Gifts of the Earth
There’s a new tour in town. Reserving your spot comes with the comfort of knowing the experience will be remembered for all time. Guaranteed.
This tour is designed by a local group that focuses on responsible and sustainable tourism. It’s a strategic, non-profit organization we all know and love…want to guess? The tour is presented by our old friends and long-time community collaborators, Human Connections!
Along with their Bucerias Cultural Tour, you can now enjoy their newly launched, Gifts of the Earth Tour, highlighting the rich historical roots of agricultural in our region.
The earth gives so many gifts, everything from clay for ceramics, to cacao for chocolate.
A lovely start to the day at Ixi’im Vegano, a local vegan restaurant offering healthy choices in food and drink. (link below)
What to Expect
The tour group met at Ixi’im Vegano where we were treated to coffee, water, and sweets. Our hosts, Paco Guajardo, Executive Director, and Elly Rohrer, Board President and Founder of Human Connections, welcomed us, made introductions, and covered the theme of the day.
Paco explained, the earth provides an abundance of resources, and prior to tourism in the area it was actually rich in agriculture, the valley fertile from the waters of the Rio Ameca. This opportunity Human Connections provides will, through interactive participation, introduce you to people that feel a deep connection and appreciation for the land.
The significance of the earth’s bounties is an essential part of the roots and ancestry of the area’s history. Along with the economic sector of coastal tourism, farming and fishing are major sources of income in Nayarit, while the state also produces numerous agricultural goods, such as corn, tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, beans, coffee and medicinal plants.
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Let’s head into the heartland of the valley to meet the first partner, Francisco, at his workshop, Casa de Iguana Cerámica in Valle de Banderas.
Paco with a pet goat, Francisco and Elly, Francisco at the wheel
The Spanish conquistadors introduced the pottery wheel to Mexico, paving the way for future artists to create intricately detailed pieces of art and unique dishware.
Francisco has always been creative and while watching a program on television, for the first time he saw someone using a pottery wheel. He was hooked on the idea. At the age of seventeen he left Bucerias for Guadalajara and Tonola, where he apprenticed under a Master Ceramicist for one year. Francisco returned to his home and started his own business, producing his beautiful pieces for the past twenty-five years.
As a tour participant, we were invited to get our hands dirty with clay that Francisco prepares after collecting it from a nearby riverbed. The clay goes through a procedure Francisco has perfected over many years, naturally processing it over a three to four month period, resulting in extraordinarily smooth clay, perfect for his high standard of quality work.
Francisco Explains the Clay Processing Area
With Francisco giving step-by-step instruction, we each made our own clay bowl using a method of rolling out the clay by hand and shaping it into a bowl, layer by layer. As you may know, the clay bowls need to spend numerous hours in one of Francisco’s five kilns, so instead, the tour group was treated to a previously handcrafted bowl as a gift to take home. Nice touch!
…and on to our next stop…
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Planeta Cacao
We arrived at this welcoming and open-aired business and were met with cold drinks on a very warm day. A certain calm and quietness permeates throughout this naturally beautiful green space.
As a group, we were led along a colourful and educational path, filled with detailed art and written stories of the history of chocolate. Chocolate has been cultivated in Mexico for thousands of years. Without any sweetness, later added by the Europeans, chocolate was originally served as a bitter drink, used in rituals, and dispensed as a medicinal remedy.
The seeds of the cacao beans were once believed to be so valuable, they were used as currency!
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The tour provides various interactive activities, where participants might be asked to “cook” the cacao beans, remove the light skins, grind the beans, grind the beans again, and grind the beans once more for good measure! The result? A kind of chocolatey batter ready for making your own sweet treat, which we each did, of course!
The art of making homemade chocolate cookies, literally from scratch!
Next, we were treated to a delicious lunch of different sopes, salad and rice, prepared by our talented presenters. It was a wonderful opportunity for plenty of chatter, laughs, and getting to better know our tour mates, as well as talk with the owners and staff of the chocolate factory to learn their fascinating background. As a matter of interest, this successful enterprise, Planeta Cacao, is owned and managed by an all-female team.
Planeta Cacao also showcases their chocolate goods for sale in their shop, same location. These ladies produce their own chocolates and chocolate products, and self-package in beautifully designed labels.
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Thank you, Human Connections, not only for providing a wonderful day, but also for the important work you stand behind in connecting the cultural heritage with visitors, and for recognizing the value of educating others in achieving sustainable tourism in our area.
