Day 8: Chocolate & lava

On Sunday, I woke up early to visit Granada's "Choco Museo" where I participated in a chocolate-making workshop. After having listened to my tour guide talk about the origins of chocolate, the process of making it and the different ways cacao beans have been used throughout History, I got a chance to try it out on my own.

The Choco Museo

Bags of cacao beans

Model of a cacao tree

The first step to making chocolate from dry cacao beans is to roast them. This is done at the factory by slowly heating them up in a ceramic pot on an open fire. 

Roasting cacao beans

Roasted cacao beans

Done!

Once the cacao beans have been roasted, the cacao husk has to be separated manually from the cacao beans.

Roasted cacao beans without the husk

Once that's done, the cacao beans have to be grounded to produce cacao powder. The husk is used in the factory to make cacao tea.

Grounding cacao beans

Cacao tea

Grounded cacao

After preparing the cacao, we made three different cacao-based drinks : a Mayan drink, an Aztecan drink and a Spanish drink. The first one was composed of cacao and water as well as vanilla, cinnamon and honey. The Aztecan drink was a little bit spicier due to the added chili. The last one was made of milk, cacao, sugar, vanilla, and a little bit of cinnamon.

Mayan drink

Aztecan drink

Spanish drink

After making the different drinks, we made our own chocolate, yummy!

Chocolate!

My chocolate!

On Sunday afternoon, most of the Duke Engaga team went on a trip to climb volcano Mombacho and explore it's flora and fauna. We met up on La Calzada and took a van halfway up the volcano. There, we stopped at a coffee farm from which we had a great view of the land.

Our volcano-climbing-group

The coffee farm

Flower

Coffee

Flower

We then went to the top of the volcano where an incredible view of Granada and Lake Nicaragua awaited us.

View from the crater

Me at Volcano Mombacho

The jungle

One of the smallest orchids in the world

Goldfish flower

Butterflies

We visited the fumaroles of the volcano, built a human pyramid at one of the highest locations in the region and walked through a crater tunnel which one could easily compare to Tolkien's "Paths of the dead" in the Lord of the Rings. On our way there, we encountered different kinds of orchids and translucent butterflies that are only home to volcano Mombacho and visible nowhere else in the world.  Overall, an amazing experience!

View from the crater

Orchid

At the top!

Lake Nicaragua

The group

Top of the world!!!

I'm flying!... not really

View from volcano Mombacho

View of Granada & lake Nicaragua

Translucent butterfly

About to enter the crater tunnel

The path of the dead

Climbing the tunnel

The crater

At the end of our trip and after having walked through banana plantations at the foot of the volcano and having observed monkeys in the canopy of the trees, we took a van back to Granada, exhausted but our minds full of good memories.