Holy Cacao!! Chocolate Starts Here

Naranjal's Cacao Picker

Heading south from Guayaquil, one finds very productive soil and very industrious people . . . and the result of the land and their hard work is an ambrosia of the Gods, chocolate!  Despite claims from some in Europe and Greece, our favorite food group was actually invented by South American natives centuries ago.  We had a great lesson in the process of growing and producing cacao from our new friends in Naranjal, Jimmy and Gina Chica.  As we were driving through town, we pulled over to take a photo of the cacao statue in el centro. Shelly started up a conversation with Jimmy . . . before we knew it, we were off visiting their cacao plantation and learning all about the process of growing cacao and getting it off to market.  Tough work for a wonderful result!!

New friends Jimmy and Gina Chica

Jimmy's lesson in cacao pods

Open and taste---sweet moist fruit covers the seeds

Cacao orchard

Separating the seeds from pods; messy smelly work

Jimmy explains the solar drying process 

Raking the seeds to get even drying

Cacao beans

Drying bins, heated by gas burners

Our hosts and new friends, Jimmy and Gina

Discussing the economics of cacao with Jimmy

Shelly gets her own cacao tree
to start her new chocolate company 

and the delicious result, Ecuadorian chocolate!!!

Going Bananas in Ecuador

Given the opportunity to attend the Feria Mundial del Banano (World Banana Festival)  over the weekend, who could resist?  Not us!!

Machala Ecuador, about 3 hours south of our home in Guayaquil, is the banana capital of the country. The town of a quarter million is surrounded by miles and miles and thousands of hectares of banana plantations.  On the road to Machala, as far as the eye can see, there is nothing but banana trees with their precious green cargo encased in plastic bags and protective sheets.  It is so important to the region's and country's economy that they call it "Oro Verde" (Green Gold).  Ships sit in the nearby harbor ready to transport massive nitrogen filled containers of the sweet fruit to all corners of the earth.  Millions of tons leave nearby Puerto Bolivar and Guayaquil harbor every year, making Ecuador the top banana exporter in the world.

Work in the banana plantations is back-breaking tough work.  A single banana stem can weigh over 100 pounds and workers and routinely hauling them on their backs, as shown in this "Bananero" statue at the entrance of Machala:

 

  With all this back-breaking work, who can blame the World Banana Festival for having an annual celebration with music, seminars, and a World Banana Queen beauty contest?  The central feature of the festival is the beauty contest, and representatives from 18 banana producing countries participate.  We were fortunate to attend the traditional costume night, and saw some beautiful women wearing very ornate costumes.  Here is a representative sample:

The reigning Banana Queen was there, and next Saturday, it will be her job to crown the new Queen.  

Massive container ships take these tons of exports to all corners of the world from tiny Ecuador, making this country the top banana exporter in the world.  For Shelly and I, this was another fun learning experience in our lives overseas.  Who knew that life in a banana republic could be so interesting?  

Just Desserts

Okay, this may be just plain silly, but Shelly and I have switched to sugar free fat free Jell-O gelatin and puddings as our desserts of choice.  Partly driven by diet, and partly driven by our monthly Amazon.com deliveries of the stuff, we have come to expect a well-made dish every evening before bedtime.  Lately, we are finding new flavor combinations and presentations . . .  in the last week, a Kahlua cheesecake, peanut pistachio, and a Good and Plenty white chocolate have made the menu.  We are also experimenting with some new presentations . . . today's lemon cheescake took the form of a foamy beer mug and the pistachio lime had a margarita appearance.  See, I said it was silly . . . 

PS-- we can't buy the stuff here,
so if you are thinking of a care package . . . just sayin'

 

Ambassadors of Jazz

Lucho Silva:  Ecuador's 50 Year Ambassador of Jazz

Music is one of America's greatest exports. The United States has been the home of many different musical genres, and people in other countries LOVE our music.  Jazz is popular all over the world, and Ecuador is no exception.  Guayaquil's jazz saxophone virtuoso, Lucho Silva, has been playing for 50 years.  The Centro Ecuatoriano Norte Americano (CEN) sponsored a celebration of Lucho's jazz-iversary this weekend, and the evening included our very own U.S. Ambassador Adam Namm, who is an accomplished jazz pianist.  The evening performance showed how important music can be to bring people and nations together.  Lucho also introduced his young protege, Marcelo, who is a confident and accomplished saxophone player at age 12 . . . the future of jazz in this part of the world.  It was a jazz and diplomatic love fest, and (like every day) we were very proud to be Americans and diplomats serving alongside such talent!

U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador, Adam E. Namm

Ambassador Namm:  virtuoso jazz pianist

Ambassadorial Jam Session

Diplomacy at work

Peace through music

Lucho and his protege, Marcelo:
 the future of jazz in South America

Proud of this American art form and its role in the world

Cloud Forest Flora and Fauna

Shelly remarked while hiking that every square inch of space in the cloud forest is taken up by life . . . by little and big life forms looking for a way to survive.  Quite an analogy for the world too.  The cloud forest/rain forest is teeming with life at every glance; putting the plentiful water and the rare sunlight to good use to bring about new life and protect the lives in being.  It is quite a wonderful lesson to be immersed in this web of wonder for 4 days and be simply amazed at the beauty and interconnectedness of it all.    Here is some of what we saw: