June 10

We started the morning with a chocolate plantation tour. Our guide, Keilor was a bit too talkative for some of the girls. Mostly because he wasn’t talking about chocolate for the first twenty minutes and some of them were getting bored. We did learn that the Cacao plant can produce 200 fruits per year. It takes six months to grow from a flower to a ripened fruit.

Cacao pods are really thick and have to be broken open to get to the white pulpy covered seeds inside. We all got a chance to suck on some cacao seeds. The pulp is really sweet with a texture somewhat like thick yogurt. Sugar, heat, time, and bacteria are needed for the fermentation process for the seeds. This process is sped along by the presence of fruit flies, who’s feet contain the necessary bacteria for fermentation. Then the seeds spend 15 days in the drying box before the beans are roasted. The beans then have to be ground together with cane sugar in order to become chocolate. Everyone got a chance to help grind the cacao beans before tasting. This is raw, unprocessed chocolate before it is pressed together and milk is added to make the milk chocolate that is so common here.

After the chocolate tour we drove back to Arenal Lake— this time for kayaking. This activity was enjoyed by everyone! After kayaking to a small island in the middle of the lake, we went swimming -- and playing in volcanic mud-- for about thirty minutes before we had to kayak back to continue our day.

In the afternoon we visited a local elementary school. The school has grades K-6. The school is very small— 275 students but only nine classrooms. The students come in shifts. There is a morning group from 7-12 and an afternoon group from 12:30-5. The children were extremely welcoming and eager to interact. We spent time in their classroom then played soccer with them for PE! Our team lost 2-1 but everyone had fun.

Our next adventure was at La Fortuna Catarata (waterfall). We had a blast until a typical Costa Rican rainy season thunderstorm cut our excursion short. The storm did not stop us from going to the hot springs at the Baldi hotel, however. The springs are heated by the Arenal volcano. They were relaxing and fun, and one spring featured a cave that is a natural sauna.