Some random shots of life in Salinas . . .
these are the salt flats (i guess that's what they're called) that give Sal-inas it's name (sal is salt in Spanish for anyone who doesn't know).
So we started out the next morning ready to roast the cacao. Of course, nobody knew where the key was so we literally had to break in to the roaster room at the fabrica.
Finally inside the guys start the roaster up - loading in a 125 lb. bag of cacao.
Me on the other hand, I got the exciting job of wrapping chocolate while those guys roasted and the people who went to work at 2 a.m. slept. It was freezing and boring and Carlos and Amanada locked the door to the room we were sharing (sexiled? not quite sure).
Plus, I realized that I had left behind some medicine in Quito and had to figure out a way for Jazz and Henry to send it to me by bus (one small advantage to my situation). of course, this required a couple of phone calls to henry and jazz (about $5 worth), some frustrating conversations with Carlos, and a thankfully very helpful one with the boss at the fabrica who actually told me where to have the medicine sent and then said they'd send someone to pick it up for me (of course, this required constant checking back and constant changes in the assumed arrival time - oy). in the conversation that day henry also told me they were planning a beach trip for the following weekend (and a dinner party : ( as i readied myself for my third fried egg meal of the day!)
the whole time i was wrapping chocolate, all i could think of was that i could totally feel lucy's pain.
granted, i didn't have a factory belt to contend with, but after about 2 hours I had only packaged about a hundred bars and wrapped about 30 in wax paper.
So to entertain myself after a couple of hours of this excitement, i got up and starting taking pics from the window.
Stepped out onto the stairs and these kids started saying hi to me. (i was definitely the only gringa in town, so i got a good bit of attention from the locals)
After dinner we went back to chocolate making,
(the funnels used to measure out the amount of chocolate per bar)
though there was a bunch of chocolate wrapping again (the bars they made late at night the night before). I started talking to the guys who were tempering the chocolate in order to get in on that as well. Slight improvement. Though, when I told Manuel i wanted to learn about the rest of the process his response was to talk to Carlos (anyone picking up on the circular nature of my life these days). After some more chocolate wrapping some folks were heading back to sleep. Amanda told me I should go to sleep, I said it depended on what was happening next. When I asked Carlos he said more wrapping, I asked about timing and what was going on I was told that we'd probably be there until at least tuesday or wednesday, but that if i was cansada (tired), i could leave whenever i wanted. All very strange. Not sure if he ws just picking up on my frustration or what. Anyway, I said I'm fine, I just want to learn the whole process, so he said tomorrow I could go "down below" with Pancho (in the green shirt) and Cristian and Hiram to roast the cacao. I took the opportunity to tell Carlos that I would have to be back in quito by thursday though (for the beach of course)
Spent the next day roasting cacao . . .
here the guys are putting the roasted cacao on to the table to cool
Pancho (Comando, Francisco, so many names . . .) breaking up the cacao some before we put it into the machine that breaks it up more and theoretically separates out the shells from the cacao beans
the machine (with us pushing the cacao through it)
cacao (in the machine)
remember i said the machine "theoretically" separates the parts. but, not so much. so after a few passes through the machine, the cacao refuse still gets sifted through and then we pick through the end result by had to get rid of as much casing as possible.
me and Comando, taking a warming break.
It ain't a pretty job (or a clean one). Here's us at the end of the afternoon.
and my mask
After dinner that night we went to "the" disco in town.
it had spinning multi-colored lights
a tiki bar
a pool table
and a bouncer.
(i actually saw him turn away a 10ish year old boy, though a 12ish looking guy got in.) shortly thereafter, the bar wound up packed solid full of pairs of 15-17 year olds. crazy, totally surreal.
of course, after a bunch of beer, and dancing (chino actually asked me to dance and we had a blast), we actually went back to making more chocolate. really this place is nuts!!!
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2 comments:
Your account reminds me of my feeliings after visiting the coffee plantation in Antigua.... I really, really appreciate the labor that goes into bringing these tasty treats to my local store.
Hi Jess,
Thanks for all the details. . .I feel as if I'm getting a decent picture of your life. I'm confused about a couple of things--sounds as if you are too, from time to time! :)
Why did you take the beans eight hours from where you picked them up to process them? Why isn't the processing place where ever the beans are?
I'm glad that you've been cooking with Jazz and Henry (and Emilia?). And your strawberry decorations--was that banana that I saw, too?--looked lovely.
How did the truffle making go? Do you need any recipes?
Looking forward to catching up,
B
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