In one of my cruise ship presentations I tell audiences that many sailors consider it unlucky to have bananas aboard, but that would be surprising news to DelMonte and other producers who ship millions of pounds of bananas from Costa Rica each year.
Seeing the DelMonte banana plantation and processing plant was a bonus on our just completed Royal Caribbean cruise aboard Jewel of the Seas. We found out how fast these one-time producing trees grow, why the banana flower is cut off as the fruit begins to develop, how growers keep the top bunch of bananas from ripening before those lower are ready to pick, and most amazingly, how they know when to pick the green bananas so they'll be ready to eat just when they hit the grocery store shelves.
Years ago when I was involved with a significant ground tour of a small country in S.E. Asia, we picked green bananas and couldn't understand why they never ripened. Well, duh, we didn't know the exact number of days from initial growth to ripening. If we had carried the bananas long enough in our back packs, they would have turned yellow and attracted fruit flies.
If you're looking for topic ideas, you might consider researching the agricultural products of your destinations. An entire program could be developed from the Wiki page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana
Get in touch with Daniel Hall today to find out how Speakers Cruise Free.
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