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The Art of the Deal · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Okay, it's Monday morning, the day of the Big Oaker,
0:15
Speaker 1: a police sting operation on the trunky dodcalfeeves. So I'm
0:24
Speaker 1: gonna walk out to stretch of roadside where the bikes
0:30
Speaker 1: stand to park, and we'll see what's happening, if there
0:32
Speaker 1: are any cacalfee is operating today, and if the police
0:36
Speaker 1: are doing anything more soon. So funny story, it's and
0:52
Speaker 1: I'm in Bolivia at try and Kila Dad Volker Lehman's
0:55
Speaker 1: Wild Cows Day in the Jungle, Good morning. I have
1:01
Speaker 1: not slept that deeply in years, I think, did you?
1:09
Speaker 1: It's crazy dreams, crazy dreams, crazy dreams. Yes, Vulcar's back.
1:17
Speaker 1: He burned out on cocao and left the country bankrupt
1:20
Speaker 1: and bitter, but he couldn't stand to stay away any longer.
1:26
Speaker 1: The game had changed and for the better. The new
1:29
Speaker 1: wave of craft chocolate makers was willing to pay more
1:32
Speaker 1: than ever before for really great beans. The bean too
1:35
Speaker 1: bar movement. It's more than chocolate making, it's really exploring
1:40
Speaker 1: new horizons. So he came back to Bolivia with a
1:44
Speaker 1: new plan. Restore Try and Kilodad, transform it into a
1:48
Speaker 1: state of the art demonstration center for wild cacao and
1:51
Speaker 1: concentrate on quality instead of volume. That sounded great to me,
1:56
Speaker 1: But there's just one catch. Actually there's a lot of
1:59
Speaker 1: cats is, but this is the most present. The situation
2:02
Speaker 1: started developing a few days ago. Each day, people who
2:07
Speaker 1: live near try and kill a DoD ride their motorbikes
2:10
Speaker 1: into the coca dres and spend the day picking and
2:12
Speaker 1: opening pots. I try my hand at the harvest to
2:16
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, the pickers ride out and drop off
2:18
Speaker 1: the beans. Volker weighs the beans on an ancient scale
2:23
Speaker 1: and hands them cash. Then he and his team sort
2:26
Speaker 1: through the slurpy beans, kicking out it's gunk, and begin
2:29
Speaker 1: the long process of fermenting and drying. Have you done
2:33
Speaker 1: for pod? No perquilo herquila? Yeah? Beans? No, but you
2:39
Speaker 1: have to present me a bag with the beans, and
2:43
Speaker 1: then I can tell you how we weigh them and
2:46
Speaker 1: how much do I get pequila? Um, the quilo will
2:50
Speaker 1: be almost one dollar? All right? I think I earned
2:54
Speaker 1: about a dollar. To oh, I got a dollar. I
2:58
Speaker 1: timed my visit to coincide with peak Hartist. But after
3:01
Speaker 1: several days of picking, Bulker isn't liking what he's seeing.
3:04
Speaker 1: It is scratch will be cloned down. It's not so
3:08
Speaker 1: easy animal. He's getting about two kilos of beans per day,
3:14
Speaker 1: and he'd like to be getting twice that. On a
3:16
Speaker 1: good year, Tranquila Dad can produce about five tons of cacao,
3:20
Speaker 1: and this year is looking super light, even though conditions
3:23
Speaker 1: have been good. So each day as the light harvest
3:26
Speaker 1: comes in, Bulker gets increasingly quiet, and after a particularly
3:31
Speaker 1: light day, he says, let's go for a ride. So
3:35
Speaker 1: we hop in his antique truck, Dodge power Wagon, classic
3:41
Speaker 1: and indestructible. Back before this part of Olivia had rhods,
3:49
Speaker 1: this was how Vulker got his cock out to market,
3:51
Speaker 1: tooling over the grasslands during the dry season in his
3:54
Speaker 1: power wagon, sacks of cocao in back. Now we take
3:58
Speaker 1: it down the red dirt road a couple of miles
4:00
Speaker 1: to the other side of tran kilodat far from the
4:02
Speaker 1: entrance game. I wasn't sure why Bulker brought me on
4:05
Speaker 1: this field trip, but now I understand. Motorbikes are stashed
4:09
Speaker 1: in the weeds all along the barbed wire fence that
4:12
Speaker 1: marks the property line. The fence is bent open in
4:15
Speaker 1: multiple spots, and from each a well established trail heads
4:19
Speaker 1: into the forest intruders. But are these guys also getting
4:24
Speaker 1: her kickclfeves they're sneaking into tryan kilodat each day, picking
4:30
Speaker 1: Vulker's cow and carning it off to a competitor. Vulgar says,
4:34
Speaker 1: it's happened before and he tamped it down, but the
4:38
Speaker 1: problem has flared up again. So basically, if you if
4:41
Speaker 1: you retaliated and along too or three fours. Yeah, if
4:45
Speaker 1: I retendiate, they suddenly intenpiating and they are in majority
4:54
Speaker 1: five six. He hops out of the truck and starts
4:59
Speaker 1: now think photos of the bikes, So I hop out
5:02
Speaker 1: to I just want to keep uh these show. Yeah.
