Day 20 - Chocolate, Mango y Bamboo

We had an excellent breakfast at the farm where we were staying and Steve was very happy because, for the first time in Nicaragua, they brought an entire fresh pot of coffee on the table. It was very good local coffee! We even had local raw honey and natural peanut butter!

We left with our backpacks and stopped by the restaurant we had dinner the night before. This was the reception for our hostel for the night so we dropped our bags.

We then went to the most amazing place on Earth!!! A very small and artisanal chocolate factory! They have a very different method for their chocolate and make it from raw cocoa, which gives a very delicate and nuanced taste! And the most amazing and super important fact about this non traditional technique is that the chocolate doesn't melt!!! And it's not a joke! The little store had no fan or air conditioning and it was at least 30°C but the chocolate bars were all on the counter, not refrigerated… and they were very solid and ferm! I'm sure you can see me coming now!!! Of course I bought chocolate!!! And we also sat by the lake and enjoyed a chocolate, coffee and avocado milkshake. 

Now, it was time to go to the beach. A few days before, Vanessa and Mariette recommended us a nice and quiet place named Mango Beach so we drove there. I'm glad we followed their advice because it was beautiful! We had the view of the imposing and grandiose volcano Concepción and we had the beach to ourselves! The setup was cozy with a few chairs and tables right on the beach and a small restaurant. We spent the day there, had good chicken quesadillas, a few beers, swam in the lake.

Steve even helped fishermen extracting their net from the lake. 

I know he doesn't seem to work hard but just when I was taking the picture, the man asked Steve to stop pulling and wait. 

We left at the end of the day to get to the Punta Jesus Maria. Apparently, this narrow strip of sand was famous for its spectacular sunsets. I must say that the outlook was not as memorable as a sunset from the top of a volcano but it was charming. From the tip of strip of sand, we could see the volcano on one side and the sunset on the other side.

We drove back to the restaurant to get our backpacks and do our check-in. We had a super cool little house made of bamboo and palm leaves! It was perfect! And, surprisingly, we even had hot water!

We walked to a good restaurant nearby and had dinner and a good brownie on the patio. While eating, I saw a big tarantula walk by on the patio and leave.

Not too long after, I saw a second one not too far from Steve so he was a bit nervous because we kinda lost track of where it went. And just as we were having our last bite of brownie, I turned around and, right next to my head, on the wall, it was there… a few centimeters from my face! You've never seen someone get up so quickly! They say it's not dangerous but still!

We walked back to our hut and played dices. Youppi and I played together against Steve and, of course, we won!

We went to bed and prayed that we would not have tarantulas in our bed while sleeping! We had a mosquito net, not a tarantula net!