13. Saving Peru's Ancient Cacao Temple, Huaca Montegrande, the Time is Now, with Karen Gordon. 

This may be one of the most important episodes I’ll make.

Restoration Ecologist Karen Gordon joins me from Peru to tell us how Mama Cacao needs our support right now!

There is a site where the most ancient history has ever been found about Cacao. 

A temple in Northern Peru that is over 6000 years old, where remnants of cacao have been found inside a ceramic vessel which was buried within the temple. This is incredible information and there is still more to be unearthed. But this project is at risk of being unable to continue. 

Please listen to this episode to hear how you can be a part of making sure that this ancient knowledge literally can stay above ground. 

Karen is an ecologist who lives in Costa Rica, she has been working on restoration projects in Peru for the past 10 years. Karen is an associate of ASICAMPE who are the team working on Huaca Montegrande temple.

She is involved in safeguarding this ancient site and also the living heritage cacao tree varieties that are direct descendants of the cacao found in the temple. Her work emphasizes the protection of indigenous tradition and ecological conservation. 

I adore the way that Karen shares her knowledge in this story here and also shares so much passion and love for cacao and the significance that this temple represents. 

So enjoy this incredible story, and please remember to support Huacamontegrande before the end of the month!

To donate to support the preservation of this ancient temple:

New Zealand thanks to Seleno Health: 

https://selenohealth.com/pages/save-monte-grande-cacao-temple

Global: https://huacamontegrandesupport.com/

The Teams making this all possible: www.instagram.com/huacamontegrandeoficial/

And the Abundant Earth Foundation who are partnered with ASICAMPE & Huaca Montegrande as the 501c3 sponsor in the USA to make the fundraising platform possible. https://abundantearthfoundation.org/

To contact Karen: instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sacred.ecologist/

Loved by Cacao Instagram: ⁠@lovedbycacaco⁠

A big thank you to Kamal Ortiz for creating the mini soundscape for Loved by Cacao! Kamal is a DJ & medicine music weaver, find his music on Soundcloud⁠ ⁠https://on.soundcloud.com/xem5CT38SGxFQexa8⁠⁠