5:07
Speaker 1: We briefly float the idea of waiting for the thieves
5:09
Speaker 1: to emerge with the woods red handed, and we quickly rejected.
5:14
Speaker 1: I cannot come front five young young, young guys getting
5:19
Speaker 1: angry at hell because I I go through the system,
5:21
Speaker 1: I go through the police and ask him please do
5:24
Speaker 1: something till Stephen monca what you're gonna do? And if
5:31
Speaker 1: you think that is going to be straightforward, well then
5:35
Speaker 1: you haven't been paying attention from Kaleidoscope and i Heeart podcasts.
5:40
Speaker 1: This is obsessions wild chocolate. I'm Roman Jacobinson, Chapter seven,
5:47
Speaker 1: The Art of the Deal. Wow. I had like Bedlock
6:20
Speaker 1: for at least twelve years. You don't know. You know,
6:29
Speaker 1: there's a there's a blues. You know. If they weren't Bedlock,
6:35
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have luck at all. I don't know. It's
6:41
Speaker 1: morning in Tranquila. Dad and Vulker and I are supposed
6:44
Speaker 1: to be out in the coal forest, but once again
6:47
Speaker 1: it's boring, So we're hanging in his screenhouse while he
6:50
Speaker 1: tells me why he came back to take one last
6:52
Speaker 1: shot at his masterpiece and maybe even save his favorite place.
6:58
Speaker 1: I always kept my self contilda. I always kept it
7:03
Speaker 1: out of you know. I never mingled it too much
7:07
Speaker 1: into to all of this why right, because it was
7:11
Speaker 1: mine and I wanted to protect it. When the bankruptcy
7:15
Speaker 1: lawyers were circling like vultures, Try and Kilo DoD was
7:18
Speaker 1: the one thing we managed to keep out of their talents.
7:21
Speaker 1: Were you worried what it was gonna look like when
7:23
Speaker 1: you got back? When I came back, I was crying.
7:26
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, it's I have to start all
7:29
Speaker 1: over again. When I came here was a paper and
7:34
Speaker 1: and garbage all over the place, and I always terrible.
7:39
Speaker 1: I was close to sixty a long time for me.
7:43
Speaker 1: Five years is a long time being sixty, and not
7:47
Speaker 1: because I thought, a yeah, maybe in two years I
7:49
Speaker 1: will retire. Um. Then I realized that I have to
7:53
Speaker 1: start again. And did that seem daunting? Oh? Yeah, that
8:01
Speaker 1: was um And and then it creeped into my mind.
8:05
Speaker 1: And if that fails again, then what what? And did
8:11
Speaker 1: I achieved? Now the emotional turmoil and financial misery, there
8:20
Speaker 1: had been some bright spots. He'd put a brand new
8:23
Speaker 1: idea into the world. The chocolate had been recognized as
8:26
Speaker 1: some of the best of all time, and the chocolates Halle's.
8:29
Speaker 1: The wild cow forests were now permanently protected. Bulker actually
8:33
Speaker 1: helped write the regulations most important of all. By proving
8:37
Speaker 1: the greatness of wild chocolate, he'd helped to spur a
8:39
Speaker 1: global treasure hunt. The US was now full of bean
8:42
Speaker 1: to bar chocolate makers eager to get their hands on
8:45
Speaker 1: great beans with unique flavors and prices and sword so
8:50
Speaker 1: he had a new plan. Instead of chasing forty five
8:53
Speaker 1: tons of beans across half of Bolivia each year like
8:56
Speaker 1: he used to do, he could just make a few
8:58
Speaker 1: times of the most deliciou just pcao imaginable, and that
9:01
Speaker 1: would be enough to keep trying to kill it out
9:03
Speaker 1: a flood. Last year, I um, I got some money
9:08
Speaker 1: out of savings and I put put it all on
9:14
Speaker 1: Zero's so this better work. He went for it, spending
9:23
Speaker 1: every sn he had to build a new solar powered
9:25
Speaker 1: fermentation center and to use it to produce the world's
9:28
Speaker 1: most perfectly fermented beans. So he spun the wheel and
9:32
Speaker 1: prayed Zero would come home. So there was my last coin.
