We drove a couple of hours of the winding narrow mountain roads towards Puerto Quito to tour a cacao plantation. The tour was set up as a part of a day of learning for a student writing her thesis. The student, Michelle, talked with Barbara, took the tour of the chocolate making operation, and then we all hopped in the truck to see Pedro, the farmer.
He walked us around his property and as we went he picked other fruits that grow on his land. Pedro not only grows cacao, but oranges, bananas and pina. His is a sort of full forest approach, letting all of the plants grow together rather than clear the land and plant things separately. I liked that organic feel of the place. Being in the rain/cloud forest is like being at Jurassic Park (without the dinosaurs) … all the plants grow like they are on steriods.
Pedro is also a doctor and a flutist as well as a flute maker. A river runs by his property and a stream runs through it. Its a 20 minute ride on a very bumpy dirt road to his house so its an isolated feel. The house has a tin roof, an open kitchen/dining room area (and when I say open I mean there are no screens or glass in the walls, and one wall is done in bamboo. It feels like a very organic life in a very organic place, one more in tune with the cycle of the day and the cycle of the land instead of the clock.