts of palm are often from the same palm Bactris gasipaes that produces the Chontaduro fruit. As the Miami Herald says,
The tall and slender Guilielma gassipaes or Bactris gassipaes, another important source of hearts of palm, is even more prized for its edible fruit. Known as pejibaye in Costa Rica, chontaduro and cachipay in Colombia and chonta in Bolivia and Peru, peach palm fruits (its common English name) grow in large, beautiful clusters like a cross between a miniature coconut and a persimmon in shades of orange, yellow and green.The flesh is deep orange and mealy like a Caribbean sweet potato, but more fibrous. Because of its high starch content, it feels and tastes like a tuber or a green plantain, with very little sweetness.
A closer, almost focused view of the chontaduro...
A common fruit here is the yellow "pitaya" or "pitahaya",
Selenicereus megalanthus, a climbing cactus known for its good taste
and laxative properties, as I was warned at the grocery store! The taste
reminds me of kiwi or dragon fruit.
And, this fruit, the mangostino just appeared in the supermarkets. It does not seem to be well known here, and I believe it is originally Asian, but it is truly delicious. By local standards, it is expensive, costing about $0.80 per fruit. The edible white inside part looks quite a lot like a head of garlic, but it is very sweet and tasty, similar to lychee or kumquat.
The guanábana (Annona muricata) is a native of South America and the Caribbean. It is also known as Soursop and Graviola and is a member of the Custard Apple Family. Needless to say, it is pretty big. Here is the outside of half a guanábana:
and the inside after I scooped a little bit out:
and a few of the sections of fruit:
