Oaxaca and Chocolate

Chocolate originates from Mexico and traditional recipes can be found all over the country. However, there is one state that has gained an international reputation for producing 'the real thing'. Oaxaca, in south-western Mexico, is where the true chocolate aficionados come. For many, it is the chocolate capital of the world. It is hardly surprising that it prevades so much of their local culture, while creating many tourist attractions in the region.

Human beings first settled in Oaxaca 13,000 years ago. Archaelogical evidence, from this time, earned the state the distinction of being the earliest known agricultural area in the entire continent. Guilá Naquitz cave, near Mitla, has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, on the strength of this. Just over 4,000 years ago, the tribes of Oaxaca started cultivating cacao trees, thus began their love affair with chocolate.



Though European style sweet chocolate is produced here, that is largely a sap for the tourists. Homegrown and perfected by millennia, traditional Oaxaca chocolate can seem quite bitter to the foreign palate. (So called 'Mexican chocolate' is usually that which comes from Oaxaca.) However, it is also heedy stuff. It's not simply a nice taste. It can cause a mild rushing sensation, that has been likened to how one feels after a passionate kiss with a loved one. It can also temporarily sharpen the mind, leading to clarity of thought. It's not coincidental that chocolate so often serves as a metaphor for the heat of romance.

Here the chocolate isn't normally made to be eaten in a block. It's an ingredient for mole or, even more commonly, it's to be turned into a hot drink. Traditionally, the cacao beans are roasted over a slow flame, then their shells are snapped off. The naked beans are then ground into a sticky paste, known as chocolate liquor (not to be confused with anything alcoholic).

Now other things are added to taste. These can famously include almonds, but also sugar, cinnamon, chilies or a raft of spices. Really only the imagination inhibits the adventurous chocolatier at this stage.

The result is a block of strong tasting chocolate. Pieces of this are broken off and added to hot water or hot milk (which depends upon personal preference; those serving it, in cafes or restaurants, will ask, "¿Con agua o leche?" ("With water or milk?"), and there is no right or wrong answer). The fragments of chocolate melt in there to form a beverage. A variation is champurrado. This is a corn-based hot drink (called an atole), which has been flavored with chocolate. It is delicious.

These are often served with buñuelos - a light, fluffy pastry - which has traditions all of its own.



The bowls were smashed afterwards to bring good luck to the person eating from them. Remember that chocolate was historically believed to have been delivered to humans by the God, Quetzalcoátl, and it was consumed only by priests and the nobility. Chocolate was meant to be sacred and therefore nothing should sully the bowl in which chocolate has been served.

For those who wish to have a go at cooking their own Mexican cuisine, then there are classes throughout the state.

One of the most popular is in the beautiful tourist resort of Huatulco. Chiles & Chocolate Cooking Classes, run by local brother and sister combo, Alfredo and Vero Patino, are a lot of fun. They have made it to number 11, in TripAdvisor's Top 25 attractions for the area.

For $65 USD per person, complete beginners can spend three hours learning how to create the most fabulous Mexican meals. The classes are relaxed, fun, informative, and hands on, so that everyone gets to feel the accomplishment afterwards. They are also given in English. (Alfredo Patino is Huatulco born and bred, but he did spend six years living in the USA and he does have a Canadian wife. His English is fluent.) The price includes lunch and drinks; while each student gets to take a recipe manual and a gift bag home with them.

Oaxaca is awash with stores and street vendors selling variations on their chocolate recipes. If you are a chocolate lover, then it is surely THE place in the world to visit.

Pristine Huatulco: The Pacific's Last Frontier

So much of Mexico's tourism focuses upon the 20 and 30 somethings, those looking for a party and stock souvenirs to spend their disposable income upon. Beyond that, it's the backpackers, the hikers and the bikers, who have a a vast wilderness of wonders to explore. Mexico has all of this and more. Yet there is another category of vacationers that has come under the spotlight of the National Trust Fund for Tourism Development: families. Beautiful Huatulco has been attracting parents, with younger children, for years. Now it is receiving the funding to encourage that.


Huatulco (pronounced wah-TOOL-co), in Mexico's deepest south, is about as far away from the violence of the US border towns as it is possible to get. It is down in the state of Oaxaca, right on the Pacific coast. In Mexico, it has a reputation as a quiet resort, which is none the less filled with fun. Its headlines are more to do with rare marine creatures glimpsed from the shore, than anything to do with crime.

While checking the news archives, for the purposes of writing this blog, I discovered a human interest comment. A Canadian man had been swimming in the ocean and had got into difficulties. Very quickly, two local men dived in after him and brought him safely to shore. That's about as dramatic as it gets in Huatulco.




Its official name, Bahías de Huatulco, refers to the fact that this resort is clustered around nine bays. (But you really would sound like a tourist, if you added the 'Bahías de' part. Huatulco will do.) Dotted amongst the bays are dozens of tiny, protected coves. There are over 30 glorious beaches, each with relaxing areas to lounge about, enjoying the sunshine in paradise.

There is the occasional group of Spring Breakers, but these tend to be those adventurous enough to break away from the hordes heading towards Cancun. Mostly your fellow vacationers will be parents with young families. This is a popular location for home-grown holiday-makers, so many of these will be escapees from the city, treating their children to some sublime beach action. Huatulco is full of child-friendly deals, including places where kids stay or eat free of charge.


