Many of my walks to town are up this street by the Sports Park (Calle 0) and on one corner across from the park this bearded man and his dog are always there with his truck selling mostly plantains and bananas and occasionally some other fruit or vegetable, but always lots of plantains! Many people grow them in their yards and they sell cheaply in all the markets, so I can’t help but wonder how he makes a living selling something we have an over-abundance of here? Plus us foreigners prefer bananas over plantains which are larger, tougher and must be cooked to eat. Often served with a traditional breakfast here.
And if I spoke better Spanish, I would try to interview him and write his story for the blog, but though my Spanish slowly improves, I’m not up to that kind of conversation or interview yet! 🙂 And I didn’t even want to ask him if I could photograph him up close, so the below photo of him is from half-a-block away on my cell phone and the second larger image simply a crop of the first! 🙂
NOTE: There are fruit and vegetable vendors on corners all over town plus the Central Mercado which is an indoor farmers’ market open 7 days a week plus the “big” Farmers’ Market every Thursday night and Friday morning, meaning that fruits and vegetables are readily available every day not to mention the super markets which all have very good produce sections! Tropical living! 🙂 Here’s a couple of other fruit/vegetable vendors on the street I just captured on my cell phone for comparison:
CLICK to see full-width & larger . . .
¡Pura Vida!
For more of this little farm town, see my Atenas Galleries.
I too have wondered how he could be making any money on an abundant fruit that has such a short”shelf life”.
Slow, simple life with probably another source of income, like a wife with a job? Or he has some business customers that buy large quantities?