Chocolate City

Some of you, especially Michelle at Honest and Truly, have expressed an interest in Chocolate City (real name: Tuxtla Chico) in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. So this is for all you chocolate lovers out there. The name Chocolate City enticed us, too, so Jerry and I signed up for the excursion to that town and also to the Mayan ruins.

The bus took us on a 30-minute drive from Puerto Chiapas through lush green fields and hills to Tuxtla Chico where the big draw was chocolate being made by hand in the city center. It is a very poor area whose inhabitants are descendants of the Mayans.
As in many parts of Mexico and Central America, buildings are often painted bright colors. Since it was the Christmas season, there were Christmas decorations everywhere, exemplified by the draped Christmas lights on this coral-and-mustard-colored building.

Our tour guide, Maria, explains some of the process of making chocolate as one of the chocolate-makers sets up his display in a courtyard adjacent to the city square. He's holding a cut-open cacao fruit. The pitcher of what looks like lemonade is cacao fruit juice, a sweet and refreshing drink. The plant on the left is a cacao tree sapling. We missed out on the free samples of the fruit juice.
After the cacao seeds are roasted, they are ground together with cinnamon, sugar, vanilla and almonds with a stone rolling pin on a stone block; then they are formed into a big sausage shape which is sliced up. We all got free samples of the chocolate and it's not like chocolate you would buy at home. It had a grainy texture, not a smooth melty texture, but it did taste like chocolate....grainy, sand-like chocolate....definitely an acquired taste!
The man showed us the beans before and after they've been roasted.
Ripe cacao fruit...They are about 10 to 12 inches long...kind of like big green footballs.
The ingredints for making Chiapas chocolate... roasted cacao beans, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla and almonds.
After the demonstration, the stage was cleared off and a young couple performed several traditional Mexican folk dances. The girl smiled some, but the young man never smiled; it did not look like he was having fun at all.
After an hour or two in Tuxtla Chico, where we also meandered through the blocks of outdoor markets (that will be another post), we piled onto the bus and headed off to the Mayan ruins. These cacao trees were growing right next to the ruins.
More cacao fruit growing on the trees.
A variety of exotic-looking tropical fruit was for sale at tables set up near the Mayan ruins. I had never seen any of these fruits before---very strange-looking! We didn't buy any, but snapped pix and hurried off to explore the ruins.

See other fasciating places at My World Tuesday.