9:36
Speaker 1: So I put my last con on it and you
9:39
Speaker 1: and it hit. Zero explained that yeah, last year I
9:45
Speaker 1: could make ten tons and has sold it for the
9:49
Speaker 1: best price ever. That set him up for great The
9:53
Speaker 1: fermentation center was paid for. If he could just make
9:56
Speaker 1: another ten tons this year and sell them at top dollar,
9:59
Speaker 1: he be golden. Now, normally Volker could do ten tons
10:05
Speaker 1: of cocaw and his sleep, And that's kind of what
10:08
Speaker 1: I thought. I was showing up for a victory lab
10:10
Speaker 1: of sorts. To finish my foura into wild chocolate. We
10:13
Speaker 1: picked a cow, cracks and beers, maybe fry another crocodile. Instead,
10:19
Speaker 1: things have gone haywire on multiple fronts, which is why
10:22
Speaker 1: instead of a victory lab. I'm going to spend a
10:24
Speaker 1: lot of this episode sucking dust on Bolivia's horrendous back roads,
10:28
Speaker 1: chasing new supplies for starters. There's the cocao that's disappearing
10:33
Speaker 1: out the back of Try and Kilodat. Volker was counting
10:36
Speaker 1: on Try and Kilodat for four or five tons, and
10:39
Speaker 1: now it looks like he'll be likely to make two.
10:41
Speaker 1: Normally that wouldn't be a problem either. Wolker used to
10:44
Speaker 1: source fifteen tons a year from the other chocolate Talis
10:47
Speaker 1: and Bowres. But what I suggest that we just go
10:51
Speaker 1: hit up his old contacts, He says, Actually it's complicated.
10:55
Speaker 1: The town council and Bowres just passed a new law
10:58
Speaker 1: banning anyone ouse side of the town from buying fresh
11:02
Speaker 1: bow raised beams. And Try and Kiloda is just across
11:05
Speaker 1: the river in the town of Wakaraje, so he's been
11:09
Speaker 1: cut off. At first, that didn't make any sense to me.
11:15
Speaker 1: Why would they cut off their number one buyer? And
11:18
Speaker 1: when I prod Vulcar, he kind of hems and haws.
11:21
Speaker 1: But then as we're driving to Wakarraje, he confesses I
11:26
Speaker 1: am actually the the person who triggered it because I
11:32
Speaker 1: was in this chat group in What's Up. It was
11:36
Speaker 1: a technical group of Bolivian cocau professionals, and if you've
11:40
Speaker 1: ever been a part of a chat group, you know
11:42
Speaker 1: there's always somebody who asked to stare at the pot.
11:45
Speaker 1: And in this group you can probably guess who that
11:48
Speaker 1: somebody was. I posted photos all almost green pots, and
11:58
Speaker 1: I I wrote, um, you know, this is how it
12:02
Speaker 1: is when there is no control. Basically, he had new
12:06
Speaker 1: competitors that were buying cacao that wasn't even ripe yet,
12:09
Speaker 1: and so the KO was getting harvested too early, which
12:12
Speaker 1: was screwing things up for people who were waiting to
12:14
Speaker 1: buy until it was ripe. People like him now. And
12:18
Speaker 1: I made a comment, you know, fifteen years of you
12:21
Speaker 1: now working with mngos and everything and nothing, you know,
12:26
Speaker 1: no control nor no organization about it. They got this,
12:32
Speaker 1: he bet they did. He just publicly flamed the proudest
12:36
Speaker 1: cacao town o Bolivia for having terrible quality control and
12:38
Speaker 1: in apt management. Sometimes Hebrew spites back. And then a
12:45
Speaker 1: lady said in the in the chet group, I will
12:50
Speaker 1: make sure that this guy will not get any means
12:55
Speaker 1: out of bowders. Yeah, So in a matter of days
13:04
Speaker 1: his two main sources of cacao have evaporated and the
13:07
Speaker 1: season is moving along fast. So instead of peacefully picking
13:11
Speaker 1: to cow pods in the forest, I find myself riding
13:13
Speaker 1: shotgun in Vulgar's land cruiser as we rack up the
13:16
Speaker 1: miles tunneling back into a cow underground and his own paths.
13:26
Speaker 1: I mean. The first buyer we visit in Wakaraya used
13:29
Speaker 1: to sell the vulcar years ago, but he says he
13:33
Speaker 1: doesn't think there's a bunch of cacao out there this year.
13:35
Speaker 1: The season is a bit of a dud. Yikes. But
13:39
Speaker 1: our next stop, a guy named Ideal who lives out
13:42
Speaker 1: in the sticks, says, no, there's a coo out there.
