Typical yet Unusual

 

 

 

I am going to start with the last picture which is a typical coconut limber made at home by my sister in law. In one word: delicious, and our solution to a hot day.

The next two are of a huge calabaza, a squash. Not unusual at first glance but look at the size of this one! It weighed more than 25 pounds and much larger than my sister's refrigerator, so it had to be shared generously. Yes, I splurged big time! It was actually fun to find a lot of people to whom to give some away. The stranger part of the story is not the squash itself but how I got it.

I was with my sister in law and my nephew when we stopped to buy some calabaza which is always so good in beans or habichuelas as we call them. So we stopped at a fruit stand in Bayamon on our way to visit my mother. There was a van in front of us and in front of them two motor cyclists. The van pulled away and we debated if to buy anything since the man didn't want to cut the pumpkin since he had offered it whole to someone else who didn't show and was selling it for twenty five dollars.

I pulled forward to try to convince the man to cut it for us and we talked back and forth, finally I gave in and bought the whole thing for 20 dollars (my sister later told me I had paid way to much for it, anyway). Then we were about to leave when the vendor frantically waved at us and told us to lower the window and began to thank us profusely for staying and buying the calabaza, saying, "Nos salvaste la vida, esos tipos nos iban a robar!" We had saved his life, that he was sure those two cyclists were getting ready to mug them, and since we lingered and haggled with him they got impatient and left. He told us that they weren't buying anything but water, but had hopped off to check where they had their money, etc. But then we arrived and stayed. Funny how things happen,right? You think you are going to go buy some calabaza when...