A most enjoyable part of visiting Colombia is the opportunity to shop in small, local stores. In Cartagena, after a couple of days of exploring, it was simple to find cheese, crackers, cookies, tea, tissues, suntan lotion, and just about anything else we wanted. Like the small cafes did, we bought our fruit from vendors, noticing which ones the best cafes bought from.

Once arrived in Medellin, however, we were a bit more challenged. Each morning, we heard, “Piña, piña, piña,” as the pineapple vendor’s cart came into sight but other fruits were a bit more difficult to locate. The tiny corner market was too small to browse; instead, shoppers called in their order and the clerk pulled the items and pushed them through a window. A bit challenging for those of us still mastering Spanish vocabulary (What is the word for washing powder without phosphates?)

The Palm Tree’s washing machine was available to guests who had their own laundry detergent.  That was enough of an enticement to persuade us to enter Exito, Colombia’s supermarket and more that looked a bit like a WalMart without the acres of parking.

Once through the door, we saw it was similar but still very Colombian. Yes, there were televisions and CD players and washing machines and…and…and but there was a heavenly offering of fresh fruit that was extensive yet enticing because the fruit was not bagged or wrapped or sliced and diced. It was much like being in a small fruit market but enormous. My eyes could barely focus, sweeping from green to red to orange to purple, from tiny to medium to giant in size. Papayas and avocados were the size of my forearm rather than my fist and cost about a tenth of what I had been paying in California. Samples were sometimes offered.

We bought the enormous guanábana (soursop in English), whose green skin is covered with short spines that protect its soft, custardy interior.  With a taste that seems to be a mix of pineapple and strawberry, it was much enjoyed when made into a juice in the blender, seeds and all. Variety after variety of papaya and mango became part of a fruit salad with bananas and pineapple. Lulo or naranjilla, looking like a small orange-persimmon mix, has the interior or an orange tomato and tastes a bit like a lime. Again, we tossed it into the blender, trying it with milk and with water. Maracuyá, or passion fruit, was best eaten raw. Not to forget: tomate de árbol, a tree tomato that looks like an orange pear and tastes like a tomato / pear blend. Delicious when pureed in the blender.

Every day, we tried something different. At the Palm Tree, our breakfast was usually scrambled eggs and fruit juice. The dinners we cooked included a fruit salad nearly every night. In South America, fresh juice includes the pulp and sometimes the seeds, much easier to digest and easier on the body than the juice extractions that are customary in the USA.

Nowhere else in our travels in Colombia, Ecuador, or Peru did we find this varied and delicious variety of fruits at such reasonable prices. Thank you, Exito of Medellin. And we never did find an environmentally friendly laundry soap.