Mangos

There are thousands and thousands of acres of mango orchards in Nayarit. Right now they are just starting to bear fruit and will be ready to harvest in June or July. They also appear in gardens around La Peñita and Guayabitos because they make excellent shade trees.

Mango trees are very large, reaching as much as 130 feet in height. When their leaves are young, they are orange-pink, rapidly changing to a dark glossy red, then dark green as they mature. The clusters of small white flowers have a mild sweet fragrance which is similar to lily of the valley. After the flowers finish blooming, the fruit appears and takes from three to six months to ripen.

The mangos hang from the trees on long stems and when ripe are colored yellow, orange and red, reddest on the side facing the sun and yellow where shaded. They are sweetest when picked ripe from the tree, but are still delicious if picked green and allowed to ripen later. We’ve never been here when the mangos are ripe so haven't figured out how they pick the fruit from such high branches.