Nothing like Tejate on a hot day!

When we came down from the hill last Thursday there was an awesome treat waiting for us. Pedro, our night watchman, came down with us for a refresco, and so we imagined his esposa was there with some soda or water. Much to our surprise she had this whole rig set up to serve a traditional drink called tejate, similar to atole in that it is a maize drink but more watery, cold (yes!), and with flor de cacao (not the actual cacao flower), fermented cacao beans, and mamey pits--though of course each household has it's own variation.

And like atole, it is a bit of an acquired taste--and thankfully its something I have tried before--but its quite good and really awesome on a hot day when you've just descended down a hill all sweaty and stinky. I drank at least 2 bowls of the stuff. And the foam on top is not hard at all but very soft and is a result of the flor de cacao floating to the top. Anyway, the picture below is of some of the crew--those who were there by the time los jefes and I got down--drinking our tejate. Credit for the photo goes to Linda Nicholas.

From left to right: Rolando, la esposa de Pedro, Pedro, Juana, myself, Gary and Chevo.