Marketplace Beauty

My friend, Gaby, loves to shop at the open-air market here in Tegucigalpa because the prices are so much cheaper than at the supermarket. But I love the market because it's just like the third-world marketplaces you see on t.v. In fact, every time we're there I half-expect to see a gaggle of Amazing Race contestants breathlessly rushing between stalls with their oversized backpacks standing out among the sweaty young men pulling carts and the little old ladies peddling strings of garlic.

Gaby took Nick and I along for her weekly shopping trip yesterday. This isn't your everyday farmer's market, folks. There aren't words to describe the vibrancy of the colors, the richness of the smells wafting through the air or the sound of the vendors calling out their best deals as we passed by. But Nick did snap a few pictures that managed to capture some the beauty of the marketplace.

 

The tables are a rainbow of every kind of vegetable imaginable.

Citrus fruits are stacked high on tables and in crates.

Nick and I were a little dubious when Gaby explained that colorful peppers were actually how cashews are grown. But, as usual, she knows what she's talking about. Look close at the ends and you'll see the familiar shape of a cashew nut.

  

Beans are staple of the Honduran diet and there's no shortage of them in the market.

Melons cut in fancy designs are meant to entice customers to the fresh produce.

I love this photo of me and my best friend in Honduras!