August 2024 University of Manchester Returns to Macaw Lodge by Professor Amanda Bamford

University of Manchester

On Last June, I was lucky enough to return to Costa Rica and to Macaw Lodge to lead a group of 14 Biology and Zoology students and 5 academic staff from University of Manchester, UK,  as part of the University’s annual field course called ‘’Tropical Ecology and Biodiversity in Costa Rica’’. We always spend our first 5 days in Costa Rica at Macaw Lodge studying the  tropical plants and animals found on its extensive trails. By day, we went bird watching, carried out invertebrate surveys, went on flora walks and  finished off with a swim in the waterfall! By night, the staff gave lectures, and then we went bat detecting and on frog walks along the trails. Our group recorded over 467 species on iNaturalist during our 2 weeks in Costa Rica, an amazing number. We were excited to see up close many species at Macaw Lodge, including the lovely Purple-crowned Fairy hummingbird (Heliothryx barroti) which has a fascinating behaviour of nectar ‘robbing’ where it collects nectar by piercing the base of flowers. Also, we were transfixed by the many species of colourful dragonflies around the ponds including the brightly coloured Brilliant Redskimmer dragonfly (Rhodopygia hinei) right outside the Lodge. We had an inspirational talk by Pablo on the sustainability ethos underpinning Macaw Lodge combined with a cacao tour with chocolate tasting, which the students particularly enjoyed! I love visiting Macaw lodge every year and sharing it with my students. I look forward to our return next year and thanks everyone at Macaw lodge for making our stay so magical!

Chocolate Workshop from Root to Bar

At the beginning of July, Obie and Michelle of Insight Chocolate led their second farm to bar craft chocolate workshop at the Macaw Lodge and Macaw Kakau factory. The workshop participants experienced all aspects of craft chocolate, from learning about cacao’s place in agroforestry, to harvesting the fruit and fermenting the bean, to every step of the bean to bar chocolate making process.

The chocolate making portion of the workshop was held in the Macaw Kakau chocolate factory’s new classroom. This wonderful new facility allowed students to work in their own space, where they could experiment and practice at their leisure. 

Participants came from a variety of food related backgrounds including food scientist, baker, restaurateur and three IICCT (International Institute of Chocolate and CacaoTasting) certified tasters. The mix of perspectives and experiences greatly added to the class and the learning process, and Obie and Michelle learned a few new things as well! 

This year the workshop included 11 different chocolate tastings. The tastings were directly tied into the subject matter for each of the four days of the workshop, and allowed students to better understand each aspect of the chocolate making process. For instance, on the day we roasted, we tasted chocolate made with cocoa beans from the same origin and harvest, but with different roasting profiles. Then, on the last day of class, we all did a blind tasting of everyone’s chocolate, and tried to guess who the maker was. This proved to be a lot of fun and invited a lot of speculation and laughter.

We hope everyone who participated left as inspired and excited as we were by the experience. Obie and Michelle can’t wait to host the next workshop which is scheduled for April 7 – 12, 2025. If you are interested in joining this or another future chocolate making class, and bonding over the food of the gods, please contact Insight Chocolate at info@insightchocolate.com or Macaw Lodge at travel@macawlodge.com.

Alchemy of Sound Formación en Sonoterapia con Tapado Vargas y Ana Lucía Fariña