Global Business day began with a 6 a.m. wake up call followed by a morning seminario on Fair Trade by our GG Leaders, Leila and Eric. In partners we discussed 2 articles about the separation of Fair Trade USA from Fair Trade International. After our Su Pollo Listo breakfast, we took a 20 minute bus ride to El Castillo del Cacao, where we took a chocolate tour. With a bus ride and a hike up a very steep hill, we were welcomed by a chocolate museum. Our tour guide started the tour with a brief history on cacao in Nicaragua. During the Aztec era a Cacao God was worshipped and cacao seeds were used as currency. Cacao even today is still highly valued in Nicaragua. Our tour guide brought us around the “castle” where we saw where cacao beans were cleaned, grinded, warmed/mixed and finalized with wrapping. A few of us even had the chance to grind cacao beans on a grinding stone, which was used by indigenous women. While we were visiting the last cacao process, we had the chance to sample mini heart shaped chocolates with cashew and chocolates with coffee. Many of us bought chocolate at the museum before leaving. El Castillo del Cacao sold 160 g, 80 g, and 40 g, of chocolate bars (great gifts to bring back!) in a variety of flavors varying from 50% cacao to cacao with nibbs. Due to limited time we had to skip our stop at a coffee museum and instead headed straight to Su Pollo Listo for lunch.
Our last field trip of the day was at Solcafe with Cecocafen as our tour guide. It was a struggle for many of us walking in the heat around the coffee plantation. Bodega Cafe Oro had the majority of machines where beans were processed and transferred automatically from one machine to the next. I knew the humidity really was getting to us when several of my global glimpse peers went to sit in the bus for shade. The tour ended fairly quick because of the off coffee harvest season. We were however allowed to still buy packets of coffee (more great gifts!) The rest of our Global Business day consisted of a Su Pollo Listo dinner, English class from 6-8 p.m., and a nightly meeting where I passed the leader torch to my homegirl Jackie!
SWAG.
