Well, Hello there, here is another update from Munchkin and Gnome.  You see, I feel a bit sheepish because I forgot my camera for the Choc Fest (well, you know…there was so much stuff to pack into boxes, packed lunch and icy water…the camera was the last thing on my mind).  Firstly, thanks to Alisa Atkinson and Tati for sharing the booth with us this year.  We had a great time stuffing ourselves with their croissants and muffins and enjoyed their company very much.

This year, the fair was set up a bit differently since the town council were organising it.  The stalls were packed on both sides of Front Street .  Most of the stalls were not designated and so in the morning, it was first come, first served.  Luckily, we found a place with a breeze from the sea so that helped with the dry season heat.  As Gnome has said in the past:

“…Cacao Fest is always the hottest day of the year!!”

The fair started at 9am and ran on until 5pm (Saturday).  The Wine and Chocolate was Saturday night instead of Friday this year.  Because of this timing difference, we thought that the morning crowd was smaller; it was mostly made up of  incidental tourists and Punta Gorda locals.

One thing happened that was really quite funny (maybe not funny for the people involved!!).  I hope that I can describe it well so that it makes up for the lack of photographs.  Late in the morning, three young Belizean girls came up to our stall dolled up to the nines with cute little skirts and  heels.  They were ooohing and ahhhing…at first I thought that they were complimenting us on our chocolate soaps…but, then it actually sounded like whining.  Their beautiful bare legs were covered in bug bites and all three of them in unison stared woefully down at their bitten legs and then looked at the glowing container of “Copal Ointment for rash and itch.”

They pointed at that tin and uttered in feeble tones:

“…we want that…”

As soon as they received the Copal Ointment, they whipped the top open and dug right into the container…each one of them desperate to calm the itch on their legs.  Oh, the poor girls!!  There was more oooohing and ahhhing in front of me but this time I sensed more of a relief in their tone.  Crisis over, they thanked me and went on their way.  Afterwards, Gnome said to me:

“…that was perfect advertising for us…a shame we couldn’t get a picture!!”

We left the fair early afternoon to go home for a rest before attending the Wine and Chocolate.  Yes, we did go this year…

(Incidentally, we were both at the the Very First Cacao Fest 2005.  I ended up the kitchen cooking all night and Gnome got roped into pouring wine.  That’s another story for another day!!  But, never again!!)

It was nice to get out and get dressed up.  It is certainly quite a job to try to get out of the farm without covering your good clothes in sticky burrs and mud.  Nonetheless, we managed with a few passing pecks from the geese of course!!  Much wine was drunk and we had a good evening together socialising.  Good to get out once in a while…