...didn't say banana?!
It's the middle of winter here and that means there are OrAnGeS! (We've got bananas too!) So I headed out with my host family to fill our baskets to the brim. We threw on our boots, or at least I did. I felt it was a safer option than Crocs or going barefoot like my host grandma... I'm not that acclimated. We hiked to their farm plot and then proceeded to hike down it to the bottom where the oranges obviously grow.
Graceful as I am, I couldn't manage to make it down without falling. Or ripping a pair of jeans. No surprise there. We got to the bottom and got started!
Before I knew it, Grandma was helping Omayra up into a tree and Lupe was shimmying up a tree not thicker than I. Omayra swayed back and forth, climbing around in her tree.
I'm never one to pass on tree climbing, but I've made new rules about how thick trees need to be for me to climb them. And I wasn't about to shed my boots to go barefoot on a tree with ants the size of Hot Wheel cars. No thanks! I stuck to the ground jobs of catching oranges dropped from above and hoisting Lupe on my shoulders to reach branches.
I told the girls they looked like monkeys up in those threes and they tried to look the part!
But let's be real. It was all about the fruits of our labors which were de-lish-us!
Oh and ya, oranges aren't really orange here. They're more like greenish yellows!
On the hike up we got smart. We looped the tree climbing rope around a fence post and helped each other up. The system wasn't fool proof. The first time Omayra was at the top helping me up and then when I reached the top and let go Omayra was still counterbalancing me and that's how she ended up back at the bottom. But as you can see, we still had issues...
Story of my life. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment