Ecuador Manabi Day at the Ranch!

I went to my friend's ranch the other day, just outside of Portoviejo. What a place. It was about the size of Newcastle, a large city back home in the UK. The place is covered with trees, plants, and eye-catching beauty spots. This truly was paradise. 
The journey began by visiting my friend's family house, where they have the luxury of coconut trees, mango trees, and other fruits right on their doorstep! Who needs to go to the supermarket when you have all of this? 
After drinking the water from a coconut, by the way, It was time to head up the mountain in my truck with the Loor family.!

  
The roads were very steep and narrow, overlooking the cliff edge! Great views all the way to the top! 
When we got there, we said hello to the locals, who were very warm people. Before we ventured into the back of beyond, I had the opportunity to hold a few wild birds. 
I was amazed by the ranch as soon as we began walking through the forest. Senor Loor explained and guided me through the ranch, showing me what produce he has, what has been used and what is growing now! 

First I was shown the orange trees and banana trees, which we gathered a few bags of and tasted! Then I was shown the coffee plants at early stages and blooming stages, very interesting as I had never seen this before. Chocolate plants were then shown to me and a demonstration entailed sucking the outter pips, thus providing us with the beans. For the chocolate process to begin, pips must be dried out in the sun,as do the coffee beans. Pictures illustrate this.

COFFEE PLANT!

 Cacao plant!

It was quite hot up there and I was parched like everyone else was, so we headed further into the forest to find a pool of water which ran from under the ground. It was the best mineral water I had tasted and very cold!, rehydrating and feeling fresh. We headed for the sugar cane plants, ripped the bark off with a machete, then sucked the sugar from the plant. There was so much more to see ,but doing all of the above had been time consuming!
It was the best experience of my life to be able to do this mini adventure, which brought me as close to the Amazon rainforest as I will ever get! 

We loaded up the truck with the fruit we had picked and back down the mountain we went! 
If ever you come to Portoviejo and are interested in having the same experience as I had, we can arrange this for you. Even if you are not in it for the information on products, at least you will get some spectacular photos, and really appreciate where you are at that time!. My next entry will be another trip fishing in a pond SNAKE TERITORY!