We woke up for our first full day in Mexico full of energy and ready for action! Actually, Remy and Dad slept in till nine and woke up pleading for coffee (at least Dad was). The long flight and long drive had zonked both adventurers, but luckily Mom had an extra mug ready to go.
We headed downstairs for breakfast: pancakes for Remy, burrito for Dad, and yogurt and fruit for Mom, and then we were out the door to our first Yucatan activity, traditional cocoa making. We were joined on our outing by a very nice couple from the Netherlands. Luckily one of them spoke fluent Spanish, or we would have been in for a very incomprehensible morning. Our host Lupe spoke fluent Mayan and fluent Spanish, and both Mom and Dad were thankful that she spoke slowly, but our meager Spanish would not have sufficed.
We started off by roasting the cocoa beans on a thin pan over an open fire. Everyone took a few turns stirring the beans. The heat from the fire helps to bake the outer skin and aids in the peeling process. After the beans were cooked we dumped them into a bowl and started a'peelin. Remy didn't quite grasp the subtlety of peeling and instead decided that smashing the beans was the best way to get the paper-like outer shell off. It certainly worked, But I don't know if it was the most effective method (Remy noted that hsi technique improved over time).
After peeling we set about grinding, which was a ton of work. The grind stone and the base were both quite large, and if Dad translated correctly they had been in the family for at least four generations. Remy gave it a go, dad helped, and our two Dutch friends shouldered the bulk of the work. We thought we were finished a few times but our host said "No, mas." Eventually the chalky beans ended up in a paste. This went into a clay pot with some boiling water and got stirred around. Our Hot Chocolate was finished! Remy added a copious amount of sugar to his, but Mom and Dad preferred theirs plain. The flavor was much less intense than the instant packets available in the supermarket, and was reminiscent of chocolate tea.
We finished our well earned drinks and moved onto a surprise, tortilla making class! This had been listed as a separate activity in our bookings pamphlet, but our host was kind enough to walk us through it. The corn based mixture she used was much more moist that what we make at home, and Mom speculated this was due to the freshness of the ground corn. Each of us shaped our little balls of corn mush into circles, and they went straight onto the same pan we had used for cocoa bean roasting (now coated In corn flour). After a minute the tortillas puffed up and were flipped. A few of the puffier ones were set aside. We all tried the tortillas straight out of the fire, and they were delicious. The puffed tortillas were opened and had an egg poured inside before going back in the pan. After a few minutes the eggs inside were cooked, complete with an edible wrapper.
With our cooking done for the day we got some time to ask Lupe about her life and living in Ek Balam. She told us that she had moved here around 35 years ago as her husband's family was from here. Her husband worked on a corn farm, and she had six children and seven grandchildren, although not all of her children lived close by.
The home where the class was located was also home to several chickens, chicks, turkeys, and turkey-lets (Dad doesn't know what a baby turkey is called), dogs, cats, and a host of children. We said good bye to all of them and headed back to our hotel for a siesta.
Everyone was still feeling the effects of our travel day, so we scheduled an easy afternoon walk before playing a few games in the common room. We had an excellent dinner of soup and empanadas, and Remy was even able to talk the server into digging up some chocolate ice cream. We started and ended the day with chocolate!
Comments