Okay, it's Monday morning, the day of the big Oakaraje Police Sting operation on the

Trunkey Dodd Cal thieves. So, I'm gonna walk out to a stretch of roadside where

the bikes stand apart and we'll see what's happening if there are any

Cal thieves operating today and if the police are doing anything more soon.

So, funny story. It's 2022 and I'm in Bolivia at Tranquilidad, Volker

Laman's Walka Cal estate in the jungle. Good morning. I have not slept that deeply in

years, I think. Crazy dreams. Crazy dreams. Crazy dreams. Yes,

Volker's back. He burned out on Kakao in 2014 and left the country, bankrupt and

bitter. But, by 2017, he couldn't stand to stay away any longer. The game had

changed and further better. The new wave of craft chocolate makers was willing to

pay more than ever before for really great beings. So, we came back to Bolivia with

a new plan. Restore Tranquilidad, transform it into a state-of-the-art

demonstration center for Walka Cal and concentrate on quality instead of volume.

That sounded great to me, but there's just one catch. Actually, there's a lot

of catches, but this is the most present. The situation started developing a few days

ago. Each day, people who live near Tranquilidad ride their motorbikes into the

Kakagros and spend the day picking and opening pots. I try my hand at the harvest too.

In the afternoon, the pickers ride out and drop off the beams. Volker weighs the

beams on an ancient scale and hands them cash. Then he and his team sort through

the slurpy beams, picking out bits of gunk, and begin the long process of fermenting and drying.

I'd timed my visit to Cohnside with peak harvest, but after several days of picking,

Volker isn't liking what he's seeing. He's getting about 200 kilos of

...