We're back home from an excursion to Cyrila's Chocolate Tour. What an amazing day! We thought we were going out to learn about how to make chocolate, but it was so much more than that.
First we took a taxi on the 3o minute drive to San Felipe from Punta Gorda. We stayed on the main road for about 20 minutes and then veered off onto a smaller road that appeared to head into the jungle. Over the next 10 minutes we saw beautiful mayan homes along the route. Rustic, but tidy - unmarked by the littering and half-finished buildings we see more commonly along the main road and in Punta Gorda.
The mayan homes here are wooden with thatched roofs. Pigs, chickens and dogs roam about freely without fences. The village of San Felipe had a warm, community feel to it. We hope to return for a homestay with our hosts to discover more of the area.
As we arrived at Cyrila's, loud music played in the church across the way .. energetic and trendy sounding, unlike the traditional baptists hymns I've grown-up with. the church was full because today is Sunday. We'd all love to come back and join in with a Sunday service sometime.
At Cyrila's we all took time to go to the toilet before heading on. That was our boys' first experience with an outhouse. The look on Andy's face as he emerged was priceless - he said 'mom, there's insects in there!!' of course, there were a few ants, but nothing more than that. These boys need to get a little more in touch with nature!
We all jumped into a jeep for a bumpy 3 mile drive down more dirt road carved through thick jungle undergrowth. Juan, our guide, explained how it was solid jungle when his father first arrived and it took a lot of work with machetes and lots of help to clear the dirt road leading to their farmland.
Their farmland, the cocoa tree groves, were distributed amongst jungle terrain that included many other types of trees: orange, grapefruit, mango, star apple, starfruit, and coconut. Our tour in the farmland meant roaming under the trees and through clearings to visit various cacao trees - there are 2 primary types of cacao trees there with a third that has created from cross pollination of the first two.
Juan discussed the research he has done in maintaining striclty natural ways of farming. On traditional farms, legume crops are planted in rotation to refresh the soil with nitrogen. In their cacao orchards, they produce a similar effect by growing a madre de cacaeo tree (mother of cacao) closely alongside the cacao tree. This keeps the nutrients rich in the soil. Juans investigations into natural, organic farming methods have just had him appear on a segment of of 'How Stuff Works' on the Discovery Channel (called something like How Chocolate Changed the World).
** Above: the cacao pod cracked open by Juan, carefully pulling it open are the cacao beans encased in a white, slimy substance that tasted of citrus fruit. Peeling open the case, there are the cacao seeds, the little brown beans that will be fermented, roasted and hand ground into chocolate
Juan was very careful to involve the boys by having them pick cacao pods for our harvest as well as showing them how to open Cahuna nuts that are like little coconuts and also almond nuts. He showed us the huge leaves that the mayans use to cook food in. Every creature on the farm from snakes, to rats, to ants, to bats and so on is part of the circle of life that is needed to maintain harmony in the environment. If any of the creatures disappears from the circle, it would create a real problem.
There were a lot of insects around us the entire time, mainly mosquitos and drunken beamons. But I wasn't worried until Juan told us that this area was the perfect home for tarantula spiders - I did watch my flip-flopped steps a little more carefully at that point. Ben look amazed and afraid at the same time.
We opened a cacao pod and tasted the slime-covered beans inside - the white slime tasted of citrus fruits. We then peeled the outer skin to reveal a brown bean, the cacao germ. This we saved for back at the house.
Back at the house, we were provided cacao beans that had been fermented (in dry box for 5-6 days) and roasted. We were tasked with peeling the thin outer shell from these and separating out the cacao nibs. The nibs tasted nutty-meaty and had a slight dark bitterness to them.
We then were provided with a beautifully presented mayan lunch made by Juan's wife (the chocolatier) and placed with flowers and cacao leaves on our table. It was one of the most delicious meals I've eaten on our journeys - roasted, spiced chicken with ginger-turmeric rive and greens from the farm.
Abeline's made a mayan hot chocolate drink. It was not sweetened at all and so tasted of hot water and dark cacao flavour - the boys winced at the first sip. We then added sugar and everyone enjoyed it more. We have the western addiction to sugar I'm afraid!!
Abeline and Juan showed us how to grind the nibs in a volcanic rock pestle and mortar bowl. It takes a lot of arm strength and a bit of warmth to grind the nibs into a liquid paste which should become a 'liqueur' (non-alcoholic) before being combined with honey and then other ingredients, poured into molds and chilled to make our chocolate bars.
Abeline's chocolate was delicious. Our boys, who normally baulk at dark chocolate, preferring milkier chocolate, loved all of her offerings. She gave us tasters of orange, milk, dark and spicy chocolate. The spicy chocolate, made with chilis had a proper warm bite to it! Sam was calling for water and making faces seconds after eating some... then asked for more.
We loved meeting Lucresha and Henry, Juan and Abeline's children. They ate lunch with us and Lucresha did some counting in mayan for us. Everyone in their family (and village) speak a mayan dialect. It was funny when the children started talking to each other and discovered a mutual interest in Club Penguin online, of all things!
The experience of being with such a warm, kind family and within the picturesque village is one we'll carry with us. It's a definite highlight of our time in Belize.
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