WE DID NOT EXPECT THIS [Van Life in Ecuador Gets Crazy] S5E7

this morning instead of oatmeal and coffee  in the van we've decided to go downtown   to the little square here of mindo and  find us a place to have some breakfast what are you looking for for breakfast  kurt i'm looking for some coffee   and hopefully it's not instant but i'll do instant  coffee but i prefer like fresh brewed and then   rumor has it snow's looking for some breakfast  balls i can't remember the real name of them but   they're like these breakfast empanadas that  are in big round balls so let's go find them   balloon i don't know if it's pronounced bologna  or blondier i think it's balloon balloon   there they are guys i got all kind  of food but i'm gonna try one of those so i got the bolognese the balls because  i've seen them in a video and i wanted to try them   so kurt is just tickled with himself calling the  balls but sorry guys what'd you win okay kurt   i got to grillo and so i had to google it to see  what it is but it's ecuadorian and it has planta   nose kind of like crushed up onion eggs and cheese  and then there's something called bonaire but i   don't know what that is so it's like a hash like  a scrambled egg hash i think so we'll see we'll   see what our food is we're both trying something  new so as i said this is made with plants and oats   and onions and i just took a bite and clearly  the onions are cut through so it's very strong i know almost like a stuffing  very very good very tasty   absolutely lovely all right here she  goes guys she's cutting into the balls all right so there's a little cheese some cheese let's see how it tastes it's like a potato ball it's like  mashed potatoes around some cheese   i think i would have preferred it if there was  more if there was some meat in it but it's good   i think they have different kinds this restaurant  only had the one but i think they do through   ecuador have different kinds so we'll have to see  yeah i've determined that this breakfast right   here this tigrio is one of my favorite things i  think ever especially for breakfast i love eggs   as you guys probably know but my meal with the  coffee was five dollars i think snow's snows balls   and the coffee and the juice was 325. we've done  coffee tours and we've seen these chocolate tours   all through central america and even in colombia  we've never done one we've never done one   so i'm already surprised i guess  chocolate grows in those giant things   here we go so everyone loves chocolate we  like chocolate i love hot chocolate we're not   huge chocolate fanatics but i think it's going  to be really interesting to see how it's made   because i have no idea me neither so let's  find out so we're going to walk outside now   to see the next step and he just gave us like a  preview an overview of the cacao fruit we ate some   of the flesh you kind of suck it off the seeds it  was really good and we tasted a little bit of pure   cocoa powder that was strong and bitter  and we used some of the cocoa butter   that they pull from this whole process put on  our lips like chapstick felt really good now   one thing that was cool is the first one he opened  up that he cut open for us actually had a fungus   and he said like 80 years ago the the you  know chocolate was a major export for uh   ecuador but they had a plague of the chocolate  plants the cocoa plants and it had a fungus   and that's what that first one was so it was  kind of interesting to see one that was bad   and then we saw one that was good now we're headed  outside so there's two types of cacao plants   this is the yellow one i'm sure it has a more  formal name over here is the red one and george   says that the yellow one is quality and the  red one is quantity so the yellow one is better oh look there's a greenhouse this is where they manufacture the goods  i dry it they dry it so the drying process   starts with fermenting it they firm in it  for six days here so it kills the little   seed bud inside helps with the bitterness and  after it's done that they move it to the drying   boxes where it can be anywhere from two weeks  to a month depending on the current climate there's a baby guava guys comes off this tree right here  with this super cool caterpillar all right back to chocolate next they have  to turn the bean into a liquid they start by   crushing the beans now the beans still have the  shell on them and the only part that is good for   making chocolate is the inside of the bean so they  have to separate it by putting it in this machine   the good part is heavy and the shell is light so  they turn on a big fan and as the crushed beans   fall through this wire mesh it blows the shells  away and the good stuff falls to the bottom to   be put in bags a little side note they use  the shells to make cocoa tea next the good   stuff which is called the cocoa nib is put  into a machine to crush it into a fine paste   then the paste is put into this fancy mixing  bowl with rock wheels and it churns for three   days this phase is where they add  sugar to sweeten the