3-1-2019 Maya Chocolate Tour with Danny and Hilary

Cara took Danny and Hilary to Maya Centre Village to do the chocolate tour from Che'il Mayan
 Chocolate. We started with a tour of the cacao farm, and on the way there Danny and Hilary
mentioned it would be cool to see howler monkeys again. Well, boom, we park the car, look up
and find a couple of howler monkeys in the tree under which we parked!

Here you can see that cacao grows on the trunks as well as the branches of the trees.

Cacao trees depend on a variety of other trees for shade and healthy soil.

Narcisso (sp?) gave us a wonderful tour of the cacao farm, talking about how the farm is maintained as well as the history of
cacao sales in Belize.

The cacao fruit opened up - the cacao beans are encased in that white flesh, which is a little
slimy, but sweet and yummy when you suck on it.

Back at the car we saw that the howler monkeys had moved to a different tree.

Next we went into the factory area for the chocolate making portion of the tour.

Hilary and Cara both took their turns grinding cacao beans on this 150+ year old grinding stone.

The dried cacao beans actually liquify just from the grinding process.

A little cocoa oil and organic coconut sugar is added for texture and sweetness.

The mixture is poured into molds, put in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes, then thoroughly enjoyed by us!

After the tour Eric joined us and we went to happy hour at Hamanasi Resort.

Then we checked out the new (unfinished) Big Dock Bar at Jaguar Reef Resort.

 

The view from Danny and Hilary's room at Jaguar Reef.