Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

We had an incredible day today. We had originally planned to visit the volcano today but when we woke up it was quite cloudy and they were calling for possible showers. Since it’s going to be a challenge to get the kids to hike the trail we figured we would wait and hope for better weather since we have a few days. We had seen signs for a chocolate tour only a couple of kilometres from our place so we decided to check that out.

The chocolate tour did not disappoint. We were taken around the family plantation and fed all kinds of different fruit as we went along – star apples, soursop (it tastes like ice cream!) papaya, pineapple and starfruit. We saw mangoes, avocados (that grow to 2+lbs!) ginger, taro, rubber plants, bananas, breadfruit, chilies, coconuts and peppercorns. The kids got to juice a sugar cane and drink the juice.

The third stage of the tour is where we saw all of the cacoa trees. Turns out chocolate grows in these huge cocoon like things that turn from green to purple to yellow. When you crack it open there’s just milky white goo with seeds inside. They then showed us the process of turning the white goo with seeds into chocolate which of course included a taste test.

We went back to our house for afternoon nap where we caught a glimpse of the volcano

We decided for the rest of the day to visit Los Logas Resort on a day pass and relax in the natural hot springs. The heat from the volcano looming in the background makes the pools about 38 degrees. We splashed around for a few hours while Charlie enjoyed the water slides. Our day pass also got us supper so we feasted at the buffet before heading home.

Normally this would be more than the end of the day for us. That’s two pretty jam packed activities. Turns out we were wrong. We got back to our house to find out we had been robbed. Someone had broken in while we were gone and taken our computer, iPad (also known as our sanity), Jacob’s backpack, my hair straightener and all of Nora’s diapers. Thankfully the thieves had a conscience and chucked our passports back in the house before the took off.

Surprisingly this is the first time we have ever had anything stolen while traveling and I’d have to say it stinks. It’s not so much the stuff, although I’m really going to miss that iPad entertaining our children, but it was really scary. They really didn’t manage to steal that much – we had no money in the house, no credit cards and we still have our passports – there was definitely a moment of utter panic when I thought those were gone. The problem is now though we no longer feel safe where we are staying. We quickly messaged our hosts who were possibly more upset than we were, packed up all of our stuff and booked ourselves into another place. We settled in around 10:00. The kids were upset and confused about why someone would steal our stuff – and why we had to move but overall they handled it fairly well. I feel incredibly lucky that we didn’t come home while they were there, that our passports are still with us and that no serious harm was done.