Colorful Snails

Breakfast was served on the roof with an offering of toasted bread, cheese, fruit and juice.  Hot chocolate was served alongside coffee since cocoa is grown in this region.  Eggs were cooked to order.

We drove to the small village of Jamal to watch a typical morning rush.  Rain storms are frequent on this part of the island since it is the wettest area in Cuba.  A downpour found us all seeking shelter under a porch overhang until the rains passed.  We mixed with the locals doing the same.  Apparently Cubans are rain adverse with kids skipping school if they think they might get wet.  As the sky cleared everyone started venturing off the porch back to their business.  We watched for awhile longer before going on to our next activity.





When I visited Costa Rica in March we had the opportunity to visit a cocoa farm.  A slick operation, they lead us through the production of cocoa from harvest to final product.  Today, we had the opportunity to see how it's done Cuban style.  The cocoa trees are scattered through the dense forest so it is much more of a harvesting of wild plants than an organized farm.  They do cultivate different varieties and harvest on certain days of the week using the others to process the cocoa pods.

The process begins by opening the pods to get to the cocoa beans which are covered in a white film that is sweet if sucked on.  These beans are fermented for several days before being dried in the sun. After they are dried they are roast then ground. The outside of the beans is separated by tossing them into the air and letting the lighter husk blow off while the beans are returned to the pan.  This is then ground into cocoa paste.  This paste is quite bitter and must be mixed with a sweetener before drinking.  Along with the cocoa powder, the oil is also captured to be used in various ways such as balm that can be used to soften lips.  






After our farm visit we took the van to a river valley.  We climbed a steep road to an overlook where we could see the dramatic cliffs leading the the river below.  We also got to see Polymitas  which are only found in Cuba.  This protected species of snail sports spectacular colors and are sometimes sold to tourist illegally.  A parrot also entertained us with catcalls and whistles.







We hiked back down the road to board rowboats for a ride up the river to a sandbar.  Fishermen were seining the river with weighted nets to get the delicacy of teti fish.  These inch long fish teamed in the net only to be transferred to a bucket for later consumption.  They will show up again as an appetizer for our dinner tomorrow night.




Completing our river adventure, we returned to our house for a brief stop before walking to dinner.

Tomorrow: A trip across the river 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Little More Dancing

Image
 With this being our final day, we had one more critique before having most of our day open to wonder around the town or pack.  Most of us walked down the street back to St Pauli for lunch.  You could tell we were missing out pasta because almost all of us ordered it for lunch. Late afternoon we walked to an outdoor performance venue to watch a very different dance show.  There's a show in Havana called the Tropicana where nightly performances by singers and dancers draw crowds.  This group seemed like they were auditioning for that show.  There were two different singers and a drum group entertaining us.  But the real stars of the show were the dancers in their colorful costumes and headgear.  Even though the afternoon was hot, they shimmied and shook for us.  Afterwards we took portraits before returning to our rooms. We gathered early evening to watch the slideshow Kip had prepared of our work during the week.  This is also a time for...
Read more

River Crossing

Image
 Similar to yesterday's start, we stopped at a village to watch the morning routines of the people.  Trucks carrying workers share the road with horse drawn wagons, motorcycles, bicycles, and people on foot.  We walked by a school where preparations were being made for the celebration of Jose Marti's birthday the following day.  White busts of Marti were scattered all over this region and served as lawn art.  After briefly watching the children we continued on our walk alongside the river. To reach the far shore of the river, we broke into two groups to sit in a covered wagon being pulled by a very reluctant horse into the stream.  Our guides resorted to pushing the cart so we could finish our river crossing.  On the other side we wondered down a path taken by locals on their daily routine.  We watched a couple of women doing their laundry in the very clear water of the river.  We also passed by a school where children were engage in soccer p...
Read more

Island Retreat

Image
 This morning we had our second Dawn Patrol, this time back to the port.  People gathered to take the ferry to their work, mostly at a power plant across the bay.  They crowded onto the boat for their short journey while we took photos.   We returned for breakfast and to prepare for our second critique.  We gathered in a suite where chairs were arranged around a television for our second review.  We had a pizza lunch catered in from upstairs to enjoy during the session.   Late afternoon we boarded a ferry to go to a small island for dinner.  We were greeted by several island residents that were egger to show us around, hopefully for a tip.  With a population of 1200, the island supplied everything they needed from housing, to pharmacies, to restaurants.  A fifteen minute walk was all that you need to circle the island.   For dinner we ate at a restaurant just off the beach. The catch of the day was red snapper which w...
Read more