13:45
Speaker 1: You just have to know the right people, and Vulkan
13:48
Speaker 1: and I have a strong sense that Ideal is the
13:52
Speaker 1: right people. And surprise, surprise, After a lot of chip chat,
13:56
Speaker 1: Adil says, well, maybe I can set some for you.
14:01
Speaker 1: It turns out that way way up the Rio Blanco,
14:05
Speaker 1: which is the river that runs past rank kilodad Adeal
14:08
Speaker 1: knows of a village, Little Carmen. He has relatives there,
14:13
Speaker 1: and he said we can arrange what bean transport where
14:20
Speaker 1: he would do basically the work running up and down
14:24
Speaker 1: the river and bringing the beans with his relatives. You
14:29
Speaker 1: don't have an idea of what the quantity could be
14:31
Speaker 1: up there, but all probably all you need for your purposes.
14:36
Speaker 1: I have no idea. This is why we want the
14:38
Speaker 1: golf and see it ourselves. After striking out at a
14:42
Speaker 1: few more spots, we passed another kacao agent named Maria,
14:46
Speaker 1: and Volker says it needs beans, and Maria says, yeah,
14:49
Speaker 1: you should talk to my cousin Chino up in a
14:50
Speaker 1: town called bay Vista, Babies the borders this huge forest reserve,
14:55
Speaker 1: and Chino is a park ranger there, and he knows
14:57
Speaker 1: some guys who've been camping out in the forest and
14:59
Speaker 1: picking cacap. Back in his heyday, Polker actually had a
15:03
Speaker 1: buying station in Baya Vista, so he knows there's a
15:06
Speaker 1: lot of cocao in those forests. So we get Gino's number,
15:09
Speaker 1: and so after a couple of days of mostly dead ends,
15:12
Speaker 1: Bulker has rustled up two leads, Gino the park ranger
15:16
Speaker 1: in Bay of Vista, and Elk Carman the mystery village
15:19
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. Frankly, both sound pretty iffy
15:23
Speaker 1: to me, but the future of Tranquilo dot is on
15:26
Speaker 1: the line, so we're going to both. The first, we
15:30
Speaker 1: need to go to the law and nip this cacao
15:32
Speaker 1: fevery in the bud. That's after the break. I want
15:51
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15:55
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16:02
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16:07
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16:18
Speaker 1: link in the show notes. And how do you want
16:31
Speaker 1: to play this? You want? Who do you want to say?
16:33
Speaker 1: I am to the Philice, No, I'm triving you are
16:37
Speaker 1: I'm here doing a story about kau and Bolivia Inbowras.
16:41
Speaker 1: All right? That sounds good. Honestly, it sounds a little
16:44
Speaker 1: lame to me. And I can already see my Pulitzer
16:46
Speaker 1: prize slipping away. But there's no time to bargain. We've
16:49
Speaker 1: already pulled up to the Wakarige police station, which isn't
16:53
Speaker 1: exactly bustling with activity. The doors closed and the only
16:56
Speaker 1: thing going on in Wakaraye is a guy on the
16:59
Speaker 1: sidewalk pounding coca leaves on a stump with a mallet
17:04
Speaker 1: beepsh it's easier to have to chew and holdenda. Police
17:14
Speaker 1: cars off at the other end of the street, so
17:18
Speaker 1: they might be over there. Do I see if they're
17:22
Speaker 1: in the car afterre so we cruise up to the
17:26
Speaker 1: other side of the plaza. The police car is empty,
17:29
Speaker 1: but then we spot the policeman around the corner drinking
17:32
Speaker 1: coffee with a friend just hanging you. The conversation looks cordial,
17:39
Speaker 1: and when Volker gets back in the car, he seems pleased.
17:47
Speaker 1: Any word, Yeah, he's the inn and he told mean too,
17:52
Speaker 1: he's coming over and we should just wait, which we
17:57
Speaker 1: do and wait and wait some more to kill the time.
18:01
Speaker 1: I asked Vulcan when the trouble started at Tranquila Dot,
18:04
Speaker 1: and he says, right from the beginning, because the previous
18:07
Speaker 1: owner was never around, so everyone got used to thinking
18:10
Speaker 1: of the land as a common larder and they were
18:12
Speaker 1: happy you know, to a hunt and get the cocou
18:15
Speaker 1: get the wood they wanted. Yeah, so you think you
18:18
Speaker 1: think there was some resentment in the community. Um when
18:21
Speaker 1: you put up the fence, yeah, Um, you know, everything
18:25
Speaker 1: was easy, you know, and all of a sudden somebody said, no, no,
18:28
Speaker 1: it stops. Um, the guy is not coming. I'm I'm
18:34
Speaker 1: really I'm really getting no tired it it bothers made
18:40
Speaker 1: the police in come. It really what about? Oh no, no, no,
18:54
Speaker 1: I think I see right as is added. But I'm
18:58
Speaker 1: gonna remain open to all possibilities. Well, we agreed tomorrow afternoon.
