Today began with eating breakfast. This was by far the best breakfast on the trip. The waiter gave us delicious hot coco and eggs. After breakfast we drove to Quito which took about 2 hours. On the bus we saw a fire happening on the mountain and Diego said that it was normal. Apparently local people start the fires because they believe that the fire will promote clouds and bring rain.
Our first stop was the Pichincha volcano with an elevation of 13,000 feet. This is a very active volcano. We used a gondola to get to the top. We walked around the top for a while and looked down at the city. There was this cool swing set that you could swing right of the edge and it was a perfect picture spot. We then took the gondola back down and got lunch. After lunch we drove to the botanical garden. The garden was beautiful we saw so many incredible plants. My favorite was the monkey face orchid. Our next activity was a private chocolate tasting at Pacari!The word Pacari means nature and this company was founded 18 years ago. The logo is a man and a tree, to preserve the connection between nature and people. We learned about the chocolate process like sorting, cleaning, drying the beans, etc. 3 years ago Ecuador found 5,500 year old chocolate in Zamora. After the history we began the chocolate tasting! We did not just devour the chocolate we began by touching the sample, the we smelt the sample, then we listened to the sound it made when we bit it. We then learned about the process of drying and fermentation of the cocoa beans. This company is very fair to its workers. They pay farmer 2x to 3x the normal price and they work only with organic chocolate. They are fair trade and kosher. The goal of this company is to eat chocolate without having a guilty conscience. Then after our tasting and presentation we all bought chocolate. After Pacari we checked into our hotel and then went out for dinner. A couple of us decided to eat Mexican food for dinner. Then we walked back to our hotel. |
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