Mangoes

The trees were HUGE!
The trunks were too big to reach around, the lowest branches were too
high to reach. How do you pick the fresh one? You use a LONG pole with a small net or basket on the end, and one by one you reach way up to the tops of the trees and wrestle the fruit into your "net". It's then easiest to just make a pile on the ground later you can come back and scoop then all up, all that you haven't already eaten that is!

We went with our friend Odila to her parents pueblo about 3 hours north of Oaxaca city. It is a small place, only about 200 people, that includes those in the outlying areas. The 'in town folks' number a lot less than that. We drove about 2 hours up into the mountains above the capital city where we live, then we dropped about one hour into a canyon where it was hot and humid, and where there were plenty of mangoes, papayas, corn, tuna (the cactus fruit), etc. It is a garden of Eden for hard working farmers- when there is water!