In the dry months a boy at the junction holds up a bag of small red fruit, and if you have not tried them you should stop. Jocotes are the snack of the Guanacaste dry season, sour and sweet with a big seed, eaten by the dozen.
Where you’ll see it
Fence lines, above all. The tree grows from a cut branch pushed into the ground, so farmers have used it for living fence posts for generations, and whole property lines fruit in season. Also gardens and dry forest.
What to know
The tree drops its leaves in the dry season and fruits on bare branches, which makes a fence line of jocotes in fruit an odd and lovely sight. Eat them fresh, or with salt and lime, or cooked in syrup. The seed is large and fibrous. Do not try to eat that.
