After a good night’s rest it was up again at 6am to meet Peter, a student from the Yachana High School. He and his family had invited us to their community for the day, so we hopped aboard another canoe and headed down river to Colonia Babahoyo. After being introduced to Peter’s family and given a demonstration of how to prepare cocada (a sweet dessert made from grated coconut) Peter and his brother gave us a tour of the community and the surrounding swamps and rice fields. We picked fruits and ate coconuts on the way back to the house where we were taught to make chocolate – something we had all been eager to learn! We sat together round a fire toasting, peeling and grinding cacao beans amongst the pigs and chickens under Peter’s house, trying not to be distracted by the delicious smell of what was to be the best meal of the whole expedition! Peter’s mother had prepared a four course meal of traditional hot chocolate, plantain patacones with mayonnaise, curried chicken and rice, spinach, salad, some amazing cheese-filled mashed yuca cake thing, cocada for dessert and a steady flow of fresh lime juice – AMAZING!!

That evening back at camp we had a farewell pub quiz in honour of Anna, one the EMs, who left on Thursday to spend a week teaching at the Yachana High School. We split into four teams, each team providing their own round of 12 questions. The rounds included questions on Facts, Film, Filth and Far Flung Places, and with no research materials available, it was amazing to see the amount of useless information we actually all knew! After a healthy serving of competition and a lot of laughs we said our final farewells to Anna and headed to bed.