Day 4: May 10th. This was our most relaxing day so far, which was very much needed after our long and tiring day yesterday. We woke up the calming sound of the river, birds, and trees swaying at Iyarina Lodge.
After a group breakfast, we were given our rain boots which would help us for the remainder of the stay, they were just so cute! Then we headed over to the forest nearby to harvest some cacaos which are native to Ecuador there were so many growing!
They explained to us how the right cacao would be one bright in red color with large seams. He demonstrated removing one with the machete. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to use the machete which is sad because I think I would be a natural with it.
After searching around for a while I picked my cacao pod, and harvested it from the tree. As Alfredo himself said, it was Perfecto!
Once we all picked our pods from the trees, we cracked open the cacao fruits and tried some. It was so delicious and I wish we were able to eat the cacao fruit in America. I think it so interesting how the focus of the fruit is on the seed, instead of the actual fruit itself which was so delicious. They showed us how to remove the fruit from the seeds.
Also in the forest growing were hearts of palm, which Skip just plucked off and gave us some to try. I have seen these at trader joes before but I never knew they just casually grew in the forest. My mom would not be thrilled that I was eating fruit without washing it, but I guess I’m building up my immune system.
After that, we learned about the process of using these fruits we just harvested to turn it into chocolate. The seeds we spit out after eating the fruit would have to be fermented for a week before roasting. They gave us some pre-fermented bean and we roasted the cacao seeds over the pot of fire. Then we helped to de-shell the beans, and then all took turns grinding them into a powdery paste. After that, we put milk and sugar into it and we were enjoyed the rich fresh chocolate with bananas. I did not realize how easy or fast it was to turn the beans into chocolate.
Then, Kallari Chocolate came over to give us a presentation and tasting. Their chocolate was delicious. They gave us several chocolates to try including Hersheys and some other brand. I found it really interesting how the told us Nesquik buys all of the rotten bad cacao that normally would get thrown out and uses it. The reason we cannot taste it is because they fill it with so much sugar it masks the taste. I think that being in Ecuador my palatte for chocolate has expanded and I am preferring the darker chocolate containing more cacao versus the Hersheys.
We were supposed to go on a river hike but the current was so strong and the water levels were so high that we were unable to. I will admit I was a bit relieved since there were water spiders in the river I was not looking forward to encountering, but I was still excited for the hike and hope we can do it another day.
After that we had some time to relax and blog before dinner. I was enjoying looking at all the different plants in the lodge, the butterflies, the spiders, and the hammocks of course. Our next few days will be with the Waorani Nation so we will not have service for some days.
After dinner, I returned to the room and to my surprise was a huge lizard on the ceiling. After much panic and screaming, it eventually crawled over the ceiling to the room next door and we never saw it again. We did see a giant spiders though.
