Colombian Fruit Series: Guanábana

This installment of the Colombian Fruit Series is the Guanábana, or Soursop. I have been waiting ever since we got here to pick one of these things up. The first time I had one, it was a very different experience for me!  It's packed with vitamins, and research shows that it may have cancer fighting properties (statement not approved by FDA). It's very hard to describe how this fruit tastes, but the taste is as unique as it looks. 

Average size Guanábana (Hand inserted for size comparison). Some look cooler than others with bigger spikes on the outside.

Wikipedia gives an excellent description of the taste: "a combination of strawberry and pineapple, with sour citrus flavor notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana." It really is all of those flavors put together. I think I found a bag of Guanábana juice at Publix in Florida one time in the frozen ethnic section (Goya packages it). I highly recommend going to pick some up and making some juice, or a cocktail out of it ;-). We bought this from the Minorista today (more on that place to follow), and it cost us about $6,500 Colombian Pesos, or about $3.50 USD.

 Here's what to expect when you crack one of these bad boys open....

Brace yourself for action! They're actually pretty easy to cut open. The outside skin is sort of leathery. 

Aaaand here's the first look at the inside. Braaaaaains! It looks almost alien on the inside. The seeds are pretty organized throughout the inside. I wonder how the Golden Ratio ties in to this fruit.

Sometimes you can just buy the fruit from a store like this pre-cut in to quarters, or in a bag already juiced.

In this case, we are going to juice it, so we cut off the outside skin. 

On the inside, there are individual pods that are pretty easily separated. 

If you're looking to just eat the stuff animal style, you can simply pick these pods out and eat them!

Just another shot of the seed pods. You eat the outside and spit out the seed. Yes they are slimy, so you can use a spoon instead of your hands to eat them unless you  don't care if things get messy.

The pods separate quite easily from each other. Here's a lineup of some pods with one of the seeds.

This is how you will feel when you try this delicious fruit! 

The Guanábana that we bought was about average sized, and there is a LOT of fruit to go around.

Estadio (Stadium)

This whole week here in Colombia is a holiday called Santa Semana (Holy Week), so almost everyone has time off. Unfortunately this means all of the stores are closed. In the United States, it's the same feeling as Thanksgiving or Christmas/New Years time when stores close down for a day or two and you have to find something to do with yourself for a little while. Well there is a stop along the Metro here that we always pass by but never visit, and this was the perfect time to do it! The station is called Estadio, or Stadium in English.

It was built in 1953, and has been host to the World Cup soccer, and the 2012 South American games. There is a lot to do around here if you like to exercise, grab something to eat, or watch sports.

View Estadio in a larger map

Metro station marker

Here's the Stadium! There is a nice jogging/cycling track around the outside. 

View of the Estadio area from the metro station. We love the architecture!

This is one of the first sights you see when you walk into the Stadium complex.

There are plenty of vendors walking around to sell you something. These snow cones looked amazing!

Steph opted for the Mango slices with salt and lime 

This stadium complex is among the finalists for hosting the 2018 Youth Olympic Games

The surrounding area is very well kept up with plenty of shady spots to rest under a tree.

Apparently the fountains are kid friendly. This is every kid's dream!

Take a look at the building in the background. What is it for? It looks like there is a design or some texture on the walls, so we went to check it out.

A closer view reveals a nice modern and natural looking texture...but wait....

Getting a closer look, we realized that the design wasn't painted, but it was actually holes punched out in the metal tiles! Genius! Very few buildings have A/C installed, so there are many "open" buildings. There was surprisingly a nice cool breeze coming out of the holes in the building. 

Looking inside the holes, you can see the individual sport areas.

There were two floors on the inside. This place was a LOT bigger than it looked from the outside.

Had to take this picture quick...I think they saw us. 

There's even a little skate park for the kids

Some of the things we didn't take pictures of were: Sand volleyball courts (It looked like a Speedo was required for entry), baseball fields, a few olympic sized swimming pools, cycling track, outdoor soccer fields, outdoor weight training area, rows of vendors selling plenty of different food and drinks.

Memorial

The Memorial of Jesus Christ's death (the Lord's Evening Meal). It's observed by Jehovah's Witnesses, and many who are invited, worldwide on the same day at sundown on the day that corresponds to Nisan 14 on the Hebrew calendar. This year it fell on March 26. 

The Memorial, or Conmemoración in Spanish, had an attendance of 490,538 last year in Colombia, but the worldwide attendance was 19,013,343! We met at a local congregation in the Calasanaz barrio in Medellin because it's close to home and we all wanted to come back home quickly to listen to the talk in an English congregation in California (Thanks for the help Randy!).

A familiar invitation this year. Maybe you received one?

It's always a beautiful full moon on Nisan 14. The picture doesn't do it justice though, because there are mountains somewhere back there. 

The first congregation's memorial is about to end. There weren't enough seats for everybody at that time, so some had to stand outside.

Just waiting outside for the previous congregation to finish up.

Here's the view inside the Calasanaz Kingdom Hall. 

I gotta say... The flowers here never fail to impress 

Auditorium is filling up...and yes, it was packed! On a side note, that little room in the background is the second school.

Memorial emblems. Looks like one glass is a little bit emptier than the others...hmmm

Look at those two....

This Kingdom Hall also has a Colombian sign language congregation that meets here.

I thought it would be a good night with the full moon to photo some of the clouds. They are really interesting here at night with the city lights reflecting off of them.