chocolate   some chocolate can have as much as 40 percent  sugar think hershey's chocolate chocolate bar   and some of the really dark chocolate may have as  little as 10 sugar it comes out of this bowl as   a hot liquid and it's taken to the room next door  and poured onto this cool marble table where they   squish it around to help it start to cool this is  when you can add flavors or nuts to the chocolate   maybe a cardamom some chili powder or a macadamia  then you pour it into the molds and put it in the   fridge so now let's go taste some of this stuff  guys our first chocolate tour is pretty much done   the only thing left is the good part tasting it so  this is it has different uh percentages of sugar   he said to start with the least amount of sugar  which this one is 85 pure chocolate 15 sugar chocolate it's a very dark from chocolate  it's good though let's go to the 67 now he   said he told us that 60 percent chocolate and 40  sugar is kind of what you're used to the most of yeah that's definitely sweeter it has more  sugar yeah all right this one they call what   you call it rustico rustico and he said  in this one you could feel the sugar so oh it's more crunchy like it's actually the  sugar granules in there instead of it melted   and that one has a pink do you want to sweet i think it's sweeter than that i like that   one the best okay you should  try this one this one's good mmm this one's the best so far you can feel the  crunchy grain i like that one you should try all   right i will god we're going to be like buzzing  like crazy i already know that's crazy we just had   a cup of coffee and now chocolate no i like the  rustic so cardamon was a spice that he showed us   out in the garden yeah they grow it out there i'm  not really familiar with them either give it a try i don't know all right this  one is salt and pepper no we got a chocolate brownie with chocolate syrup  and cacao tea yes sir so the tea is made with the   the shell that is that is separated from the  actual bean part inside this your spoons now   that's good with a spoon let's take one drop  of this that's 100 cacao one drop of this yeah   try it that is the paste remember we were okay  that is the paste no sugar that's true 100 cacao oh and now i had cardamom salt and pepper  which is actually good the ahi i didn't   taste the chili did you i certainly did it was  definitely spicy and probably one of my favorites   all right so the ginger all right macadamia  i know i'm gonna let go and coffee all right i'm getting dangerously close to my limits of  maximum chocolate we're gonna be like running   circles around know yeah but now i do got to  take a bite of this brownie before i tap out how is it it's very moist and i feel like it's got some of that um chocolate   syrup that we had here earlier oh  it's good though it's good it's good all right guys now we just have to decide if we're  going to buy any of this chocolate on the way out   i've had my i've met my chocolate quota for this  it's all really good but we're not huge just   eating chocolate fans but it was cool seeing  the process and it was oddly familiar to the   coffee process yeah um there was definitely some  significant difference i think the coffee process   is more difficult it takes a lot longer i think  it takes a lot longer but still a really neat   neat experience yeah so i'm gonna finish my  brownie and we'll see you in a minute sometimes   you just get lucky we had no idea what we were  gonna stumble up on today but this was one of   those times that we just got lucky our plan was  to do the chocolate tour and then get out of town   but as we were leaving the tour we could tell  that there was definitely a buzz in the air and   there were a lot of people gathering at the town  square so of course we headed over to take a look   then we started to see the dancing and then then  we saw the flowers and the parades and all the   bright colors we had stumbled up onto some sort  of an indigenous festival now we had no idea what   they were celebrating at the time all we know is  that it was cool it was cool as it could be later   before i sat down to edit this video i did some  research online to try to find out more about   the event but i found very little this was truly  a small town local event the best i could find   is that it was a celebration of new beginnings  and a celebration of their cultural heritage   during the prayer portion of the event by the  shaman we could make out a few words they were   definitely giving thanks for the sun moon water  and earth they also called out specific animals   the condor and the puma i wish we could tell you  more but perhaps some things are best left unknown   i decided to leave this video footage as raw as  possible so that all of you could experience it   just like kurt and i did i hope you enjoy the  next few minutes because i know that we did is wow this so so so hey uh bye uh thank you well i would say that our last little bit  of time here in the actual city of mindo   was crazy cool that was an amazing thing  to stumble upon but it is