Last month in Peru

My last month in Peru was exciting. I managed to fit in some of the activities available in Lima that I had been meaning to do but had never got around to, such as paragliding, surfing, and making my own chocolate. I did learn that I'm not the best surfer - if you call what I did surfing at all. I mostly splashed around like a 2-legged puppy and swallowed a lot of sea water. But I'm not complaining - I got to do it in the Pacific Ocean. Beats the English Channel any day!

Trying to ride a wave

Trying to paddle

My paragliding experience off the Costa Verde cliff was a lot more successful, mainly because it involved no upper body strength and, in any case, the views were 100 times nicer, especially as I paraglided (or should that be paraglid...? :P) just before sunset, so the sky was spectacular. It was pretty expensive considering I was only in the air for 10 minutes, but one perk was that the price included a full length film of my flight, which is pretty cool. This also meant I could grab some good screenshots:

As great as these activities were, the Choco Museum in Miraflores was the tastiest of my experiences! Tobias and I booked a workshop where we learned about the history of chocolate and the cocoa bean in South America (gross fact: the Mayans invented hot chocolate and a key ingredient was human blood!). We were then given cocoa beans, which we roasted, ground, and mixed to create delicious chocolates and hot chocolates (fortunately sans human body fluid).

Roasting the beans!

Crushing the beans

Making the hot chocolate

Moulding the chocolates!

 Me with a (fake) cocoa tree

After all this excitement and fun was over, there were only a couple of weeks until I was due to return back to England. I wasn't sad - I felt I'd done everything I went there to do, plus more. In any case, I was actually really looking forward to spending Christmas in the cold (it was 25°C in Lima by the time I left) and being reunited with my friends and family.

It was an amazing 6 months and I'll never forget it, but for now, Peru and I have parted ways. However, I know I'll be back one day - I'll even visit a few other South American countries while I'm at it...

Choco Museo: A Chocolate Museum Review

This is a little place tucked slightly away from the main square in Barranco, Lima that I definitely think deserves a mention. I have to admit it was slightly different from what I had envisaged, mostly due to the size. However, it is a lovely place to go if (a) you like chocolate and (b) you have a spare 15 minutes.

It's a small establishment, consisting of a cafe selling a range of edible chocolate goodies (of course), a shop set up in the corner selling unusual items such as cocoa face cream and cocoa candles, and two rooms off to the side where they manufacture the sweet brown miracle.

Upon entering, our noses were greeted with a strong, but not altogether unpleasant, aroma of a chocolate-scented incense stick. Unusual but effective. We were then greeted by a friendly chocolatier, who offered to give us a free tour of the chocolate-making process. We readily agreed and were shown the process from the bean to the river of melted loveliness (which we were allowed to taste - much to our delight). It was interesting, although rather short (as I said, there are but two rooms that house the machines, and they aren't big).

 A selection of chocolate jams

After the tour we were offered a samples of alcohol made from the cocoa bean and also a taste of one of the many 'chocolate jams' available, which were essentially chocolate spread and fruit. The alcohol was incredibly strong but tasted good, probably owing to the orange-flavouring, but I was disappointed with my choice of spread, which just tasted like strawberry jam. However, my friend was very pleased with her orange and chocolate mix.

Apparently there is another one of these closer to home in Miraflores, which I will hopefully manage to visit at some point. I definitely intend to go to one of them and this time have a hot chocolate in the cafe, and maybe try out one of their chocolate-making workshops.