Peruvian Chocolate Factory

Long time readers will recall that Julia and I took a tour of a chocolate factory in Belize in 2019. It isn't a coincidence that we toured one in Peru.  First, I love chocolate.  Second, there is a roasting process for cocoa beans (technically, cacoa seeds) that is somewhat similar to the roasting process for coffee.

When I roasted coffee commercially, I was approached by an investor in a Hawaii chocolate operation  He wondered if there might be a way for me to roast cocoa beans in my Lodi shop. Meh, it wouldn't really be practical.  The temperatures are much lower for roasting.  And coffee beans and cacoa seeds don't mix very well on the same roasting machine in terms of odors and the clean-up.

But I'm still very interested in the process.  The chocolate factory was around the corner from our hotel and offered a free self-tour.  We feasted our eyes on the process but didn't buy anything here due to the "special" gringo prices.  We later bought chocolate at the general market (more on that later).

Cacao Seeds and Sugar

This photograph shows the seed grinder and the mixers for the cacao and sugar.  Factory workers are shaping and packaging.

Roaster is upper right

 

Final product

Sunday Morning Coming Down

When Julia and I came down the steep stairs from Cristo Blanco, we were greeted by all kinds of festivities in the Plaza de Armas, which take place every Sunday morning.

Girls Middle School Band

 

The photo above shows both the adult band and the local officials under the red tent presiding over the flag ceremony.  On every Sunday morning, hundreds of local people in Cusco come to the plaza to watch the raising of the Peruvian flag and the flag of Cusco.  Patriotic songs are sung to cheers.  The flag ceremony takes well over an hour, including speeches.  All of that time the flag raisers must stand at attention.

Elections were to take place the following Sunday.  In Peru, voting is mandatory.  There are no alcohol sales on the day preceding the election, the day of the election, or the day after the election.  Voter id cards are required.  There are stiff fines for not voting.  Because so many people had their voter id card expire during the pandemic, there were long lines of people wearing masks to enter buildings in order to renew their voting cards during the week before the election.  The reason that elections take place on Sundays is because that is the day off for family.  Work is not an excuse.  If one is required to work on Sunday, employers are required to let employees have time off to vote.  

Food for thought. 

 

Cristo Blanco

 From Sept 25th, 2022

We were both feeling pretty good when we went to bed on the previous night.  However, morning came at 4 a.m when the hotel kitchen staff started getting ready for breakfast, which is available from 4:30 a.m. until 11 a.m.  Our room was across a small courtyard from the kitchen, but we made the mistake of leaving our windows open.  

After breakfast and coca tea, we left the hotel  at 7:30 a.m. for our self-directed hike to Cristo Blanco, the most famous monument in Cusco.  Make no mistake about it:  this was not a nature hike.  We would walk on pavement across the city, past the tourist areas, and up into the mountainside where working class Cusco lives.

The Spaniards built cathedrals everywhere in Cusco, so I guess it's no surprise that a huge white Jesus overlooks the city.  There were some other interesting sites along the way.

 

We were so focused on getting to the top of the mountain that we took a wrong turn into some ruins.  

A very upset parks employee came up to us and demanded that we buy $40 tickets to keep looking at the ruins.  When we asked where Cristo Blanco was, she gave us a disgusted look and pointed to where we had missed our turn.  I think she said "gringos" under her breath but it could have been something more colorful.

I can't say that I was impressed with the 26' tall White Jesus, but I liked his view.

 

We took a different way back down.  I don't think Julia liked these steps.

But she made it without blowing out a knee. We survived our first steep hike above 11,000' and experienced some  breathlessness but no other side affects. We didn't know at the time that these stairs were a very good introduction for the Inca Trail later that week.

It was only 9 on a Sunday morning.  The city was just beginning to wake up. More on that in the next post.

A Peruvian Dinner

Our tour guide gave us several instructions for the first couple of days acclimating to Cusco's elevation.  Avoid physical exertion.  No alcohol.  Stay with safe foods.  She recommended the chicken soup and no seafood or red meat.

After five hours on the ground without eating, we sat down at Los Portales, a restaurant facing the Plaza Kusipata, and started breaking the rules.

Julia ordered trout soup, and I ordered seco de cordero (lamb in cilantro sauce).  To drink, I ordered a Cusquena Dorada, which was a malty pilsner that came in a 620 ml bottle. The entire meal, including tip, was $25.  Everything was delicious. The fruits and vegetables in Peru are more flavorful than the genetically-engineered stuff in the U.S., designed for maximum shelf life.  Our stomachs survived the adventurous meal.

Naughty rule-breakers

On the next morning, we would break the remaining rule and go for a rigorous hike.

Cusco: Starting to Explore

Fortified with our coca tea, Julia and I headed out into the streets of Cusco.  A city of about 500,000 people, the tourist areas of Cusco are relatively safe and easy to find one's way around. 

Cusco has two seasons:  wet and dry.  We were there at the end of the dry season, so it was appropriate that it rained on the day we arrived.  It's rare to rain all day, so after an hour or so, the rain stopped, and the streets dried up.

 

Arriving in Cusco

When we arrived in Cusco, a representative of Sun Gate Tours was waiting for us at the airport with a sign that said "Julia."  This was very exciting to me because I've seen many folks with signs at airports but the sign was never for us before. 

That's because we've never booked a tour like this before.  Our normal way of travel is to explore the area on our own.  However, that's not possible if you want to hike the Inca Trail.  Peru requires all hikers to be accompanied by a government-licensed guide and to have an Inca Trail government permit.  These permits are highly sought-after, and one generally needs to get a permit months in advance.  

The easiest way to get a guide/permit is to sign up for a tour package. The tour company then handles everything: airport transfers, booking the hotel, booking day excursions, hiring Inca Trail guides, cooks, and porters, transfers to and from the trail, and transfers back to the airport at the end of the trip.

Isn't that expensive, you might ask? Probably, yes.  However, to pay for this trip, Julia used credit card points that she earned from paying for stuff over the course of thirty years of operating her business.  Peru was on her bucket list, so my frugality had to be set aside.  Besides, I was getting to hike in some very cool mountains so I kept my mouth shut about costs.

Flying from Lima to Cusco, we were changing in elevation from sea level to over 11,000 feet.  We immediately noticed the thin air, and our tour company representative advised us to avoid any alcohol, to take it easy for the first couple of days, and to drink lots of coca tea.  One makes coca tea by dropping whole leaves of the coca plant into hot water.  Our hotel kept a big glass container of leaves in the lobby, along with hot water.  When we arrived at the hotel, we did as we were told.

While the leaves of the coca plant are the base for making cocaine, coca tea is only a mild stimulant.  I'm not sure how much it helped us to adjust to the elevation, but it tasted pretty good--much like green tea.  After a  long travel day to Lima and only a few hours of sleep, the tea was just what we needed before heading out to explore Cusco on our first day.