Miss the first El Silencio recap? Read that first!
Another highlight of the El Silencio Lodge portion of our honeymoon was a “cultural tour” that we took one of the afternoons. The tour was one of the activity options that El Silencio offered; Matt and I signed up on a whim after talking to some others about it on one of our hikes.
We piled into a truck to get to our first destination – Matt and I rocked the back. Fun!
We knew the cultural tour included lunch, but guess what ended up being our very first stop on the tour? A place that makes homemade moonshine. Hilarious.
There were 5 of us on the tour, but one of the girls was pregnant, so the other 4 of us took turns tasting the moonshine, which came from what looked like a bombed out shack. It was pretty epic.
From there, we headed on to lunch, slightly bleary-eyed. The tour guide brought us to his aunt’s house for lunch – how cool is that? I was really excited to try some real home cooking.
The front of her house is a little convenience store for locals, where her family sells fresh bread and some packaged/shelf stable foods.
The guide’s family (just like the guide himself) was really friendly – as were almost all Costa Ricans we met! Such a warm, kind culture. When we arrived, we headed into the kitchen – check out their beautiful view!
Plantains were already being fried in preparation for our arrival. Mmm!
And in the meantime, the guide’s aunt taught us how to make corn tortillas!
Apparently it’s REALLY easy: corn flour + water!
The corn/water mix ready to go:
We got to work rolling out the dough into thin tortillas, first by hand:
And then using this smushing device (that’s a technical term)!
And then they got heated! First on the flat area:
And then on this portion which puffed air into them:
By the time we were done, everything else was ready, too. Time to eat! On my plate, starting on the left and going clockwise, you’ll see: a corn tortilla topped with fried cheese and sausage, a potato casserole, rice and beans, fried plantains, yucca, and a piece of pork in the middle. Mmm…
It was all really good! To drink, we were served this hot drink which was apparently hot water + molasses – I guess Costa Ricans used to drink this a lot before coffee became more common!
What a fun day – it was great to get to experience a little of the local culture and the nearby town.
Stay tuned for more recaps – next I’ll be moving on to recaps from our stay in the Arenal Volcano area of Costa Rica!
how exciting and what a fun way to explore without doing typically “tourist-y” things.
hope you have a great time and can’t wait to see what else is in store for your travels.
be safe!
Is that moonshine called guaro? Because I have a pic of me making pretty much the same awful face when I tasted it in Costa Rica *shudder*. That stuff gives you insta-hangover! Your tour looks like so much fun! You can buy tortilla presses at most Mexican/Central American groceries, and the corn flour is just sold as “masa.” Whenever I miss Belize, I attempt to make some tortillas. Someday I’ll be as good as the Belizeans!
Haha yeah I think so! Shudder is right!
Looks like quite the experience! In a good way. When I was in college I worked for On The Border… making our tortillas weren’t quite like that. lol, I love the authenticity and that you guys didn’t stick to just tourist attractions. I think my husband and i would have done the same!
That looks like an amazing experience that you will never forget. Enjoy! :)
Great to see the pictures after hearing the story- moonshine sounds hilarious :)