Who doesn’t like chocolate? While I am quite indifferent, occasional chocolate indulgence is something I enjoy. That day, I got to visit an interesting eco-park where I got to see the “roots” and where the cocoa comes from.

Prior to this visit, I had barely seen any cacao trees. In fact, I was wondering if I could see coffee farms since the area is known for its special coffee plants called Excelsa. It’s a hybrid coffee that is quite rare and I am a lot more interested and invested in that than cacao.

Somehow, my mom told me that she saw coffee trees around as the car passed by a place called “Banyu Mili” which translates as “ stream”. That place is apparently an eco-tourism in the area. Since I wanted to take a walk around the area and hunt for sweet coffee cherries, we were in for a surprise.

Our car got stopped by the ticketing lady and we had to pay around $3 for the four of us. It’s all included with the parking and she just assumed all of us would go down and explore the area. As soon as I got down, I kept looking for coffee trees but I ended up seeing a lot more green shell-like fruit hanging and there are many of them in the place.

“ oh, that’s cacao!” my mom pointed out to the greenish fruit that was hanging low.

“ So, where’s the coffee tree?”
“ I am guessing somewhere? But whe are already here, so let’s just take a walk and find the stream”

A lot of the tourism in the area is basically built atop of the hill and then goes down to the stream. This place was no different, we had to hike down to check out the stream filled with rocks.

Along the way there are many cacao trees with its fruit that some are ripe and some aren’t. There are also chairs and tables made from recycled materials and some are from cements.

Since the parking area is in the highest ground, to reach the stream side, we have to go down a few stairs and along the way there are couple of vegatation and especially plenty of cacao groves.

While some are still green, some are already ripe and it's ready to be harvested. I don't think they have chocolate factory or business around but it's actually a potential itself. I saw many cacao farm also integrates a chocolate factory and giftshop. Basically, in that place it's all galore of cacao. I am sure they also don't mind if you pluck or two for home.

They also have this sign that basically leads to the river, the children's area and the latern place. There's like Chinese gate and paper latern around the area too. I am not sure why they're doing that but keeping it simple just as eco-park would have suffice.

With the amount of mini hikes and walk, it was like an exercise itself. The only thing that makes it different is that it's pretty far away from home.

I also spotted this ripe cacao just before the stream. I am sure this one if fermented can be made into delicious hot chocolate. I learned that it takes about a week to ferment the cacao seeds before it turns into cacao nibs then crushed it into powdered chocolate.

The sound of the water was pretty calming to hear. It made a great background noise and had it not been because of the army of mosquitoes, I would have enjoyed it more.

It was around 8:30 Am when we were there. The place was still empty and only sellers prepped their snacks and food before more visitors arrived. Pro tip from me, I think it’s always nicer to come early at a place compared to the middle of the day. It’s like nobody is around and we have the whole place to ourselves. This works especially on the weekend. But in general, I prefer going when it’s the weekday.

Since it is the rainy season, the stream is actually a nice spot to visit but there’s also caution because sometimes, there’s sudden flow from the upper side which makes it a little bit more dangerous. I explored a little bit before mosquitoes attacked. The stream is also surrounded by lush plantation. While it’s not as enchanting as Pine Hill, it makes you feel like you’re inside the jungle getting lost. I even remembered the line from this movie that basically, “ the jungle can’t hear your scream”, something along the line.

There are hobbit houses around the area. I recalled hobbit houses were pretty common back in the day and this place has it too. I didn’t really hike up because it was already almost 9:30 and I had an appointment in about an hour. So, I just took the picture from below before finding my way out of the place

It’s unfortunate that the place isn’t entirely well-maintained. Considering the entrance fee, they definitely could do better. They could have just cleaned the place, provided more things to see than just the cacao. Although I also saw sheep and some livestocks a further away. Perhaps it was me, who didn’t really explore the place as much as others would in the place.

My favorite place is definitely the stream. Although I was also a little cautious just in case, there are river snakes and/or poisonous snakes. At the same time,I couldn’t even find the coffee trees but just a bunch of vegetation and even unique ones that you can see below. It kinda looks like worms.

Hope you guys like the pictures & see you soon!