Mango Melee is always a big, big event and last year we just missed out on it, as we moved to St. Croix a couple of weeks after...yes - its almost been a year since we've moved to St. Croix!
The annual celebration of the Caribbean's iconic fruit, Mango Melee was held today at the St. George Botanical Garden. The event included cooking competitions, plant identification contests, the ever-popular mango eating contest, and the Mega Mini Mango Contest. (People can bring their biggest or their smallest full, mature mango to enter the contest)
Geoff and I volunteered at the St. Croix Animal Welfare stand for an hour, they had brought a dog along from the shelter and were trying to adopt her out. I handed out flyers and talked to people about the Pets from Paradise program, where people visiting the States (or returning to the States) can escort an animal to an airport in the States, where it is then picked up and taken to a 'no-kill' shelter. (This is a fantastic program and I strongly recommend it to anyone travelling.. there is nothing involved other than sending the shelter your flight itinerary - they set up the entire thing and you dont even have to handle the animal! Check out:
http://www.stcroixawc.org/programs/pets-from-paradise/ )
We then wandered the grounds, it was our first time to the Botanical Gardens so we had lots to see! We stopped for 'pinchos' (chicken/beef/shrimp kebabs with veggies) grilled with a mango chutney, mango wine, fresh sugar cane, mango salmon cakes and johnny cakes and of course - mango icecream!
The competitions were happening right, left and center but we steered clear of them and checked out the gardens instead - it was beautiful! Lots of different herbs, flowers and a whole area on medicinal plants - it would be great to go back when its a little quieter and really take the time to learn more about all the different, exotic plants and flowers.
Also - another exciting thing - i met the other australian that lives on island here today! We met on Facebook through one of my spa clients and never had the opportunity to meet up - well he spotted Geoff with his "Quantas" t-shirt on today and approached us!
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