Today is the cacao day, my 4th day of staying in a cacao and coffee farm in the peruvian andes. I think Erickson directed the entire Scarlett in the finca episode far away from Cusco, so Papa Nico could execute it with great passion in his beloved finca. And for me, it was a very good tour – each day I got different activities and they were a bit challenging and fun.
In reality, picking up cacaos was mas dificil comparing to picking up cafes. The trees grew on the steep hills and the fruits were somehow hidden under the grand leaves. Sometimes you might not find a cacao when you first looked at a tree, but when you looked at it deeper, or change your positions, angles or focuses, you suddenly found there were so many fruits. The yellow ones, those were your target, then you ventured towards the tree where you found the treasuries. Even it was a tree that was very hard to get to, you gotta get there to pick it up.
I remember when I first started, I was a bit worried it would be a boring day without too many things to pick. Comparing to the cafes, the amount of cacao on the tree was way less. But I was proved to be wrong. I could barely spot any cacao to start. Nico had to point them to me.
“Aqui.”
“Ohhh si!”
“Alla.”
“Si!”
I would be like, wow, yes there was a tree of cocoas, how come I didn’t see them myself. Shortly, Nico instructed us to go to different directions, and I finally started spotting my own cacaos. The deeper I went into the woods, the steeper the hill was, I spotted more and more.
Sometimes I felt like myself doing yoga or dancing among the trees. In order to get that perfect one, you had to do a leg split, twist your spine, reach your arm and fingers long and long, and remembered to breathe to keep the balance and not fall off the hill. You felt the sweat started soaking your shirt, the rain dropping down from the leaves above you, you felt the itchiness from mosquito bites, or watching the ants happily racing on your skin and sucking your blood. Your feet were completely buried by the wet dirts. With so many uncomfortable things, you were still keep going and going , because of the curiosity, the excitement, the pursue about that bright color!
Sometimes I got distracted, couldn’t focus on one tree, but wanted to go to the bigger fruits on another tree just discovered, and you got torn in between A and B, just like those many life choices you had to make. In the end, it seem didn’t matter, because you would have fruits anyways no matter which tree you go towards.
Sometimes I got mocked by the big yellow leaves, made my long way there, only to realize it was a leaf.
One time I was so excited to find a huge, golden cacao, picked it up, but ended up getting a full hand of black ants too that crazily ran though my arms and under the shirt. I almost passed out knowing they were having a great feast on me. I started jerking, shaking, slapping myself to get the ants off. Imagine when you got an Awada Kedavra in Harry Porter movie. It was just like that.
It was such a fun experience, but also hard, thinking about doing this every day. I suddenly had so much respect to the chocolates we consumed every day and the people behind it. It was never easy to make it from the fruit to the end product. To pick up the fruits, it was just one step of the entire process. It also required the detailed care of planting, separating the beans, fermenting, drying, roasting, peeling the beans, and finally pressing the beans into the powder and then making them into the chocolates. It was a work of art, details, dedication and completion.
I found that so magical. The nature is magical. Humans are magical, to discover the first cacao tree and apply so many methods to it. I’m just in awe of this world, even though among so many things that frustrate you, wars, poverties, inequality, environment damages, on and on. But there are still beautiful and inspiring things. For example. to make a chocolate.
