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Travel Trivia: What is the flavor of a fresh cacao bean? Well, it's kinda got a mushy outside, looks like a lychee, grows as the seed inside a larger piece of fruit, and taste somewhat like… pop tarts, a little sour. And don't chew it! The seed is inside and you don't want to put your teeth into it! It needs TLC to be good…
This (yesterday) was a long day and a short night. Here I am, 5:45am, blogging at the airport, thanks to a 4:30 departure from the hotel. Anyway, enough about today, let's talk about yesterday.
Yesterday we put our faith in the guide/driver's hands. He suggested something the day before, and we loosely followed it. We started with a 90m drive over the windiest of roads, wishing I was on a motorcycle instead of in the back of a car. It got us to our destination, where all of our activities were clustered close together.
First, let's go hang-gliding. Easy stuff. The guys braked for us on every run. We had about a 2min walk uphill (steep) after the first one, and we were totally whipped out… It allowed me to experience exercise at altitude (the gear weighs at least 20 pounds). All fun runs, but the moment was definitely me doing the butterfly over the Amazon. For those who don't hang-glide every day, that's where I go vertical, upside down, arms and legs spread, facing forward. It's a solid way to address dormant fear of heights and vertigo issues. And by the Amazon I mean the greatest rainforest known to mankind. Not the store where some of us do all our shopping (you know who you are). Believe me, this moment will stay with me a while.
We then proceeded to walk the Amazon (again, the rainforest, not the store) to see a few waterfalls. About an hour, according to the guide. Depending on how fast you walk. Well, 3 waterfalls into it we were an hour into it, and we started to run into people walking the opposite way. The realization sank in that when we get to waterfall 5, we have to walk back… We made the executive decision to quite while we were ahead (although if you saw us, you wouldn't say we were ahead) and turn around. Lot's of ups and downs, and again that altitude thing. Makes me really appreciate why athletes would want to train at altitude. Altitude requires attitude, and we didn't have enough of the right kind of attitude to keep up.
Quick local lunch and on to hummingbirds and then one of the other highlights of the day, and a life-long love of mine. We went to a chocolate factory and learned how to make chocolate. Now all I need is to grow some beans and buy a pneumatic press, and we're good to go! Just in case, I bought a few bars (about a dozen, not more, just one dozen), should my experiment fail. But in all seriousness, the best cocoa beans are made in Ecuador. Some of the top chocolatiers in the world (Switzerland, Belgium, France) have to use at least 12% of the locally farmed "cacao nacional" to be "certified" in their own countries. I, of course, bought bars with as high as 85% cacao nacional. Scrumptious.
One downside was the ride back, again those winding 2-lane roads, but in the dark this time. And by 2-lane I mean one lane each way. So only suicide missions allow you to overtake the massive trucks going 10mph. Fortunately, our driver Luis was semi-suicidal and we made it past all of them eventually. Out at 8am, in at 8pm. Long day, then pack everything for the next day so we can wake up at 4:15am and leave the hotel for Galapagos at 4:30… All in a day's travel. Sorry, guys, this does beat getting up at 4:30 to compile the weekly status report before I go to the gym. Just sayin'.
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