Chocolate Tour + Down Time Before Departing ITEC
Hello from ITEC!
We woke up brighter and earlier than usual this morning so we could be ready for our chocolate tour! We had a breakfast of french toast and fruit and then headed out to the boat.
Our tour was at Orebä Chocolate Farm, an indigenous chocolate farm near Al Mirante! They use free range farming techniques, meaning that the cocoa beans grow among other indigenous plants like bananas and pineapple. Our guide explained how each plant had a use in their community, including to make clothing and bags, for medicine, and even a laxative 😬. We got a demonstration on how the chocolate is made by hand from start to finish, and got to sample each step along the way. They also gave us 100% cocoa hot chocolate, and a coconut oil chocolate paste, both of which were delicious!
After our tour they made us a hearty lunch of chicken, spinach, coconut rice, and taro root all from their farm. We also shopped for handmade souvenirs, there were amazing hand carved and beaded art pieces!
After that, we came back to ITEC where half of us stayed to work on our lab reports and pack and the other half went to Punta Caracol to go snorkeling. They saw southern sting rays, lobsters, and tons of fish!
Once we got back we finished our day with a barbecue dinner and watched Pirates of the Caribbean.
Our eight days at ITEC have been so incredibly fun, we’re so grateful to have been able to have this wonderful experience and gain so much knowledge about the environment around us. Thank you to the ITEC team for welcoming us into your home and making us feel so comfortable while we were here. What a wonderful time!
See you soon!
Charlotte ‘27
Back
We woke up brighter and earlier than usual this morning so we could be ready for our chocolate tour! We had a breakfast of french toast and fruit and then headed out to the boat.
Our tour was at Orebä Chocolate Farm, an indigenous chocolate farm near Al Mirante! They use free range farming techniques, meaning that the cocoa beans grow among other indigenous plants like bananas and pineapple. Our guide explained how each plant had a use in their community, including to make clothing and bags, for medicine, and even a laxative 😬. We got a demonstration on how the chocolate is made by hand from start to finish, and got to sample each step along the way. They also gave us 100% cocoa hot chocolate, and a coconut oil chocolate paste, both of which were delicious!
After our tour they made us a hearty lunch of chicken, spinach, coconut rice, and taro root all from their farm. We also shopped for handmade souvenirs, there were amazing hand carved and beaded art pieces!
After that, we came back to ITEC where half of us stayed to work on our lab reports and pack and the other half went to Punta Caracol to go snorkeling. They saw southern sting rays, lobsters, and tons of fish!
Once we got back we finished our day with a barbecue dinner and watched Pirates of the Caribbean.
Our eight days at ITEC have been so incredibly fun, we’re so grateful to have been able to have this wonderful experience and gain so much knowledge about the environment around us. Thank you to the ITEC team for welcoming us into your home and making us feel so comfortable while we were here. What a wonderful time!
See you soon!
Charlotte ‘27
CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.