La Iguana Chocolate Tour

Today we went to an organic family run Cacao farm. La Iguana Chocolate Farm. It was about 1.5-2 hours from Manuel Antonio. 

Here is a view on the way along the road.

They grow their own Cacao along with other fruits and spices and process the whole thing to the bar. It was really interesting! One of the things I loved most about this tour was that you could really see how much our guide, Jorge cared about what he was doing and doing it right. Organically and with the whole fruit, not taking out the cacao butter and adding in hydrogenated oil to sell the chocolate and cacao butter separately.

These are a few pictures around the farm. This is a tree house you can stay in for $40. It's just a room with a bed. Open air so you sleep in a mosquito net. There is a shared bathroom down stairs.

This is the chocolate making room. Coolest room in the place. The weather was actually quite pleasant.

This is a little area outside the bathroom. Those seats are made with moiter and reused glass bottles.

This one is going to eventually be an out door kitchen counter for the women to cook outside in the summer hot months.

We were quite early waiting for the tour, so we got to relax a bit with the dogs and chickens.

This is where the beans ferment over to the right and on the left is the drying room. It was so hot in the drying room and you have to go just to experience the smells. The fermenting was, well, stinky and the drying room smelled wonderful!

This is the inside of the fruit where the beans are found. The pulp around the bean is so yummy, not at all what you would expect. You must go and try it.

Making chocolate the traditional way.

The not so traditional way.

This was a really cool home made vacuum to use in part of the process.

C feeling totally normal...

Then out of nowhere, C started getting sick. Not sure what it was, but out of nowhere, his head started hurting really bad and he looked like he was going to faint. This is not the first time. Anyway, the family was very nice and helpful. Juan's mom made him some juice and a tea with honey. His sister got us a thermometer because he felt like his temp had dropped a ton. I was popping back and forth between L and Dr. C and little C.

L really enjoyed the chocolate making process.

I missed the end of the chocolate making, we quickly ate the yummy meal the family made for us, it was vegetarian and she even made gluten free muffins for C. They were so yummy and moist. I would have never guessed they were gluten free.

After our very yummy lunch with special gluten free muffins for our family, which were delicious by the way! We rushed out to get C to the hotel where he could sleep.

An hour of driving on a rutted dirt and gravel road sometimes only wide enough for a single car. He made it and when we got to the hotel, the bell boy was talking to me, then caught a glimpse of C's face and completely stopped talking. I told him he wasn't feeling well and he rushed us inside.

After the second round of throw up, C is all normal again! He is ready to eat again. Maybe these are new migraines he is experiencing, I'm not sure. The only change we have made is introduce peanuts back into his diet. I guess we will take those out again and see what happens.

Kristen

Snorkel Cruise in Manuel Antonio

 It was a perfect morning to be on the water and this is our only activity in Manuel Antonio,.

This is a much bigger boat then we have done a little snorkel cruise on then before, but this boat had a water slide and you could jump off the top deck.

There were some good size swells so the kids had a few balancing challenges.

And some relaxation.

That's it for today, back to the room to rest after so much activity for days on end.

Kristen

Matapalo - What to do...

The waves are too big to swim in.

It's too hot for soccer.

No WiFi!

 I give up!

Too many bugs!

C won't pull me on the swing.

What, no pool!

I give up!

Tamarindo and the Estuary

We had heard so much about the estuary tour, so we decided to go check it out before our visit to Tamarindo. The estuary is on the river between Playa Grande and Tamarindo. Both are very popular surf beaches.

It was very pretty, but hard to see because we have a couple of big tall people sitting in front of us in the boat. I could only see right to the side.

We stopped at one point to take a little walk and see the howler monkeys.

There were a few little babies and one monkey decided to pee on Cole more then once. The first time a little go on him and the second time Cole got out of the way.

This area is a natural habitat for crocodiles. Apparently there are a ton, we saw 2. One was a tiny baby on a tree and the other was this giant 9 foot croc who lives at the mouth of the river.

About 4 or 5 days before there was a surfer that was crossing the river from Playa Grande to Tamarindo. This is not something that many do and it is not safe since it is the mouth of a river that is natural crocodile habitat. There is even a boat that sits there to take people across. Well, this guy took his chances and go a chunk taken out of his leg by this guy right here.

They will not be doing anything to the crocodile. It is his home and the people should respect that. They will leave him rightfully so in his home.

We got to Tamarindo for lunch just in time for a beautiful thunderstorm.

After lunch it stopped raining and Dr. C rented a surf board for the kids to surf a little with.

Little C did great and he is hooked!

L did great also, but she could take it or leave it.

I think little C could stay in the water forever! He is part fish. After the beach we stopped at a beach club pool and then headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back to the car, it was pouring really hard and more thunder. We spent the afternoon at our condo relaxing with the rain. The power went out from the storm. We loved it!

Next is Playa Grande.

Kristen

Exploring Avellana Beach

We took a long drive on dirt roads to find this little surf beach. Dr. C wanted to eat dinner at Lola's and watch the sun set.

These trees were scattered all along the road. This was one of the smaller ones.

We got to the beach around noon (we had a late big breakfast), this gave us a lot of time to play in the water and on the beach before dinner. The tide was way out so there was lot of mud to dig in.

We made all kinds of little rivers going to our little lake.

Little C dug his own hole so deep that water was shooting into it. Then they both had to bury their legs into it.

The Matrix!

After playing in the water and digging in the sand for a few hours we decided to take a walk and explore the beach while killing another hour. The sun didn't set till about 6, so we though if we got to the restaurant at 5, it would be perfect to eat for that last hour and watch the sun go down.

There were interesting shells on the beach.

Lola's was so cute! I loved the tables and chairs and they were all out on the sand.

It was the perfect setting for a sunset dinner.

Too bad, I don't have a sun set picture. That's because we sat down at the tables at about 5:02 and used for a menu only to be told that they close at 5:00. No sunset dinner, a couple of very hungry kids and a long slow dirt road to find some food. At least the beach was nice!