Chocolate mansion

We went to the supermarket and picked up a donut and pineapple ring for breakfast on the way. Not a day to be healthy! We left Casa Aryen and walked to our next place - time for a bit of luxury! We had booked into the Mansion de Chocolate ($65) for a treat. It is our most expensive hotel to date, however I have justified this because it includes an all you can eat breakfast buffet, which is $7 each which Anna wanted to try, plus spa treatments are half price for guests so we shall save a further $12 each, thus the 'actual' cost is a bargain for such a lovely hotel!

The chocolate hotel is a huge mansion type house which was built by an ex president. It has beautiful features: pillars, courtyards full of plants, quirky pictures and a large pool Check-in wasn't until 2pm but we went with the hope they'd let us in early and they did. We dumped our bags and headed next door for the chocolate workshop. At $22 it's a bit pricey but well, it's chocolate!!!

It was just the two of us with our lovely teacher Ismael. The room smelt absolutely divine! First he showed us a cocoa tree in the courtyard, then we roasted some cocoa pods, de-shelled them then ground them to a paste (hard work!). From the paste we made 3 chocolate drinks: Mayan (with hot water, cinnamon, pepper & honey), Aztec (as for Mayan plus chili & vanilla) and European (with milk, sugar & vanilla). As we mixed, we had to chant: Batay, batay chocolatay (mix, mix - apparently picked up from Dora the Explorer!). All tasted lovely.

We then took some paste which had been spun for 15 hours and made our own 50% dark chocolate bar each. I added cashews, raw chocolate nibs and sea salt; Anna chose coffee and chili. Then they were chilled for a couple of hours.

We also learnt that Anna's phrase of 'mucho gusto' which she says after every meal thinking it means 'I like it lots' means 'nice to meet you'! Instead she needs 'me gusta mucho'.

We spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool, which was big and home to 4 ducks (plus some noisy kids). It was overcast so not much tanning going on. We had some yummy nachos and guzzled our chocolate bars - mine was the best tasting, far better than any bars I've sampled here. I think I should become a chocolatier. They melted quickly so there was no point trying to save any for later! Anna's wasn't as good so she tried to eat half of mine as well as her own.

Then it was time for our hour-long cacao-oil massage. They were fantastic and we emerged sufficiently pummelled and uber-relaxed. I had a blind man called Carlos who was very embarrassed when he accidentally felt my boob up! Anna had a lady who sent her to sleep.

We watched the sun set over the rooftops of the hotel from our balcony and then shared a delicious, cheap veggie burrito & quesadilla at El Loco Burrito (200C). We went to Kayuno bar for a quick drink which turned into another drink for Anna who ended up teaching the bar staff the Time Warp.

When we got back to the room we couldn't get the aircon to work so they moved us next door into a deluxe room. The bed is the largest I've ever seen - at least 6ft wide! Result!Read more