Thursday we visited a cacao plantation and got the full bean-to-bar walkthrough. The coolest part was learning how they graft multiple cacao varieties onto a single tree to pull the best traits out of each one, way more science behind chocolate than I’d ever realized. The drying and fermenting process was dialed in too, and we finished by tasting some of their bars. The only downside was the rain and bugs, which made standing around outside a little miserable.

The rest of the day was free time, and I spent mine finishing my “Visit Ecuador” ad video, which I was really proud of. That night we screened everyone’s videos and voted on the best, then a live band played traditional music and we danced and tried traditional drinks. A good way to close things out.

Friday was the travel day from hell. We started with a meeting with Eli to talk through her ideas for a chocolate business, actually using the business stuff we’ve been studying with someone building something real. Then the bus we were supposed to catch at 11 got pushed to 3 because of landslides, followed by a four-hour drive to Quito, dinner at the airport, a midnight red-eye, and finally home at 1 PM the next day.

Sitting at the airport waiting for that last flight was when it hit me the trip was over. Looking back, it’s not any one activity I’ll remember most, it’s the mix of all of it. Worth every hour of the ride home.