Hike to “Up in the Hill” and a cocoa plantation tour
Beautiful morning, clear, sunny and warm, best of all, no rain last night! Looks to be the norm for the next few days with probability of rain below 35%, which we’re told, is basically a sunny day. Most often the rain will come in late afternoon or in the evening so all day to play!
There is one down side to a sunny day, the heat and humidity! Not much sense in showering before your walk, doesn’t take but 15 minutes to be looking for that ice cold washcloth in the backpack. But if you want to see what Bastimentos has to offer, ya got to do it.
Today, we’re off to “Up in the Hill” for a tour of their 4-hectare (about 10 acres) plantation with bananas, papaya, custard fruit, ginger root, turmeric, yada, yada, yada, and cocoa. We found this tour in our “Things to do” book at the house and thought it looked interesting, especially since we did the coffee plantation thing last time we were in Panama. Got real concerned when Collette said we were touring a “coca” plantation, misunderstood her, it was “cocoa” plantation. No cartels involved.
Suppose to be about a 20-minute walk from the house so off and running around 10:15am to make our 11am tour. We read that there is a bit of uphill walking to get there so left a little early. “A bit of uphill” is such a subjective term. Myself I would have said it is a hellofalotof uphill walking, and on a goat trail, not a well maintained path. Enter that humidity thing I mentioned earlier. By the time we got there, I looked like I had ridden in the back of a water truck. Nothing like having your clothes stuck to you while trying to look like the trek was nothing to the rest of those on the tour.
Trail starts out easy enough
Ms. Bwana tearing up the trail
Almost there
Last 25′ with a walkway!
We joined 3 other soaked trekkers, 2 from Germany and 1 from Russia, pretty international for the middle of the jungle in Bastimentos! Younguns who probably ran up the trail to be the first to have some nice hot organic tea. Me, where’s the beer?
We met our host, Janette, who hails from Scotland, and her husband Javier, from Argentina. Some 20 something years ago they met here in Bastimentos while working on a “turtle” project. They fell in love and fell in love with Bastimentos so decided to buy this 4-hectare cow pasture and turn it into a self-sustaining, biodiverse, permaculture farm. There you have it. And today, we’re going to tour this farm to see all the things they are growing, and have a taste of that produce for lunch.
The tour took about 2 hours as Javier explained how they transformed this cow pasture back into a jungle of trees, shrubs, and plants that actually thrive together to produce not only cocoa, but everything they need to sustain their lives plus those of the tourists who travel to see them. Pretty impressive. Little disappointed they don’t have a single grape vine for at least some homegrown red. That got them a ding on TripAdvisor!
Tour was fun, informative and more walking uphill on a goat trail. Lunch, well the vegan in our group was thrilled. There was a bit of everything we saw on the tour, on the table, and prepared nicely by Janette. Most was really good, except the spinach-kale stuff that was warm and chopped up into a mulch. Collette liked it but for me, too much like lawn clippings. The best was desert, fried, small plantains soaked in mango juice and coated with cocoa, and brownies made from the cocoa on their farm. Washed it all down with coconut milk and cocoa, yummy!
Cocoa and coffee drying
Cocoa bean pods (ripe when yellow)
Plantains (bananas grow down, plantains grow up)
Coffee beans
The Spread! Papaya, plantain chips, green goo (spinach / kale) coconut soup (in the cup) and dried ginger in the tray.
Time to head back to Old Bank and the walk downhill. Was a bit easier going down but still a challenge with the tree roots, mud and the occasional tree branch sticking in your face. Shower is going to feel soooo good! Looking forward to some meat for dinner tonight, yeah!
The tiny red frog. Very poisonous!