I swear I just saw the middle photo above with the bug holes in the green leaves, in my photos of the REMEBER THIS DAY reminders Google sends from previous years when I was in Costa Rico in 2020. But that was a coffee plant. This is a cacao plant in Colombia. I guess pests are pests.
After the flower forms and the pod begins to develop the cacao pod takes about 4 to 6 months for it to reach maturity. Before getting very big, the tree is smart enough to kill some of the new pods by stopping them from getting nutrients from the tree. They are called abortions and they dry up and are removed by hand from the tree.
Along the way, many pests and boring beetles can infect cacao pod, as the local grower is noting, after Jane cut them from the tree.
Jane seems proud of her cacao pod. I hope it doesn’t have a bug inside it! The flowering tree behind her is also gorgeous.
I couldn’t believe the spikes coming off this bamboo. A person could lose an eye if they don’t watch where they are walking!
This white slimy stuff is from a healthy cacao pod. It feels a little like raw chicken and it’s sweet, but is discarded before the cacao nib is put on a large platform to dry in the sun. Susan and I sat a table and were all tasked with peeling off the skin of the cacao seed, called a nib. I now know all about cacao and chocolate, since Susan worked at Godiva Chocolate for 20 years. However, she was never a skinner of nibs, because be both sucked at the job!!
Once skinned, we took all our work and dumped it into this grinding machine. We assumed cocoa powder would come out the bottom. But NO!! What dripped out the bottom was the consistency of baby poop. The nibs are so full of oil, it’s a paste and not powder.
The owners insisted this 100% cacao paste is good for your skin and we used it as a sugar scrub.
Thanks to our tour guide, he talked Jane into a facial too!!
Our first hotel room was tiny with two little twin beds that were as hard as a board. I usually don’t even give the comfort of a bed a thought. But this was so tiny and hard, I didn’t sleep well. Did I complain? No. Every trip can have one hotel clinker.
These are photos are of the third hotel room. Just for these emergencies, I travel with a floating solar lamp and I needed to use it in the bathroom and shower. The screen above the sink and shower was just a screen. No glass. It reminded me of my tent escapades in Tanzania, Africa!!
So when this hotel room seemed worse (except for the better bed) than the first, I felt SURELY our three days in Cartagena will have a wonderful room. I’ll get to that later. It wasn’t.
Jane’s trusty long-time pet pooch, Chuck, sadly passed away right before Christmas this year.
During our breakfast, this little guy headed straight past many people and came straight to Jane. And there he sat awaiting breakfast (which Jane gladly provided).
Chuck was sending his love to his mama. Look at those eyes!! So sweet!!
We took a 2 hour hike up a mountain from Cocora Valley for its lookout points. A beautiful day and a beautiful walk. The elevation was still high, and I huffed and puffed my way up the hillside.
We took two jeeps to the starting point of the hike. We were allowed to stand up with our heads out the top, sailing down the roads bumping all over.
No insurance waivers, no one cared. So fun!!
This was Carlos, an additional guide for our mountain walk. SOOO cute!!!
We found out his was married with a little girl and they owned a coffee shop in town. Discussion moved to the fact you can get ‘weed coffee’ and everyone was excited to try it.
So later that afternoon, we all went to his coffee shop for specialty coffees.
But the ‘weed coffee’ turned out to be coffee with CBD, which is the part of marijuana that doesn’t make you stoned. A little disappointment all around.
Carlos invented a cheese/marmalade/ Ritz Cracker snack for his coffee shop of which he was very proud .
These are wax palms. The are the tallest palm trees in the world and the outside of the trunk is a type of wax grown to protect itself from the bugs and elements. They have been described as resembling ‘lit sparklers on the Fourth of July’.
The are a protected species and it’s against the law to cut them down or even take them when they have fallen naturally.
Much of the Disney cartoon movie, Encanto was based here.
It was a gorgeous, lush valley. Note the statue in the background — an open hand. I don’t know the meaning behind it, though.
We were at the top of the mountain and time for a memorable photo.
Too funny. Jane took this photo and “Magic Erasered” out the people standing there. …But she didn’t erase their shadows!!