now time to leave   the little town of mindo and head to the  outskirts where there are several bird lodges   and refuges and um we're hoping we have a couple  picked out and we're hoping we'll be allowed to   camp at one of them so we're headed that way but  we have to find a camp and where we're headed   there's a new kind of toucan isn't there kurt  there is and i'm not telling you guys about it   till we get there yeah yeah yeah so we're leaving  this amazing little town headed to the outskirts   where the really cool bird watching takes place  so let's go find a camp and then find some birds   all right we've turned off the main road headed  to a place called la paz refuge it's supposed to   be the best now we have no idea what they'll think  about letting us park our van out here they have   one two and three day package deals where you buy  the tour and they give you breakfast and you stay   in their lodge so we're freestyling and we're  hoping we can talk them into reduced price on   the package and let us sleep in our van because  everybody says this is where the good birds are one good sign when you have to pass a  bus like that if the bus can make it we   can make it so we continue on oh little  steep drop off right now yes there is   this road was a little bit more bumpy and  mushy and adventurous than we expected   but we should have known because  it isn't even on the google map   but i think i see the lodge area  ahead so i think we're almost there now kurt will have to go in and work his magic  magic man we'll see sometimes it's a little   tricky especially in places like this so let's  see how much room they have all right i don't know   i don't think so i think that's a house  better too i think we keep going i don't know okay we may have farther to go because  i think it was just a house that i saw   snow just told you this was a little  more adventurous than what we expected   and it's proven to be true and a couple things  as we come down through here we have a rock cliff   on our left side and then straight down on the  right and there's a bridge up here but we also   have to remember when we come back in these areas  we have to get out of them as well so so far we're   just taking it real slow being cautious but a  lot more tricky than we expected today for sure   sometimes the adventure it's just getting  there guys kurt thinks he sees a sign i hope so   vanna likes these slow bumpy curvy roads i  found a sign that gets you to the la paz cascada   i'm hoping the la paz bird refuge is in the  same area we haven't seen any signs for that   i'm starting to have flashbacks of when we were  in nicaragua oh no going to the finca we went   the entire wrong way we were looking across the  gorge at the fanca only to find out we were lost   well we'll see these roads always  take us to pretty places though wow okay kurt is up there working  his magic if they say yes we have   another issue we have to see if  we could fit underneath that gate looks like he's getting a lot of information   i can't really tell which way it's  going though what do you think buddy so that was andy and angel and basically this  is the restaurant okay so the hotel is up here   about five minutes anyway we got to go up there  and check but i think there you have a parkadera   we'll probably be able to stay in i think it'll  work out so let's go check it out let's go see all   right so we made it to the lodge area the first  place was the restaurant area here is the lodge   and uh we gotta see if we can park here right  over here i already see really cool birds all right we are in a cloud forest as you can see  by my glasses it's raining as it does mostly up   here but the cloud forest to me means capsules so  we saw quetzals in guatemala and we saw castles   in costa rica we're gonna see castles here i  hope but there are some of the most amazing birds   so there's more than just that we're gonna  show you guys but the important thing right now   is we have a good campsite it's level it's free  of course we're gonna pay for the bird tours   and we'll get more into that later but we've  got a nice place to stay and right outside   are some amazing birds so if you guys  will forgive me i gotta go look at birds   all right we have settled into our camp we  will be staying here this amazing bird refuge   miller wants to see my bike yes they want to  see the bike yeah yes we're going to let him   ride the bike you're going to see he's going to  ride the bike this is angel and como te llamas   miller miller and hell okay we are gonna leave  y'all right here we're gonna have some fun letting   these guys ride the bikes we're settled into  our camp we will see you in a few days where   we're gonna see some amazing birds cheers guys if  you like this video be sure to subscribe to our   channel and hit that notification bell so you guys  know when we put out new videos and don't forget   you can always follow us over on instagram to  see what's going on in between videos cheers guys

2022-04-29 21:35

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