19:09
Speaker 1: He's busy, he's busy chatting with me, So we have
19:13
Speaker 1: to wait till tomorrow for an official audience with the cops.
19:16
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, we're off to Bay A Vista
19:18
Speaker 1: to track down this gino dude, Maria's gas. It's four
19:22
Speaker 1: bone rattling hours and Vulgar's land cruiser and the only
19:25
Speaker 1: breaks are a couple of tiny settlements we passed through.
19:28
Speaker 1: At each we turn off the quote unquote main road
19:31
Speaker 1: and cruise the back streets, peering into yards looking for
19:34
Speaker 1: hanging bags of beans or tarp spread out with drawing
19:37
Speaker 1: ones to be it smacks of desperation. The vulgar says,
19:40
Speaker 1: it's all about laying the groundwork. I buy a call
19:44
Speaker 1: from this area every year a little bit. All of
19:48
Speaker 1: a sudden, somebody pops up and says, I got some call.
19:52
Speaker 1: What you'd like to buy for me? It's pretty much
19:54
Speaker 1: a drive through. But if you see sometimes you'll seek
19:57
Speaker 1: a cow. Then I would stop and ask, and the
20:00
Speaker 1: um make a chat and asking questions, and sometimes it's
20:08
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, yeah, I have a cousin and he
20:10
Speaker 1: has already need some bags. When don't I see the
20:13
Speaker 1: color and the smell right away? It tells me if
20:18
Speaker 1: it's interesting enough to dig keeper and make a cutting
20:22
Speaker 1: test and chew on it or you know, and then yeah,
20:27
Speaker 1: little by little I might be interested. Don't buy or
20:30
Speaker 1: not or straight poker doesn't see anything he likes. And
20:36
Speaker 1: in a couple of brutally bumpy hours we hit Bay
20:38
Speaker 1: of Vista and wow. True to its name, Bay of
20:42
Speaker 1: Vista is up on a ridge overlooking the confluence of
20:45
Speaker 1: two rivers, and it's stunning. A huge sweep of velopty water,
20:49
Speaker 1: double decker riverboats, kids playing in the shallows, a graceful church.
20:54
Speaker 1: There's a fiesta under way and everyone is partying. That's
20:57
Speaker 1: really beautiful, like a piece of arya. Po Bulker peels
21:02
Speaker 1: off to work as connections while I explore the river
21:04
Speaker 1: and swim with the kids. We meet up at sunset
21:06
Speaker 1: at a bandstand looking over the river. There's an actual
21:09
Speaker 1: band playing a Hallmark sky and I'm ready to move
21:12
Speaker 1: to Da Vista. Did you manage to hook up with
21:15
Speaker 1: your contact? Yeah, tomorrow, I'm we're going to have a
21:20
Speaker 1: look at his place at ten about ah. His name
21:26
Speaker 1: is Chino, that's his nickname, of course, hopey. He wants
21:33
Speaker 1: the opportunity, opportunity and see what comes. So I take
21:38
Speaker 1: the risk giving him some money and see first why
21:43
Speaker 1: what he's doing with all giving a shop? Yeah, focus shrugs,
21:49
Speaker 1: looks at the sunset and cracks of here. He doesn't
21:52
Speaker 1: look enthusiastic. Um, yeah, I mean if there's a lot
21:57
Speaker 1: of a cow here and no one's doing it, this
21:59
Speaker 1: could be people, potentially a lot, like a significant amount
22:04
Speaker 1: coming out of here. I know the potential here because
22:09
Speaker 1: I worked here over ten years and I know what
22:18
Speaker 1: what is possible. But that isn't that has to be
22:22
Speaker 1: dicked out again, basically coming starting again. You know, like
22:29
Speaker 1: like years before they have. Vista had been really good
22:32
Speaker 1: for Bulker for a few years, but then it collapsed
22:36
Speaker 1: and the culprit was the same old nemesis he's been
22:38
Speaker 1: battling in one way or another for thirty years. It's
22:41
Speaker 1: a hot spot for cocaine smoke. This is an acocle
22:46
Speaker 1: spoilt You know why why here? Yeah, because it's from here.
