Chocolate and more chocolate

This weekend was a whirlwind. On Friday I had to get to ACM early so we could leave for Finmac, a cacao plantation. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there by bus. We drove northeast from San Jose over mountains and through the rainforest. The scenery was beautiful but it was hot and very humid.
Once we got to Finmac we walked though the cacao tree farm. We got to see 3 sloths. One was only 4 hours old. I even got to hold one. They were very cute (not soft unfortunately) and they were not happy that we were interfering with them. After watching the process of how the cacao gets collected, we went into the plant to see how the cacao bean gets turned into chocolate: separating the fruit from the bean/seed, fermenting and drying the beans, grinding the beans, adding sugar, etc. We had to wear a uniform over our clothes: white smock, white rain boots, white hair bonnet. At each step of the chocolate-making process we were able to have a taste. The dried beans of 100% cacao are not very good. Very bitter. Think dirt with a very small hint of chocolate flavor. At the very end we were able to have organic chocolate made with 65% cacao. Mmmmmm. So good. We were also able to drink coconut water directly from the coconuts trees there.
We stayed at Finmac for lunch and our cook was a woman who works with a co-op of women selling chocolate. She was a great cook and she sold some of her chocolate to us. I bought 5 bars, all of different flavors.
After seeing the chocolate plant, we went to a banana plantation about 10 minutes away. We walked through the banana tree farm and saw the whole process of bananas on tree to the bananas being boxed into Dole trucks. Very interesting.

2.5 hour bus ride to Tirimbina. Tirimbina is a rainforest conservation reserve. It is in the middle of the rainforest. We had dinner at the restaurant there and then saw a presentation about bats. During the presentation, the expert actually had bats for us to look at and touch. I learned so much. Afterwards, we were able to release the bats back into the wild. I wore a glove, the expert put the bat in my hand with its wing between my thumb and palm, and when I let go, it flew off into the darkness. We spent the night in the lodge there.
The next morning we went on a tour through the rainforest. We got to walk across 2 swaying suspension bridges (the longest one in Costa Rica). I was not as scared as I thought I would be although the bridges were pretty high up. I learned a lot about the forest, insects, and animals there. We heard howler monkeys and saw a snake, white bats sleeping under a leaf, bullet and army ants, blue-jean frogs, and lots of vines, trees, and flowers. The tour took 2 hours. After, we hiked a little more to watch another presentation on cacao and chocolate. The technology used at Tirimbina was much less sophisticated than what was used in Finmac, but I enjoyed the experience more because it was more interactive. Again, we were able to try cacao in every stage until it became chocolate. At the end of the presentation, we got to mix our own melted chocolate with vanilla, chile, and/or nutmeg. It was fantastic. The men giving the presentation kept giving us more and more chocolate. It was amazing, but I'll admit, I didn't even want to think about chocolate for a few days. I learned that there is such a thing as too much chocolate.
After lunch at the restaurant, we took a bus back to San Jose.

Sunday I slept in and didn't go to church with Marta. I did some homework and then hung out with a few of my ACM friends. They walked me home and got to meet my family. Dinner. On Sundays Marta watches La Voz Mexico so I watched that with her after dinner.

Three-toed sloth

Cacao pods right after being picked

3-Toed Sloth

2-Toed Sloth and Baby

Cacao fermenting and drying

Cacao liquid

Drinking from coconuts

Banana farm

Washing and packing bananas

Bat Presentation

Bats

Tirimbina Suspension Bridge