Rainforest Cafe

I know this blog is supposed to be fashion related but I need to share the following story.  I'll try to make some sort of fashion connection in the next few paragraphs. 

I'm currently taking a long weekend in Puerto Rico and like every good tourist of this lovely island nation should do, we went on a "hike" in the El Yunque rainforest.  I am calling it a "hike" because it was more like a walking tour but regardless we spent a few hours in a beautiful oxygen rich paradise.  Like every good tour set up through a hotel concierge, you're usually not alone on your tour.  You're usually joined by other American tourists in giant touristy t-shirts, slouch socks and scrunchies ( i told you i'd incorporate fashion) who ask inane questions the entire time.  Well, there was one particular tourist in our group that made the trip for me.  Tony, our tour guide kept telling us about the medicinal uses that many of the plants in the rainforest had.  He even mentioned that some were "edible."  Well this woman had clearly not heard of tea, gardens, vitamins, GNC or even whole foods, she was dumbfounded by this new discovery and apparently really hungry. 

Every time Tony pointed out one of these special plants she was all over it like white on rice. She was caressing the plant so passionately I thought that The Miracle Worker might have been signing the name of it into her palm. When we came to the magical clay soil I don't think she could hold herself back any longer. Tony told us that birds came to eat the soil when they were sick, well that's all she needed to hear, she scraped a handful of the soil into her palm and put it in her mouth, I'm sure if she didn't catch me gawking she might have pulled a dinner roll out of her pocket and spread the clay on to it.  I couldn't contain myself and asked her how it tasted, "Not bad," she said, "Not bad at all."