22:50
Speaker 1: It's pretty close to the Brazilian border, so they fly
22:54
Speaker 1: in the stuff and then they ship it down the
22:57
Speaker 1: river to Brazil. I know that many people here got
23:02
Speaker 1: involved and got money. And that's easy money for a
23:06
Speaker 1: young kids just working very a couple of weeks with
23:11
Speaker 1: these guys getting maybe a thousand dollars. Yeah, that's a
23:16
Speaker 1: lot of money, Easier than brazil nuts. Definitely. I'm getting
23:23
Speaker 1: deep ye at last, I'm starting to understand the weird
23:32
Speaker 1: dance between coca and coca. The drug trade is like
23:36
Speaker 1: an Amazonian river, always shifting, jumping its banks and finding
23:40
Speaker 1: a new path. And when that path flows through a
23:43
Speaker 1: town like Baya Vista, everything else suffers. No one wants
23:46
Speaker 1: to harvest coca or rubber for small change. But then
23:50
Speaker 1: after a few years, the smuggling ships somewhere else, and
23:53
Speaker 1: the cacao is still there. Bulker has to hope that
23:57
Speaker 1: the cocaine trade in Baya Vista has dried up long
24:00
Speaker 1: enough to give cacao new life. And when we ring
24:03
Speaker 1: Gina the next morning, it sounds good. We're on. Yeah,
24:08
Speaker 1: he's coming, he's coming, he's coming coming here and with
24:13
Speaker 1: his multi party. So then and then we followed him
24:19
Speaker 1: to see his plays, his plays. All right, it sounds
24:23
Speaker 1: like it's all coming together. Maybe no, yeah, you're never worried. No, no,
24:33
Speaker 1: not too much. Already, I've done it so many times.
24:38
Speaker 1: It's like rehearsal the same plane and no Shakespeare Macbeth, no,
24:45
Speaker 1: five times on. Yeah, but this performance turns out to
24:50
Speaker 1: be Les Macbeth and more waiting for good. Oh, but
24:53
Speaker 1: the guy doesn't show up. So but I'm leaving. We're
24:57
Speaker 1: just leaving, that's it. So but in the nicktime, Gino calls,
25:15
Speaker 1: so now he's coming, Now he's after. Finally Gino rolls
25:28
Speaker 1: up on his bike. He's a young guy, blurry eyed
25:31
Speaker 1: but eager, and he leads us through Bay of Vista
25:34
Speaker 1: to his place near the river. Gina lives with his parents,
25:37
Speaker 1: his grandparents, his siblings, his wife and his newborn who's
25:41
Speaker 1: lying on the floor and gawking, and everyone we all
25:43
Speaker 1: play with the baby while China and Vulgar get down
25:45
Speaker 1: to brass tacks. Volcus got his fedora pulled down low
25:49
Speaker 1: over his eyes and his arms crossed, and he's giving
25:51
Speaker 1: off skeptical vibes as he quizzes Gino on his plants.
25:55
Speaker 1: How does he for mean? Cacaw? Where is he gonna
25:57
Speaker 1: do it? Gino shows Vulcar a paved garage base, and
26:00
Speaker 1: Vulcan nods and approval. At least it's out of the weather.
26:03
Speaker 1: Nino's father points across the street to an empty house
26:06
Speaker 1: on a promontory over the river, and Vulkan nod some more. Afterward,
26:10
Speaker 1: Bulker walks me over there, and once we're alone, his
26:13
Speaker 1: skepticism melts a by this what this place? Ye? I'm
26:20
Speaker 1: going I'm going to apply this, yeah, to be your
26:24
Speaker 1: sales entry like warehouse? Are what? This will be? Six
26:30
Speaker 1: thousand dollars? Right? And will you make it a house
26:34
Speaker 1: or you'll make it? Now he's in his own and
26:41
Speaker 1: he's justing a woman who's drying a cow on a
26:43
Speaker 1: tart beside his new warehouse, and he forgets all about me.
26:46
Speaker 1: He's cutting deals on the spot, and by the time
26:49
Speaker 1: we leave, he's even whittled Chino's father down to five
26:51
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for the house. This will be my new
26:55
Speaker 1: Harvard Center then for this area. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's
27:00
Speaker 1: always good to show you know that you were here.
