Not a hundred percent certain, but presumably by accident we turned off the main road to find a "bush" camp (no toilet facilities available) and we stumbled upon a government sponsored cocoa propagation plantation.
At first, I was certain the owners would kick us of the property. In the U.S., they would. But our group leader asked the manager of the plantation if we could camp out for the night and we'd leave in the morning. He was more than happy to host us. We set-up our truck and tents outside his house where he allowed us full access to his toilet and bucket shower facilities.
In the morning, the manager provided us with a tour of the cocoa propagation process. Cocoa plants are propagated here and distributed for free to farmers in the area wishing to grow cocoa.
Cocoas seedlings waiting to be distributed to the local growers.
Cocoas growing. We tasted some. The fruit when ripe is very sweet.
Drying out the cocoa seed for planting.
Papaya trees are planted amongst the young cocoa seedlings to provide shade when just starting out.
Banana trees also provide shade for the young cocoa seedlings.
No comments:
Post a Comment