Panama/Costa Rica

I have been in Puerto Viejo for two out of four weeks now and I was planning on waiting until I left to give another update, but I felt that this weekend deserved its own post. I signed up for what we was described as a "full day cacao tour" with three other people that I met in my Spanish classes and some others that joined once we arrived. After a short walk around the small indigenous community, the tour began. We started off by tasting the cacao fruit, then learned about the roasting process. Afterwards, we ground the roasted cacao beans with a large stone and added honey and lemon to create our very own flavored chocolate! Once our chocolate was finished, we were able to try some of the other delicious flavors they make on site. Little did we know, the tour didn't end there. The cacao section of the tour was finished, to be followed by a jungle survival course that no one seemed to know we had signed up for. In the course, we learned about which plants could be used for medicine, fishing, and other lifesaving purposes. We also sampled one of the jungle's most readily available sources of protein - termites (find penguins won't let me post the video so I provided photo evidence of my reaction instead). But the tour still wasn't over! After the termite tasting session, we headed to a sweat lodge to participate in a traditional Bri Bri ceremony. During the ceremony, we each lost about 5 lbs of water weight, drank a mysterious unknown liquid, and attempted to strengthen our connection with the universe. Lastly, the group was served a delicious homecooked meal out of a leaf and we took a group photo to remember the day by.Read more