27:03
Speaker 1: This investment would be like ten tho dollars in total,
27:08
Speaker 1: and and ten tho dollar for a very prominent house
27:14
Speaker 1: at the Barranco with view to the river. It's a
27:18
Speaker 1: no brainer. It is a no brainer. And by the
27:22
Speaker 1: time we roll out of Bay of Vista, he's feeling
27:24
Speaker 1: the old magic. Perhaps his karma has turned after twelve
27:27
Speaker 1: years of bad luck. At least it certainly seems like
27:30
Speaker 1: it when we swing past the Wakara police station on
27:33
Speaker 1: our way back. So we agreed to catch catch the
27:41
Speaker 1: guys in fla granted in the forest. How's that going
27:47
Speaker 1: to happen? And yeah, he said he would need help. Yeah,
27:53
Speaker 1: somebody else coming over and helping out. And then we
27:58
Speaker 1: do an operation and we can good people. I love
28:01
Speaker 1: it a steak out after the break, I'll admit I've
28:33
Speaker 1: never been on a steak out before, and I'm kind
28:34
Speaker 1: of excited. The plan is that the police will come
28:38
Speaker 1: on Monday morning and meet us on the dirt road
28:40
Speaker 1: where the thieves are hiding their motorbikes. Then as the
28:43
Speaker 1: scoundrels come out of the woods with their bags, Pacao,
28:46
Speaker 1: we nail them. They haven't advised me they can't do it. Actually,
28:53
Speaker 1: he said that he will tell me that we will
28:57
Speaker 1: let me know if so. If they don't do anything today,
29:02
Speaker 1: then I would say them that's it. And then Vulcan's
29:06
Speaker 1: stuns me by saying he's not even going to be there.
29:10
Speaker 1: He says he has to head up to Baya Vista
29:12
Speaker 1: the same morning to meet with Gino. He told me
29:15
Speaker 1: the I want to see it, and I'm I'm going
29:20
Speaker 1: to tell him, you know, this is this is what
29:25
Speaker 1: we want and this is what we don't want. Yeah.
29:29
Speaker 1: I do a little training with him throughout on the spot. Well, fine, whatever,
29:35
Speaker 1: but I'm not missing the steak out, so I make
29:39
Speaker 1: my way there on foot. I have no idea what
29:42
Speaker 1: people will think of this unsupported gringo talking into his
29:45
Speaker 1: tape recorder like Agent Cooper on Twin Peaks. But I
29:48
Speaker 1: just hope they're not armed. I walked throughout and here
29:54
Speaker 1: we got We've got bike number one, blue moped and
30:00
Speaker 1: no filth signs of police. It's pretty quiet, Um, I
30:03
Speaker 1: don't know, it's only what it's like ten thirty. Maybe
30:07
Speaker 1: they're still working on their second cup of coffee while
30:09
Speaker 1: they wait for the colonel to show up before they
30:11
Speaker 1: launched the big sting. Anyway, I'm gonna get a photo
30:14
Speaker 1: of the spike and keep going. See what we see.
30:18
Speaker 1: It's really quiet out there. I'm trying to wrap my
30:20
Speaker 1: head around this whole thing. Did the police ever intend
30:23
Speaker 1: to come? Did Boker always know they wouldn't, or are
30:26
Speaker 1: they just late. I'm just about to head home when oh,
30:30
Speaker 1: we got some action. There's somebody just parked and sneaking
30:34
Speaker 1: under the fence. It's a woman and she's got dogs
30:40
Speaker 1: with her and she's carrying buckets. Got a photo. Oh
30:49
Speaker 1: there's two people here. Fun cook out, cook out, Hi mucho,
31:06
Speaker 1: And yeah, that's how it goes. The people are unfazed
31:10
Speaker 1: by my presence and the police never show. I hang
31:14
Speaker 1: out for about an hour and finally I give up
31:17
Speaker 1: and trudge. Hum. Well, that was all very interesting, but
31:21
Speaker 1: I don't know what to make of it. They definitely
31:23
Speaker 1: didn't look freaked out that I was seeing them. They're
31:27
Speaker 1: laughing in the woods, dogs are barking. It's definitely not
31:32
Speaker 1: a secret operation. These bikes are right on the road.
31:36
Speaker 1: They certainly don't seem to feel that they're in any
31:39
Speaker 1: Jeffordy at all, and maybe they're not. Vulker comes back
31:53
Speaker 1: from daya vista baby. She knows forest friends are delivering
31:56
Speaker 1: more cacao than he toped. And when I show Vulgar
31:59
Speaker 1: my photos the day, he just drugs it off. At first,
32:03
Speaker 1: I can't figure out why, but I think I can
32:06
Speaker 1: piece it together. For one thing, he's just received notice
32:09
Speaker 1: that one of the chocolate makers in the States that
32:11
Speaker 1: uses his beans has just received a big award for
32:14
Speaker 1: the bar and they proudly splashed the word try and
32:17
Speaker 1: kill it Dad across the front of their labels like
32:19
Speaker 1: you would for a great wine estate. After twenty years
32:22
Speaker 1: of struggle, Bolker's little patch of paradise is achieving landmarks
32:25
Speaker 1: status at last. And I don't know if that was
32:29
Speaker 1: directly responsible, but now he's got a new idea for
32:32
Speaker 1: his endgame, his swan song in chocolate. It sounds romantic,
32:38
Speaker 1: but maybe maybe some of some other people take it
32:42
Speaker 1: over and make something similar. I asked what he means,
32:47
Speaker 1: and he hesitates. It's clear he hasn't tried out these
32:50
Speaker 1: ideas on anyone yet. But eventually he speaks, maybe in
32:55
Speaker 1: the future, if it's more and more known, the maybe
33:00
Speaker 1: uh Environmental trust um buys me out and put some
33:07
Speaker 1: money to it to to bring other people in here
33:09
Speaker 1: to continue. Yeah, that will be great, you know, because
33:14
Speaker 1: it's not for me, not only for me, it's also
33:16
Speaker 1: for all the families here to know who are now involved.
