It's Mamoncillo Season!

A mamoncillo and guama vendor on La Ciclovia.

It's mamoncillo season! Those fun fruits which you split open with your teeth or fingernail and suck the jelly off of the seed for a sweet and sour taste are out on the street again.

A mamoncillo ready to be sucked.

Also known as mamón, and more scientifically but less poetically as the Melicoccus bijugatus, mamoncillos are related to the lychee and the maple tree, but look like grapes. You can't eat the whole thing, tho. You crack open the peel and squeeze out the jelly-covered seed, which you proceed to suck and suck. And that's the origin of the name: 'mamoncillo' comes from the verb mamar: to breast feed.

For sale alongside the mamoncillos, you'll often find guama, a huge legume, whose beans are covered with a sweet, white fluff, which you suck off.

Guamas for sale.

If you want to try mamoncillos and guamas, do it soon. Their seasons are short!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours