Last words and looks at Chocolate 101...

I thought I'd better post some facts and figures about this package, just in case.
Chocolate 101 is a 3 night packsge and includes 3 nights in double occupancy, tax, service charge, 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches on tours, 3 dinners(1 on tour), Ixcacao Belize Maya Chocolate Tour, Creole Fire Hearth Cooking and Drumming Tour, Bean to Bar Tour at Belcampo, road transfers from and back to Punta Gorda Airstrip if necessary. Price is $US520.00 per person double occupancy.
Here are a few images of the Bean to Bar tour starring Rusty as the chocolate maker.

Chocolate 101 - Maroon Creole Fire Hearth Cooking and Drumming

The last of the tours on the 3 Night Chocolate 101 Package is the Maroon Creole Fire Hearth Cooking and Drumming. On this tour, guests help forage for the veg and herbs that go in their meal. This is included in our Chocolate Package because Hot Chocolate Chicken is on the menu. After foraging for veg and helping to get the meal cooking on the Fire Hearth, a lively Creole Drum lesson begins and continues while the meal cooks. This is a Chocolate/Culture experience that you just can't get anywhere else.

More on the Chocolate 101 Package - Ixcacao

The first tour of the package is a visit to Ixcacao, the only Maya Chocolatiers in Belize. Ixcacao is owned by our friends, Juan and Abelina, and is located in San Felipe, the village 3 miles down the gravel road from us. They have their factory, tour facility where you eat lunch or dinner, and a shop where they sell their chocolate and cacao products. They also have their cacao farm which is part of the Gold Tour. Juan is a very knowledgeable guide, both on cacao and its history in the Maya culture. This tour introduces you to cacao and how it has come to us today after its long use by the Maya. You get to make kukul, the Maya chocolate drink, using the metate(the stone grinder) in the ancient way. Abelina makes you a wonderful farm-to-table meal and you have the opportunity to buy some of the mouth-watering chocolate. This starts the tour package and gets you ready for the second day when you learn the more mechanized, modern way of making fine chocolate at Belcampo. Can't you just taste it?

Chocolate 101 Package

I posted on Instagram today a photo of Rusty making chocolate on the Bean to Bar tour that is part of our Chocolate 101 package. With the explosion of cacao growing in Toledo and the excitement worldwide with chocolate making, we have seen a shift in interests in the tourists visiting down here. And, thank goodness, it's a shift to experiences that we have on offer.

This is a cacao pod on the tree. When you go on the Bean to Bar tour, you see this pod from it's start as a seed all the way to taking its seeds for roasting and making fine chocolate. It really is fascinating! And, being able to taste the seed as you go through the process is another experience altogether.
The Bean to Bar Tour is only one of of three cacao experiences you will have on our Chocolate 101 3 Night Package. The chocolate is calling...

Alot's gone on...
How's that for some Kringlish? After 25 years down here, I can't speak English, Kriol or Spanish properly.
Anyway, we are up and running and have had a good first year back. The main focus is 2018, but we have had some lovely guests this year and gotten a better idea of what our goals should be.
It seems like cacao/chocolate and the whole cultural culinary thing can put Toledo on the map. Cultural experiences seem to be what our guests want and Toledo is rising to the challenge.
To help meet that challenge, we are adding on rooms so we can accommodate more groups in the coming years. We are close to finishing #8 which is concrete construction like the lodge rooms. Then, we work on the 2 next thatched style rooms. We plan for all to be ready by first of the year.
I am going to try to get this blog attached to the website and then be better about posting so I have a way to get some fresh content on the website regularly. We'll see how successful I am...