Playing tourist (4WD style)
Today in our travels, we thought we’d just play tourist. So we signed on for an expedition into the cloud forests. Things got a tad adventurous when our wonderful guide (the young guy in the backwards hat in the photo) decided to take us off-roading.
The vehicle — a 1979 Toyota Land Cruiser — was certainly equipped for it. (And oh boy, do I know a young man who’s going to be very envious of that Toyota.)
This particular Land Cruiser has more than 2.5 million kilometers on its engine!
To explain the picture above, I could make up a hair-raising story about how we broke down miles from civilization and were in danger of being eaten by cannibals or swallowed by giant snakes. But actually, that’s just a fellow tourist (a scientist and all-round curious guy) who simply had to look at such a remarkable engine.
What the rest of us were doing during this stop was sampling some very strange fruit. To wit:
To eat this thing when no kitchen tools are handy, you cut the top off, squeeze until the pulp bulges, then suck it out. Tastes like a weird cross between a peach and a tomato.
I can’t tell you the local name. But the tree it grew on translates into “tomato tree” in English. And sure enough …
This was just one of the many odd things we saw today. I’d post more, but the people on dialup or other slow connections are probably already cussing at me.
Oh … okay, just one more, since I thought it was so funny. Although we’re in the tropics, conditions aren’t necessarily what you think of as tropical when you’re at altitude. And yes, it was a bit misty in the mountains today. We tourists were in shirtsleeves, or at most light rain jackets. But here’s our trainee tourguide — wrapped in fur-lined hood and gloves, and still shivering.
We saw other locals done up like that yesterday while we were sitting in an open-air restaurant dressed in tee-shirts, happily basking in the — to us! — glorious weather.
I guess these things are all relative.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
What’s cold to you is hot to me — yes, absolutely relative!
I noticed the same thing when moving to Florida years ago from Connecticut. We’d be on the beach in December in T-shirts, shorts and barefoot, while the locals were bundled in hooded sweatshirts and jeans, some even with gloves. By the time I left two years later I was becoming acclimated to the point I started feeling the chill on 60-degree days.
Also, can you find out the name of that fruit? It’s sounds intriguing. You didn’t say if you liked it or not.
March 7th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Is this it: http://gardenworld.net.au/gardenworld/2009/03/tamarillo-the-tree-tomato.html
March 23rd, 2010 at 12:39 pm
The fruit is a Tamarillo. You can usually find them in most higher-end grocery stores. Last summer they even had them at my local Wal-Mart.
Most people do not actually like the taste. To me it is like a cross between a plum and a Roma tomato. Where they grow wild, locals usually cut them in half, dip them in sugar and suck out the pulp. I think it is a nice treat, but not my favorite.
I always consider it a personal challenge to save the seeds and try to grow anything unusual I run across. About two years back I found them in a grocery store and just figured I would plant a dozen seeds and see what happens. All 12 came up and developed into rather large trees. They are two years old now and I just planted a row of them in my yard in TN. I don’t think they would make it through a winter, but they can take some cold. I just planted them because they are so big now they take up too much room in my house. I’ll see what happens over the summer.
I have been surprised how easy they are to grow. I am not in the climate for them, but if you wanted one as an container plant (you need to bring it in before a freeze) its very possible.