CHOCOTASTIC!

What a fantastic sleep. I can’t remember sleeping as well as that for ages, it felt like I was in an induced coma. This morning I managed to slice my thumb, it was a five plaster job. Between us in less than 24 hours we have managed to acquire a head injury (including smashed glasses), a heel bone bruise (from a spectacular slide across wet tiles) and finally a blister (from being too competitive). To be honest that isn’t necessarily bad going for us.

A leisurely coffee and a cinnamon and walnut rusk type biscuit and we were set up for the day. Fortuitously I had booked a chocolate making class in the UK in February. Booking directly was so much cheaper. My intention was a quiet activity which would ease us into the holiday.

We are definitely getting our bearings, which is lucky as at one point last night I certainly had murderous thoughts the more we went round in circles.

One incident last night which I managed to erase from my memory was passing a drunk man. Looking at me squarely as I passed, proceeding to vomit by my feet. Then he returned to drinking his can of beer!

The buses here are really ornate, I tried to get a photo, it failed but there is something to my mind quite artistic about this. The buses are known as ‘ chicken buses’ here because Guatemalans would use them to transport livestock. They are invariably bright, shiny, with loud music pounding out of them.

I am glad I don’t have a penchant for stilettos, the roads are all cobbled and hard enough with sandals. These original features as well as the architecture has earned Antigua UNESCO World Heritage Site recognition. The basic grid plan of the city also establishing it’s world heritage credentials, dating from the sixteenth century. Although not so basic that it was easily navigable last night.

When we travelled round Costa Rica if you looked above you in the towns there were masses of wires and cables, as if someone had thrown a giant plate of black spaghetti across the town. Because of the UNESCO status all cables are underground. Added to that, chains like Macdonald’s, Wendy’s etc can’t have their normal garish signposting, that definitely is a good thing.

Wandering to town we had time to spare so looked into the shop next to Chocomuseo. A delight of stuffed toys and other plastic paraphernalia.

Really hard to tell what I am thinking here. For once it was me who wanted my picture taken, but once in position I think perhaps I realised I looked as though I had ventured too closely to knobdom.

Having said that I was very taken by the jewel encrusted bobble hats, emblazoned with Jesus. Very tempting!

Truly a must for anyone’s wardrobe!

The chocolate class started promptly at 11 am. In all honesty I was beyond excited. There was a group of 12 of us, the anticipation was palpable. I was worried about my thumb, when we set off I had told Pete that it would be a case of blood and chocolate. Pete said it was the name of an album by Elvis Costello. Little did I know these words would come back to haunt me.

After the first preamble about chocolate we were given the task of producing our own chocolate bar. A range of toppings were distributed. I went completely over the top, no less is more with my design. On one side I carefully filled each square with different flavours, ground cardamom, cocoa nibs, chilli to name a few. Once the base was covered in a thick layer of chocolate I then proceeded to top with haribos, nuts and pretty much anything I could get my hands on!

Pete was far more restrained than me. In fact the other people in the group were more restrained than me.

We got to sample fresh cocoa beans, the white flesh, aromatic and juicy, not too dissimilar to mango. But biting into the seed was very bitter.

We were told that cacao was a very important commodity in ancient times, with the beans traded for goods. As well as chilli the Mayans also added blood. We were given a lot of detail. Such as the Mayans would take someone to sacrifice, slice them down their chests, tear out their hearts and finally they would squeeze the blood into their chocolate. The cacao pods they believed were shaped like hearts. A tradition which is no longer with us! The Mayans believed that cacao was consumed by the gods, which is why it was seems as so sacred.

Another thing we found out is that the male mosquitoes fertilise the cacoa tree. So

We got the opportunity to be quite hands on.

Pete being a real trooper and fighting through the pain of a blister. We had to grind the roasted seeds into a paste. She made it into a competition, the first person to succeed got a chocolate. We didn’t win!

This is the wrong way round, but too tired to jig everything round. We had to roast the beans for 10 minutes. Each person had to get up and talk about themselves for a minute whilst talking about themselves.

Then we had to de-shell them, saving the shells to make tea. It was so lovely!

I made typical hot chocolate for the group, which included the paste we had made, cardamom, cloves,chilli, sugar and milk. It was gorgeous. The more froth you create the luckier you will be – no pressure on my mixing skills!

I loved this poster they had on the wall, it kind of typifies life!

Tne two hours went very quickly! There was still much of the day ahead of us.