Grind cacao by hand, make your own chocolate, and taste freshly roasted coffee. A private half day at Don Juan's family hacienda.
Don Juan's hacienda is a working family farm, and the visit is private, so the farmers set the pace with you. They walk you through plantations where cocoa pods ripen on the trees and coffee grows under shade, covering the whole process from bean to cup.
Then it gets hands-on. Grind cocoa beans, shape your own chocolate with methods handed down through generations, and taste coffee fresh from the roast.
It's a half day about where your morning cup and your favorite chocolate bar actually start: in this soil, under this shade, farmed sustainably by people who can explain every step.
Final price depends on your pickup point.
We pick you up at your hotel or the airport and handle the full route, door to door.
Driving times are approximate.
One of them plans your day, picks you up and brings you back. Who exactly depends on the date.
Around twelve years in Costa Rican tourism. On the drive between Guanacaste and Arenal he points out how fast the landscape and climate change, and shares the history of both regions along the way. His picks: the Palo Verde boat safari and Rincón de la Vieja's Pailas trail.
Twenty years guiding Costa Rica as a general and naturalist guide, with a special passion for botany: he points out plant adaptations, ecological relationships and the quiet work that trees, flowers and lianas do in the ecosystem. His favorite day is Palo Verde, where wildlife, tropical wetlands, cultural traditions and history meet — and the birdlife is spectacular.
Twenty-two years in tourism, from restaurants to tour sales to driving and guiding. Místico is his favorite trail: rich in wildlife, easy to walk, and full of the forest's secrets. On transfers north he loves the moment the dry Pacific crosses an invisible line into rainforest green.
