Whale-watching

I saw whales!

Hmm...I'm not sure if that fully conveys my emotions.

I saw whales! In the wild!

Better.

I saw whales! In the wild! Whales that are 5 times bigger than the boat I was in. Whales that could have easily upset the boat we were in, if they had been so inclined. But instead were jumping and singing and meandering. 

Can you tell I'm pretty stoked about this experience???

I'm still struggling to find words strong enough to describe the experience of being so close to them. I took a tour with Pacifico Adventures, from Punto Veleros in Los Organos.  If you get a chance to go, you should definitely take it-it was well worth every centimos.  Our guides spoke both English & Spanish fluently and both were scientist, doing research into whale behavior.  I feel like I've been on the ecotourism kick for a while now, but I haven't been disappointed with any of my experiences thus far.

Anyway, you always need a bit of luck to see whales, as humpbacks generally are not radio tagged. Instead, researchers identify each whale by their unique tails.  Much less invasive and painful for the animals but much more difficult for tracking precise movements.

Luckily, we heard a tip that there were a mother & calf nearby and we went off to find them. We never saw the mother emerge, but could estimate her size from the distance between her blowhole and dorsal fin.  The calf, however, jumped out of the water a few times - enough for our guides to determine that it's a male.  It was such an incredible sight, I wanted to break into spontaneous clapping at the majesty of the moment.

I find it interesting that no one really knows why these whales jump out of the water. Some people hypothesize that it's to demonstrate strength in order to attract mates. Others think that calves do it to strengthen their muscles for their long migration journey.  But no one really knows for sure.  In fact, there are many things we don't know about these animals.

After observing the mother & calf for some time, we headed to another area where we just caught a male coming up for air. Our guides were really excited to drop the underwater microphone so that we could hear him sing. 

We also don't know much about their songs. Scientists have determined that it is indeed a song-with distinctive repeating patterns, much like our chorus and verses. And they "sing" different patterns at different times of the season. When one whale changes the pattern, the others in the community change as well.

Only the males sing, but scientists are still not sure why (besides communicating with an alien probe in future in a popular sci-fi series!) Some think it might be to attract mates, but others are starting to think it might be to coordinate the males to go looking for females. Part of humpback courtship involves some pretty violent fighting between the males, so maybe it is a kind of challenge call between them.

We were lucky enough to race alongside a pod of dolphins as well, which was another sight to behold.

All in all, this trip was amazing and should not be missed!

Tarapoto: Coffee and Chocolate

By far, my favorite part was our visits to a coffee co-op and an organic chocolate farm. In both locales, we learned the whole farm-to-table process of making two of my favorite products.

First was the visit to the coffee co-op, Agroindustria Warmi.  There, one of the partners, Fanny, talked us through the process of making coffee.  Though I had learned a lot of this through my training with Starbucks, it was so much better to actually see all the steps of the process in person.

The coffee cherries are picked.

The bean is removed from the cherry and dried in the sun.  We saw mats laid out, drying the beans, all through the town.

The farmers bring their dried beans to the co-op facility.

This contraption is used to remove the dried husks from the beans.

The beans are then roasted in this pan in small batches.

The dried beans next to the roasted beans

The beans are hand ground before packaging

Liz & I took our turn at the grinder in order to sample some and it was definitely worth it! 

Then, we moved on to visit the Rio Bosque Magico in Chazuta, where Heriberto and his family explained how they grow, harvest and produce their own organic atisanal chocolate:

This cacao variety is Peruvian.  The ripening fruits are green while the mature ones are yellow.  

This variety is from Ecuador.  It´s a deep red when ripening and a lighter red/orange color when mature.  Heriberto is working on combining these two species to create an even more superior variety of cacao.

These tiny buds take about 6 months to grow into the mature fruit. 

We got to sample the actual cacao fruit from each variety.  We were surprised at how distinct they were from each other (but both were delicious!)  Liz said that it reminded her of the Indian jackfruit, something along the lines of a flowery mango flavor. At this farm, they also use the fruit to produce a honey sauce, ensuring that all parts of the cacao plant are used as fully as possible.

As this is an organic farm, Heriberto relies on the natural fauna to help the plants to grow and mature.  This large grub (toe for size comparison) is one of those creatures that helps the process.

After touring the farm, it was on to the production side:

They carefully select the beans that they want to use for their own chocolate and sell the rest in the market, again so that nothing is wasted.  Currently they use a combination of the two varieties to give their chocolate it´s unique taste.

Heriberto´s wife Marilena, runs this part of the operation.  Here she is toasting the dried beans on a wood-fired stove. She prefers the wood over gas to better know when the beans are properly toasted.  

After the toasted beans cool, the last layer of husk is removed.

I was so enthusiastic about helping I managed to burn my thumb on the hot beans.  :(

Now, you´re left with nibs, which can be eaten straight, but are especially good when added to smoothies, granola, etc, for a light chocolate flavor.

Once again, we were put to work at the grinder!  Here the nibs are ground and mixed with sugar.  They go on to regrind the mixture 5 more times to make it smooth and silky!  (My arm was tired after just one round!)  After that the chocolate is mixed with any additions (peanuts, honey, liquor) and put into molds.  Liz and I both agreed that the peanut ones are our favorite-they tasted like you´re eating a crunchy dark chocolate Reeses´ peanut butter cup.  (I don´t actually know if that exists, but if it does, that is what is should taste like!)

Just writing this post has made me hungry for some more of this chocolate.  Time to plan another trip to the jungle!

Tarapoto: The handicrafts

Another thing that Liz and I wanted to do on our trip to the jungle was make some handicrafts.  Our guide, Daniel, set us up with demonstrations in weaving and pottery from local artisans.

To do this, we spent one day in an artists' retreat deeper into the jungle, living in what was affectionately called "the hobbit house".

 

The weaving demonstration was done by a young local girl who had learned this technique since she was a child.

This was hands-on as we both got a chance to try this out

What we are attempting to make is a belt, similar to the green and white one Liz is using to stabilize the thread

 

I found it interesting, but Liz enjoyed it more than I did.  We both, however, found it difficult to "see" the patterns we were making in order to select the right threads.

 

Whereas our instructor can make one of these belts in about a day, after more than an hour this is all Liz & I had completed.

Later we visited some potters in the local town of Chazuta where we learned about the historical uses of the pottery as well as observing them in action.

These burial pots were all found locally when they were working on the streets of the village, showing that the tradition of pottery goes back many years. 

Close up of a burial pot-the deceased was cremated and their ashes were put in these pots.

Artisans at work

Traditionally the pots were fired directly in the fire, but now more modern kilns are used.

Some of the common symbols used in painting the pottery.  They said there were over 1500 different symbols used in this culture.