33:21
Speaker 1: As soon as he says it, it makes total sense
33:23
Speaker 1: to me try and kill it as a destination where
33:26
Speaker 1: people come to learn the craft, to meet the bare people,
33:29
Speaker 1: and to understand the tradition of making wild chocolate. A
33:32
Speaker 1: kind of center to push the art of chocolate to
33:35
Speaker 1: new heights. That would make explicit something he's been circling
33:39
Speaker 1: around for years that you can't really be an owner
33:41
Speaker 1: of these trees, just a caretaker. They were here long
33:45
Speaker 1: before he'd arrived, and with any luck, they'd be here
33:48
Speaker 1: long after he was gone. But there's another piece to
33:51
Speaker 1: this puzzle, one I know nothing about at the time.
33:54
Speaker 1: It's that old Amazonian promise of adventure, and helps explain
33:57
Speaker 1: why Bulker wasn't going to fret over a couple of
34:00
Speaker 1: tons of beans from Tranquilodat, remember El Carmen, the mystery
34:03
Speaker 1: village way up the Rio Blanca. Shortly after I leave Bolivia,
34:08
Speaker 1: the first test batch of beans comes down river to
34:10
Speaker 1: Vulgar and with it information The pickers have been kipping
34:14
Speaker 1: out for weeks way up river where no one ever goes,
34:18
Speaker 1: and what they found was CaCO forests like none they'd
34:22
Speaker 1: ever seen, beautiful pods, countless trees, all growing out of
34:28
Speaker 1: raised forest islands, just like the ones that Tranquilodat, another
34:32
Speaker 1: overgrown human made landscape stretching all the way to the
34:36
Speaker 1: Paraguay border, an area unknown to anyone except for a
34:40
Speaker 1: few drug smugglers. Focus says, right now he has no
34:44
Speaker 1: time to take on such an expedition, but he could
34:47
Speaker 1: be convinced, because I can tell he's curious, and so
34:52
Speaker 1: am I. The whole new lost city of z a
34:56
Speaker 1: brand new x on the Treasure Man, just dripping cacw
35:00
Speaker 1: and waiting for someone crazy enough or obsessed and enough
35:05
Speaker 1: to try to get there first. Annie Daker's Wild Chocolate
35:21
Speaker 1: is a Kaleidoscope production with I Heart Podcasts, hosted and
35:24
Speaker 1: reported by me Rohan Jacobson and produced by Shane McKeon
35:28
Speaker 1: at Nice Marmatt Media. Edited by Kate Osbourne and mangesh
35:31
Speaker 1: Out of Kudor. Sound design and mixing by Soundboard. Original
35:35
Speaker 1: music composition by Spencer Stevenson, a k a Botany production
35:39
Speaker 1: help from Baheni Shorty from My Heart. Our executive producers
35:43
Speaker 1: are Katrina Norvell and Nicky Eator. Special thanks to Laura Mayor, Costas,
35:47
Speaker 1: lnos Ozwalash and Aaron Kaffman, Will Pearson, codel Burn, Bob Pittman,
35:53
Speaker 1: Daria Daniel and the team at Stetler who are helping
35:56
Speaker 1: us make a very special chocolate of our own. That's right,
35:59
Speaker 1: We're working with Louisa and others to protect the rainforest
36:02
Speaker 1: and make delicious Amazonian chocolate. Visit www dot Stetler dash
36:07
Speaker 1: Chocolate dot com to taste it for yourself. That's www
36:12
Speaker 1: Dot Stetler dash Chocolate dot com. And if you want
36:16
Speaker 1: to hear more of this type of content. Nothing is
36:18
Speaker 1: more important to the creators here at Kaleidoscope than subscribers, ratings,
36:22
Speaker 1: and reviews. Please spread the love wherever you listen