Banana Windfall

Banana Windfall

On a trip to Venezuela fishing for peacock bass at a nice lodge we all savored one particular dish served every morning. It was some type of very small banana, about the size of your pinky finger. None in our party had ever seen them before. They pan grilled them in butter and some kind of luscious seasoning. I told my wife I could become addicted to them. She agreed.

After a week there at the freshwater lake we were moving to another lodge on a coastal lake or bayou to fish for snook, my favorite salt water table fish. We all wondered about the menu and asked about the bananas; no one knew what they would serve.

About an hour on our way we spotted an elderly lady with two little girls walking on the side of the narrow road, she was bent over carrying a stalk of the baby bananas. My wife, of course, shouted, "stop, stop, we need to see if she'll sell us some."

We pulled over and backed up near her, her eyes suspiciously gazing at us. Our guide from Florida knew a little Spanish, but not near what I knew being from near the Mexican border all my life. There was a language barrier since they have a Portuguese highlight, but enough intertwined Spanish to converse in simple Spanish terms.

I asked how much, "quantos questa" for a few bananas and got a "diez" (ten) out of her. All seven of us took our knives out and divided the stalk then each of us handed her ten dollars, American.

She started a verbal staccato we couldn't understand. I finally got her to slow down and got from her that the whole stalk was ten cents. I looked at my wife who was looking at the tire tread sandals they were wearing. I got the answer from her I knew I would, "forget it, load up, we're going fishing."

We could see the old woman out the back window of the van kneeling. She was hugging the two little girls as we drove off.

Mark Crider © 2006

Story ID:	3591
Written by:	Mark Crider (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Corpus Christi Coating & Machine Inc.
Location:	Near Caracas Venezuela
Year:	1991