Huatulco's ecological credentials are also very much intact. The original resort plans, dating from the 1980s, planned for accommodation for 10,000 tourists. Environmental groups immediately protested how this might damage the landscape. The architects heard their arguments and scaled back to cater for just 4,000. Keeping the population down, in an area that has historically had few human living upon it, has retained the pristine landscape and maintained a crystal clear ocean.

In addition to this, the environmentalists stayed on board to advise on other features. The result is that 70% of the resort is actually a nature reserve, while the developments within are eco-friendly. Huatulco was amongst the Mexican cities which switched its lights off for an hour, last Saturday, to mark Earth Hour. The event raised awareness of sustainability.


Huatulco, with all its local attractions and fun for all the family, is certainly a place to watch out for. Once the Cancun rites of passage are over, then the holiday romances will inevitably lead across the country onto the shores of the Pacific.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Sir Francis Drake

Francis Drake began life as a humble farmer's son, in 1540, Plymouth, England. He grew up to become one of the first sailors to circumnavigate the globe; and his piracy made him feared and loathed along the coastline of Mexico. There he was known as El Draque (The Dragon) for his reign of terror. It was not just ships that he attacked, but towns and cities too.

When he first set sail, in 1567, it was the young Drake who was traumatized. He was aboard his cousin's slave ship, when they were attacked by pirates in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa. After a four-day battle, the English lost all of their human cargo and one ship from their fleet; but Drake and his cousin, John Hawkins, both escaped. Those who had been captured were treated mercilessly by the pirates. Many were dead. It was all too much for Hawkins, who made this is last voyage. But a nautical life was only just beginning for Drake. It was a life filled with hatred towards all Spaniards and all Catholics. Drake was a Protestant; it had been an English Catholic Uprising which had forced his family off their farm, back home in Devon, England. Now it was Spanish Catholic pirates who had attacked their ship. Hawkins and Drake limped back to England in severe hardship, as they hadn't been left adequate rations to make their return voyage. They had dreamed of making their fortune in the slave trade, but now they had nothing. Drake wanted revenge.

Three years later, in 1570, Drake was given a commission by his queen, Elizabeth I, to sail back into the Caribbean and harry Spanish galleons. Hawkins had given him three ships and Drake had hired 70 men as his crew. They descended upon the Spanish colonies, attacked the ships and returned home with a vast wealth in gold and silver. In fact, there was 20 tons of the stuff and that was too much to carry on board their ships. Drake buried what he couldn't fit in his hold, but managed to take back the equivalent of millions of pounds worth. Elizabeth I was thrilled. However, she had just signed a peace treaty with the Spanish and so couldn't openly reward him.

Drake waited until 1577, when the political winds of change meant that he could sail out again with the queen's blessing. This time he took five ships and many more men, with the intention to sail down the coast of Africa before heading towards South America. A mighty storm, at Cape Horn, convinced most of his crew that they wanted to go home, but Drake's own ship carried on. Sailing on the Golden Hinde, Drake and his pirate crew terrorised Chile before heading north.

In 1579, they took a Spanish ship, Manila Galleon Cacafuego, off the coast of Peru. The cargo taken from its hold took four days to transfer to the Golden Hinde and was enough to pay off England's national debt at the time. He returned home in September 1580. Queen Elizabeth I was very pleased with him. She knighted him a year later. Drake immediately bought a manor house and became a member of parliament. His crew received nothing.





Elizabeth I commissioned Drake to sail into the Caribbean and raid all of the Spanish settlements along the coastline. Drake set off in 1585 and destroyed three Spanish towns, in Spain itself, before heading across the Atlantic Ocean. On New Year's Day 1586, the fleet reached Santo Domingo, in the Caribbean, and plundered of 25,000 ducats. They set off again, heading into Cartagena, where 110,000 ducats were taken. Then up to St. Augustine, in Florida (now USA), which was utterly destroyed.

In 1587, Drake was back in Europe. He entered Cadiz Harbour, in Spain, and proceeded to capture and sink 24 Spanish ships. A year later, the Spanish Armada sailed into English waters, in a bid to invade the country. Bad weather and bad luck stopped them. A mighty storm paused them north, always within sight of the coast, but never able to land, as that would mean sailing against the winds. Just when they'd crested the north of Scotland and were able to use the same winds to reach the shore, the weather changed. Now the same strength of storm pushed them south in the opposite direction. Many crashed on the coastline of Ireland. The remainder were harried all the way by an English fleet commanded by Drake. Even in British waters, he was not above piracy. He attacked the Spanish payship, the Rosario, and succeeded in taking off with her wealth.

Drake's piracy continued unabated. He persuaded his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, to return with him into the Caribbean in 1595. There they found that their luck had run out. The Spanish had fortified many of their coastal towns. Then fever struck aboard the ship. Hawkins died first then, on January 27th, 1596, Drake died of fever aboard his ship. His body was thrown overboard into the Caribbean Sea, at Portobelo, Colón, Panama.

* San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz: The place where Spanish pirates attacked Drake on his first voyage.

* Campeche: Drake raided the town twice during his pirate career.

* Hotel Francis Drake, Campeche: This hotel, named after the infamous pirate, can be found at Calle 12 No. 207 | Entre 63 y 65 Centro, Campeche C.P. 24000 For more information, please visit their website.

* Huatulco, Mexico: A port ravaged by Drake during his pirate days.