Cacao producer farm: An awesome experience!

in #photography6 years ago (edited)
Hello, friends! A few days ago I remembered my trip to Choroní, a little town located in the state of Aragua, Venezuela; where I visited a cocoa producer farm, called "La Sabaneta".

Image Source

I went with a group of friends of my aunt @margarita21 (Yes, I was an intruder on the trip Hahaha) but I didn’t care being surrounded by people much older than me, let me tell you that I had a great time with them.
This cocoa producing farm is huge, and it’s really old. Its last owner was a French gentleman, but nowadays it belongs to the State.
In the way to the entrance of the farm, you can see the old electricity museum "Cadafe" (A bit sad that it’s abandoned, but some people says it’s in the plans to recover it, supposedly.)
Then you find out that you must cross a bridge to get to the other side of a large river, after this you will see the gate that welcomes you to the farm, at sides you can appreciate giant trees that are part of the National Park "Henry Pittier" in the Aragua state.
I have to emphasize that visiting this place is like going back a few centuries, because the atmosphere, the decoration and the architecture of certain places in the farm are from the 1700s. The floors are paved with Little rocks, have large columns, and some lanterns, but with a creole Venezuelan touch.
Once we finished the walk through the places of the main house, we went to explore the large area with cocoa plantations, all this by foot; and I must tell you that it was entertained between questions, answers and jokes of the group with the managers of the farm. Although the walk is a little tired due to the high humidity of the area, sincerely in the end, it’s worth it.
They explained step by step how to obtain the much desired cocoa sacks, from what they call "The best cocoa in the world", a fine cocoa from the Choroní region; And, to be honest, I’m nobody to contradict them, huh!

Here you can appreciate the growth in the tree, of the fruit from which the cocoa is obtained.

Once the fruit is ripe, they go to collect the harvest and carefully open each of them to obtain the seeds.

Here you can appreciate the seeds, which will be taken to a dark and hot chamber so they can dehydrate, inside special boxes made of wood. Something curious is that the employees gave us a seed to each of the visitors to taste it and let me tell you that it is the sweetest and most delicious thing I've ever tasted! And they told us that it is an amazing aphrodisiac for women.

We were able to taste a delicious hot chocolate, a chocolate candy (I forgot to take pictures because it looked so delicious that I immediately ate it), chocolate truffles (Yummy, the best part. Btw, I have the recipe!), an alcoholic beverage or "liquor" "which is obtained from the cocoa beans when it begins its process of dehydration and drying, and we even had the opportunity to buy a pure cocoa bar, and the truth is that everything was incredible, more than one person presente there had to repeat how delicious it was, so they have well deserved the title of the best cocoa in the world.

Explaining how to make chocolate truffles.

The best cocoa in the world.

Image Source


Cocoa beans dried and ready to be opened, pass by the mill, and later become the famous cocoa powder.

I must emphasize that the staff that lives in the farm are great human beings and people with a big heart. All are really honest. At the end of the visit they made us an extra gift, a beautiful and curious flower called "Microphone" and I think is clear why it has that name, literally looks like a yellow microphone.
Last but not least, I wanted to mention again the National Park "Henry Pittier"; although on this trip I couldn’t capture its true beauty or its essence completely, it seems to me a place that deserves recognition, and you don’t know how much I regret not give it much attention.
However, I managed to capture some photographs of the park, although a bit simple, I still love them because it reminds me of the haze and that delicious cold that accompanies you during the trip.
In one of the stops, I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures, of course.
And with this last picture I wanted to comment that it seems quite sad to me that many people, although they love visiting places like these, don’t collaborate for their care and preservation. As you can see in the last picture, there is a lot of garbage, something quite unnecessary since it costs nothing to carry a bag to place this type of things, and I would like to call the conscience about this, because it’s unfair to lose spaces like those for people who simply don’t appreciate what this world gives us, what Venezuela presents to us as natural beauties.

I hope you liked my post, and you have found it interesting. Greetings!

Disclaimer: All the pictures presented in the post belongs to me, except those that have their respective source. The pictures were taken with a Samsung camera and a Huawei phone.

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Nothing better than a post about chocolate (except beer, of course). Thanks so much for sharing. I had only seen some videos of cacao harvesting until now. I originally found you through @cjao20, but as a stroke of luck I found you again through the #payitforward contest. You were featured by @bananamemos. Congratulations! I look forward to seeing more of your posts.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post! Going to the cacao farm was one of the best experiences I've ever had, I hope one day you can visit one, you won't regret it. You are very welcome to my future post, I'll try my best to keep posting a good quality and interesting content. Greetings!

Chocolate is my favorite food.
And my second favorite food. :-)

Very informative post and great pictures. I especially liked the old cobblestone steps. Nice job!

I love chocolate as much as you! haha Thank you so much for passing by and leaving a comment (:

I liked the idea of a post about a cacao farm so much, Angelica, that I featured it in a PayItForward contest that searches for quality Steemians.

You can see the article here:
https://steemit.com/payitforward/@bananamemos/week-2-pay-it-forward-curation-contest-3-blogs-you-really-should-check-out

Thank you for nominating my post in the contest! I'm so glad that you liked it, because I truly enjoy to write post for this community.

You're welcome. I thought it was very funny that you tagged along on your aunt's trip. But you ended up with a great topic to blog about! :-)

Oh! qué hermoso!! amo Choroní, tengo tanto tiempo que no voy.. Y viendo esas fotos, se me hizo agua la boca pensando en el chocolate local, que es delicioso. Gracias por el post! Saludos!

¡Gracias a ti por comentar! Choroní me parece un lugar espectacular y aún me falta conocer porque no he ido a la playa ): pero pronto jaja ¡Saludos, bella!

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Jungle Girl, you have beautiful photos. Love jungles. You are beautiful. I eat from my gardens. I love chocolate. I love farms. I'm Oatmeal. Yeah. Haha. Love your smile.

Thank you for your comment, you're a very kind person. Nice to meet you, Oatmeal! haha

What a cool place to visit and tour! I bet fresh chocolate is amazing! Most foods fresh-grown are so much better than anything store bought, I can only imagine how fantastic their chocolate tasted!

Now I am craving chocolate. Great...
;)

It is amazing! And seeing part of the process to obtain the cocoa powder was so cool. I love chocolate even more after that trip (:

Resteemed your article. This article was resteemed because you are part of the New Steemians project. You can learn more about it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gaman/new-steemians-project-launch

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