CHOCOLATE from ​Placencia

Chocolate is happiness that you can eat.​

Learn cacao cultivation, chocolate making and the history and culture of chocolate in the Maya world and beyond, from 4,000 years ago to the present.

Ixcacao Chocolate see organically grown cacao trees, taste the fruit, sample Maya style hot chocolate and eat loads of amazing fine dark farm-to-table chocolate while you make your own from bean to finished product.  Located a 2 hour drive south of Placencia, in Toldeo district, Ixcacao Chocolate, a Kekchi Maya family business, is the country’s oldest Belizean owned chocolatier.

Che’il Chocolate is a micro-factory located in Maya Centre community, only an hour drive north of Placencia Village. You can get a great introduction to organic cacao farming and Maya style chocolate making in Belize’s world famous Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Preserve

Ixcacao Chocolate

• Ixcacao Chocolate & Lubaantun or Nim Li Punit Maya Site - $130 US per person 

Drive through Maya villages to Lubaantun or Nim Li Punit small and beautiful hilltop Maya sites famous for theirs carved stones covered with hieroglyphs.  Learn about the Maya history and culture. Then to Ixcacao Chocolate for a lunch with chocolate samples for dessert and the famous chocolate tour.
Depart: 8am - Return: 5pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Ixcacao Chocolate & Spice Tour - $130 US per person 

Combine a visit to Ixcacao Chocolate with a tour of the Belize Spice Farm. Touch and taste cardamom, vanilla, allspice, nutmeg and black pepper plants, learn about their origins, uses and how they are cultivated and processed. This tour is perfect for food lovers and those with limited mobility as little walking is required.
Depart: 8am - Return 5pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Ixcacao Chocolate & Waterfall Tour - $130 US per person 

Ixcacao Chocolate, Maya chocolatier.  See cacao growing on the tree and learn about its cultivation. Enjoy delicious chocolate samples. Then learn the process of making our own chocolate from bean to bar using heirloom stone tools. After cool off at a jungle waterfall. Swim, sunbathe and learn about the surrounding rain forest.
Depart: 8am - Return 5pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Ixcacao Chocolate & Zipline - $175 US per person 

Starts at Ixcacao Chocolate, then head north to the Maya Sky zipline, hidden in the Cockscomb Maya Mountains. 7 ziplines crisscrossing the rainforest ravine of Stann Creek. If we are lucky, we may spot toucans or even scarlet macaws!
Depart: 8am - Return 5pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Ixcacao Chocolate, Nim Li Punit & Belize Spice Farm - $145 US per person 

Longer excursion combines three activities. Start at Nim Li Punit, a small hilltop Maya site famous for its carved stones covered with hieroglyphs. Next, at Ixcacao Chocolate, Maya chocolatier. See cacao growing on the tree and learn about its cultivation. Enjoy chocolate samples then learn the process of making our own chocolate from bean to bar using heirloom stone tools. After the meal, explore the lush of the Belize Spice Farm where to learn about the origin and cultivation of spices including black pepper, vanilla and cinnamon.
Depart: 7am - Return 6pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Ixcacao Chocolate, Nim Li Punit & Waterfall - $145 US per person 

A longer excursion combines three activities in Toledo District. Start at Nim Li Punit, a small hilltop Maya site. Next, at Ixcacao Chocolate, Maya chocolatier. See cacao growing on the tree and learn about its cultivation. Enjoy chocolate samples and the process of making our own chocolate from bean to bar using heirloom stone tools. After lunch, cool off with at a beautiful jungle waterfall. 
Depart: 7am - Return 6pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Ixcacao Chocolate, Spice Farm & Waterfall - $145 US per person 

A longer excursion combines three amazing activities in Toledo District. Start at the Belize Spice Farm where will learn about the origin and cultivation of our favorite spices including black pepper, vanilla and cinnamon. Next, at Ixcacao Chocolate, Maya chocolatier. See cacao growing on the tree and learn about its cultivation. Enjoy chocolate samples and the process of making our own chocolate from bean to bar using heirloom stone tools. After lunch, cool off at a jungle waterfall. 
​Depart: 7am - Return 6pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

Che'il Chocolate

• Cheil Chocolate & Belizean Bitters - $130 US per person 

Learn about Belize’s most famous alcoholic beverage, from the jungle and farm to the bottle, rum and anise based bitters concocted with jungle herbs. Then to the bar to sample some and learn about the medicinal qualities of each plant. After lunch in Maya Centre Village will tour a local organic cacao farm and make our own chocolate from scratch using traditional stone tools at Che’il Chocolate!
​Depart: 8:30am - Return 4pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Che’il Chocolate Nibble - $65 US per person 

We head to Che’il Chocolate Company, a Mopan Maya business located in Maya Centre village. Where a short walk to an organic cacao farm to learn about how cacao trees are cultivated and (during harvesting season) to sample a ripe cacao fruit! Returning to Che’il’s headquarters we learn how to make our own chocolate using traditional Maya stone tools. While our chocolate is hardening we learn about the different products that Che’il Chocolate makes-from cacao tea to a range of chocolate bars. 
​Depart: 8am - Return 12pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Che’il Chocolate & Cockscomb Jungle Tour - $120 US per person 

Start with a hike through the tropical forest of the world’s only Jaguar Preserve (the Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve) to a refreshing jungle pool and waterfall. After lunch in Maya Centre Village will tour a local organic cacao farm and make our own chocolate from scratch using traditional stone tools at Che’il Chocolate!
​Depart: 8am - Return 5pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home, bathing suit and towel.

• Che’il Chocolate & Monkey River - $165 US per person 

Howler monkeys, manatees, cacao farms and chocolate making all in one day! Join Percy, King of the Howlers, as he takes you by boat on 40 minute ride through the mangrove estuaries to Monkey River Village, then up the Monkey River where you will see howler monkeys. Learn about medicinal plants, birds and the multitude of wildlife that live in the jungle, then a Belizean Kriol lunch. After watching manatees on the return trip, jump in a 50 minute ride to Maya Centre Village and Che’il Chocolate.
​Depart: 8am - Return 6pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes. Depart from Buba Wuba’s Smoke Shack
What to bring: walking shoes, also recommend wearing lightweight long pants, and bringing a long sleeve shirt to put on for the jungle hike, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate to take home.

• Che’il Chocolate & Rick’s Coffee Experience - $130 US per person 

Two of your favorite things, coffee and chocolate. Start with Rick the coffee guru in Placencia Village. Learn about the origins of coffee and the health benefits of coffee shrub. Participate in roasting and grinding, learn the art of brewing the perfect coffee and sample several different varieties. Finish the class with a taste of Rick’s hand crafted coffee liquor. Then drive onto the mainland and head to Maya Centre Village for a tasty tamales lunch followed by Che’il Chocolate’s farm and chocolate making tour.
​Depart: 10am - Return 6pm
Includes: transport, park entrance fee, lunch, taxes. 
What to bring: walking shoes, camera, sunblock, bug spray and extra cash to buy chocolate and coffee to take home.