Cacao Plantation Day Trip-- September 9

So today we took a trip to the Churute Cacao Plantation. We started off our vistit with a ride on a little motorized canoe. We rode for about an hour and we saw some interesting birds-- some huge ones, some pink ones, some funny shapes. In the middle of the ride our guide turned off the motor and we just sat for about 20 minutes listening to all the sounds. It sounds boring, but it was really cool and relaxing.

After the boat ride, we took a little hike through the woods (the plantation is in the tropical dry forest) and we got to hear howler monkeys. We saw giant 600-year-old trees and learned more about the local flora. We took a tour of the plantation where they grow things like cacao, bananas, black pepper, star fruit, dragon fruit, guayava, avocados, mangos, etc.

For lunch, we had food straight from the plantation. They don't use pesticides or chemicals on the food and it tastes so much diffenent and so much better. We then got to make our own chocolate: we picked cacao fruit off the trees, cut them open, took out the seeds, and laid them out to dry. Since we didn't have three days to wait for them to dry, we used some from the previous group, roasted them, deshelled them, and ground them up to make a paste. We put cacao paste, water, cinnamon, and sugar in a pot and made hot chocolate. It was life-changing. From the tree straight to the cup!