We must have been on a steep hill because I know I wasn’t as actually as short in comparison to Don on the right. Or maybe they really WERE that tall. Luis calls himself “fun size”. Hilarious.
This huge statue amazes me. I love a statue that seems to be coming from out of the ground!! This was Princess Cocora.
We were at the bottom and the ladies on the left were tired out.
Good times with good friends.
Jane and I were up 4:50 AM to meet up for the birdwatching hike at 5:45 in Salento. This was after I was outside our room and up some stairs when I realized the mini blinds hung a foot from the windows and you could look in and see the entire room!! Sheesh!
It was lake a large dorm room with three beds, a sofa bed and no other furniture. Very strange.
Bird watching happened after we were hauling up our suitcases in the pitch dark when Jane hit the top step, fell forward and hurt her knee. I dug into my suitcase for Triple Ointment and a band-aid and she got the bleeding to stop. I don’t think there are lawsuits in the country, so they don’t care if we were bumping around in the dark.
We were able to see the street of the Main Square without the hububb of all the people and shoppers.
As we saw cattle being herded through the street! You can see them at the bottom of the hill and the close-up.
This reminds me that this was hotel without a showerhead for Don and Erin’s room. Don was on the scout for a plumbing store. When I realized Jane and I had already showered that evening since we needed to be up at 4:50, I offered Don the showerhead. It was easier than I thought, as he just reached up and unscrewed it and took it with him.
The next day when he noticed Janes damaged knee, he asked about it. Jane told him that she usually took a shower in the morning to wake up; since he had our showerhead, she couldn’t shower so it was ALL HIS FAULT that she tripped and hurt her knew. Too funny!
We took the jeeps again. It was cold!
I don’t go anywhere without my purse — even bird wathing — because it actually replaces the need for a backpack.
There was a lot of walking and I am so indebted to my podiatrist in getting my painful plantar fasciitis under control. The secret is good walking shoes, the correct orthotic, and never going barefoot.
From the pitiful tiny photos of a couple birds, I feel I failed the bird watching test. Plus I had mine own and the binoculars the tour provided around my neck and was getting a crick in my neck from looking up all the time. Even if we saw the birds, it wasn’t for long. Learned fact: I’m not a birder. I don’t care that much. But we saw a waterfall, got to traverse several suspension bridges, saw beautiful country sides and had an authentic breakfast and then lunch. I am not complaining.
In the middle photos, there are two little birds on the telephone wire, and dog is looking at a yellow bird on the ground, which I got a close-up of.
And the cows and horses were fun too.
It was wet and muddy, but we went through this tunnel on the left and through an even darker and longer one on the right. I had to turn on my phone flashlight and even that didn’t help much. I was surprised no one slipped and fell.
Fun on the suspension bridge and working my core muscles.
Here’s an owl-eyed butterfly who sat there the longest time in order for us to take pictures.
It’s the birders!! Just happy the sun came out!
The nativity scene had seen better days. Someone knocked off poor Mary’s head.
Serene is what I call the two photos on the left. And hawks were circling above, which you cannot see.
Both Jane and Patty forked out $5 for a 16 second zipline ride (each way).
I was concerned about wrenching my arm, neck or back; so I took the video.
Jane went barefoot and head first!!
Brave Woman!!
Click the video
This was a game called Tejo. The box was filled with soft moldable clay. A metal ring was placed in the center of the box of clay, with two or three triangular pieces of folded paper on the rings. The paper is full of gunpowder.
The weight in Scott’s left hand is heavy. If it falls onto the paper atop the metal ring, it explodes. LOUDLY!! And catches on fire and continues until the paper burns out. That counts as three points. You go to 28 points, I think.
I must say, the women were NOT good players.
But we had good form……..
This was a special blue drink Pato ordered from the bar downstairs.
We had two Pattys on the trip and Luis renamed Pati, Pato, which I still call her to this day.
We started playing when I heard a big crash of glass smashing. I look over and see a pile of liquid, a glass, and pieces of glass all over the dirt floor.
Apparently, Jane’s arm was not very accurate …. AT ALL!! She fired that metal disc sideways and hit the two most colorful and expensive drinks on the counter. OOPS!!
More to come.
Safe Travels
Linda Jeanne