Churute!

Last weekend, I visited the Reserva ecológica manglares churute.  We were able to take a boat ride through the mangroves and then hike up to a water fall. The forest was so dense and I could hear monkeys; it really felt like being in the jungle. The only problem was all the mosquitos! Luckily, I brought a lot of bug spray. Afterwards, we ate a crab lunch. The town we were in has a ton of crabs because the crabs live in the mangrove. I learned that the community is trying to build their economy through tourism. When anyone wants to visit the mangrove, they offer a special deal to include lunch. The men in the community hunt for the crabs and then the women in the community take turns preparing lunch for the visitors. I thought this was a really smart way to utilize their resources, work together, and build the community. Lastly, we visited a cacao plantation. This was my favorite part! We were able to see how the cacao is grown and then we were able to make chocolate! We drank the chocolate--it was delicious!!