Hubby and I had been dreaming of a trip to the Galapagos and Amazon Rain Forest for many years and this was the perfect time to go on another adventure.
Traveling is not for the faint of heart if you live in Montana. Living in the northwest part of the United State necessitates leaving a few days earlier than the beginning of your tour. We left the house at 4:30 am for our 6:00 flight and flew to Miami, got a hotel and then didn't fly to Guayaqull, Ecuador, until 8:30pm the second night. We had worried about bad weather, snow on our end or a hurricane on the other and in fact Florida was struck by Hurricane Micheal earlier in the week, but luckily not in the Miami area.
We were greeted in Guayaquil and taken to our hotel about 1am. We met the others in our group and were on the road by 9am for a day's excursion of the countryside and the city in the afternoon...
Along the road Street vendors were selling baskets of freshwater crab caught in the mangroves. The vendors sold six crabs for $70.
Roasted plantains with cinnamon and sugar, wrapped in leaves and placed on coals for 12 hours. They are then sliced and eaten for desert. Mangos, bananas (Ecuador is the world's largest producer), sugar cane, and rice are grown and sold locally.
In the little village of Yaguachi there were many small produce stands.
A family's produce shop is often in their home.
Ecuadorians eat rice every meal. Although rice is grown in Ecuador it is not exported.
The group stopped at a cooperatively owned cocoa plantation. There are over 500 small cocoa farms which contribute to the plantation insuring fine representation and the most competitive price for their product.
The cocoa tree is grown in the canopy. The trees need the shade of taller trees. They also need fruit tree around them in the grove for pollination and correct soil acidity.
There are two types of cocoa trees. Native cocoa trees which produce 60 cocoa fruit per year, and the type which are grafted which produce 200 fruit per year.
The cocoa plant is a tree and the beans grow in these pods spiraling along the trunk and branches. Only 5% of the flowers on the tree produce fruit.
Once the pods were split we were invited to taste the cocoa bean before it was fermented and dried. It had a coating similar to jello and only had a faint taste of chocolate.
Once the beans are picked they are placed into tiered box covered with banana leaves. They are left for two days and then the beans are moved to the middle tire and left two more day, and finally moved to the last tier and again left two days. During this process the beans ferment.
The fermented beans are then laid our in a ventilated area for about six days until 65% humidity is left. The beans are then brokered and usually sent to Europe where the cocoa is used to make the finest Belgium chocolates.
After lunch, made by several lovely local ladies we headed back to the center of the city for a visit to Parque De Los Iguanas.
La Rotonda Monument depicting the 1822 meeting of Bolivar and San Martin.
Traveling is not for the faint of heart if you live in Montana. Living in the northwest part of the United State necessitates leaving a few days earlier than the beginning of your tour. We left the house at 4:30 am for our 6:00 flight and flew to Miami, got a hotel and then didn't fly to Guayaqull, Ecuador, until 8:30pm the second night. We had worried about bad weather, snow on our end or a hurricane on the other and in fact Florida was struck by Hurricane Micheal earlier in the week, but luckily not in the Miami area.
We were greeted in Guayaquil and taken to our hotel about 1am. We met the others in our group and were on the road by 9am for a day's excursion of the countryside and the city in the afternoon...
In the little village of Yaguachi there were many small produce stands.
The group stopped at a cooperatively owned cocoa plantation. There are over 500 small cocoa farms which contribute to the plantation insuring fine representation and the most competitive price for their product.
The cocoa tree is grown in the canopy. The trees need the shade of taller trees. They also need fruit tree around them in the grove for pollination and correct soil acidity.
There are two types of cocoa trees. Native cocoa trees which produce 60 cocoa fruit per year, and the type which are grafted which produce 200 fruit per year.
After lunch, made by several lovely local ladies we headed back to the center of the city for a visit to Parque De Los Iguanas.
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