"I would say... for the farmers we're working with, [for] eighty percent of them cacao is the most important income solution, but for zero percent it's their only income."-Jan Schubert, Conservation Leader at Original Beans Chocolate Jan Schubert …
Ecuador
The 12 Rising Stars of Craft Chocolate
To whomever actually reads the introduction, in many ways this is a list of places I want to travel to in the near future (a few of which I've already been to). But this is mostly an article for you, the reader, who visits this site for insight into …
Ecuador Travel Tips: 29 Things to Know Before You Visit
Unsurprisingly, my friends who told me that I would fall in love with Ecuador were right. At the time I wrote this I was sitting in the Quito airport, mentally preparing to leave the remarkable country of Ecuador, and readying for a whole new culture …
Robbery in Gringolandia
The strangest thing is that I was thinking, right before it happened, that I should have tried harder to convince my parents to come to dinner with me. They should probably eat again, and it's dangerous to be out alone at night. So here I recount a …
Eco-Tourism Guide to Mindo, Ecuador
If you had wandered into the town of Mindo just 15 years ago, you would never have seen advertisements for canyoning or chocolate tours. The infrastructure simply did not exist back then. However, over the past several years, the town just two hours …
Coffee Farming: Ignorance Can Be Bliss
America's coffee obsession is paying off in groves… hundreds of groves. I miss not knowing where my food comes from. I miss the blissful ignorance of sitting in a cafe, being only vaguely aware that coffee comes from a tropical tree, …
Meet Your Maker: José Meza of Mindo Chocolate
Last month when I was visiting Mindo, Ecuador, I had the luck of running into José Meza, one half of the chocolate power couple behind Mindo Chocolate. I was so nervous about approaching him that I psyched myself up all afternoon, but it was all for …
Sommelieres and Wine Tastings in Ecuador
Did you know that Ecuador has a thriving viticulture sector? I certainly didn't realize this until last month, when I met a man in the cafe who started me talking on chocolate (surprise, surprise), and ended up with my email address and website name. …
23 Photos of San Cristobal: Galapagos Islands in Just 5 Days
The best way to explain the stunning beauty of San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos is to show it to you. Even the best cameras remain unable to capture the isle as well as my memory has, but who would I be if I didn't try? Below is a visual …
Budget Guide To San Cristobal Island, Galápagos
Even if you only have a few days to explore the Galapagos, there's no reason you can't make the most of it. If you carefully choose what to do, where to eat, and where to stay, those few days of memories will be guaranteed to last a lifetime. So come …
