Tirimbina

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God”

            ~Psalm 40:3

We stayed at Tirimbina for a couple days.  The highlights were a couple hikes thorough the forest, swimming in a river, and eating chocolate (the fruit!).  Here are some pictures from the trip.

Conical bat tent - bats cut specific leaves to
make a tent that they use for shelter

Walking in the woods.  Richard, our resident bat expert,
is up in the front explaining the different
types of tents that bats make

Giant caterpillar (Sphingid moth)

Sketchy green bridge we had to cross like four times

Above the river that we floated in a jumped off trees into

Heather enjoying my camera

Ectophylla alba (in a boat tent in Heliconia)

Theobroma cacao

Pictured above is a chocolate tree.  The green pods grow directly on the trunk of the tree, which is known as cauliformy.  They turn bright orange as they ripen.  When cut open they reveal hard seeds covered in white, fleshy fruit.  To make chocolate, these seeds are fermented and roasted to make cacao, and then mixed with lots of sugar and milk and other things to form the chocolate that we all love.  The fruit around the seeds is very tasty as well!  And Heather and I collected a couple to potentially make into chocolate, but really just to eat and enjoy.

The basic chocolate making process

Heather with our chocolate fruit

It's kinds goopy