Hacienda Experience (Coffee Plantation Tour) in Puerto Limon?

[JJHNLC]

We will be on the Celebrity Equinox has anyone been on this excursion? Any reviews?

[cruizin4livin]

I took the Hacienda tour last week on RC Jewel of the Seas. The tour was booked through the ship. It lasted approximately 8 hours and 45 minutes. There were about 20 of us on the tour. The tour guide was chatty, but knowledgeable and very nice. He worked extremely hard to make sure that we had a very good tour.

 

After getting on a comfortable coach, we drove about one hour along a major road with large pineapple and banana plantations on either side. Or tour guide told us about the bananas and answered all of our questions. We made one stop at a restaurant for a restroom break.

 

We then drove for approximately one more hour through the mountains. The scenery was spectacular. Most of the homes we saw in the mountains (and earlier) were small cottages. Most had a Christmas tree on the front porch or some type of Christmas decoration.

 

When we reached the hacienda, we were surprised not to find a large mansion. Instead we saw several small one-story buildings (I think there was a place for guests to spend the night in one of the buildings) and one larger main building. There also were several workstations where workers prepared the macadamian nuts, coffee, and sugar cane for market. This was indeed a "working ranch." If you think of Bonanza and the Cartwrights without all the cattle, you get the picture.

 

The hacienda was also self-sufficient or "green" in that any byproducts were reused in an efficient manner. This included shells form the macadamian nuts and the leaves from the sugar cane. Most of the workers did not speak English, so our tour guide translated for us.

 

We were first given the opportunity to use the restrooms. Then, we were shown several species of beautiful plants. There was also a small greenhouse, and our tour guide led us on a discussion of several plants. Many were different varieties of orchids. He also pointed out several birds, including a hummingbird.

 

Next, we were lead to a workstation and given an overview of macadamian nuts. The worker discussed how they were grown, harvested, and prepared for market. There were several machines that he used to demonstrate how all of this was done. The shells/hulls of the macadamian nuts were used as fuel on the hacienda. Lastly, we were given a bowl of shelled macadamian nuts to taste.

 

We were then taken to a small one-room cabin. It was built and furnished in the Costa Rican custom of many years ago. All of a sudden it started to rain. Several people had ponchos or jackets. A worker appeared selling rain ponchos for $1 each. Some people stayed at the cabin while everyone else went to the small chapel. We were all reunited when the rain stopped after about 30 minutes.

 

The next demonstration was about coffee. We were lead to a workstation and told how the coffee was grown and harvested. We were also given a demonstration of how the coffee was prepared for market.

 

The final demonstration was probably the best one. It was about sugar cane. We were lead to a small covered stadium-like location. There were two oxen that they used to grind the large stones that squeezed the juice out of the sugar cane. We were given samples of sugar cane to taste.

 

Next, the sugar cane was boiled into a syrup. They poured the syrup into wooden molds. After cooling and removal, these were wrapped--two to a pack--with sugar cane leaves in preparation for market. The workers then mixed the syrup with macadamian nuts and one other ingredient to make candy. They cut it into small chunks and then passed it around so that we could all get a piece.

 

Finally, we went to the dining hall for lunch. It overlooked the valleys below. The view was breathtaking. The lunch was very good. We had salad, chicken, black beans, rice with macadamian nuts, plantains, and more of the candy made from sugar cane that was passed out earlier.

 

After lunch, we went to the small gift shop and made purchases of coffee, nuts, and other souvenirs. We then got on the bus for the long ride back to the ship. As we were riding along, as before, our tour guide told us about bananas and pineapples, and he answered our many questions about Costa Rica.

 

Once we got out of the mountains, the tour guide had the driver stop by the side of the road. He then went into the forest and found two very poisonous frogs and scooped them into a water bottle. He showed us the frogs, but wouldn't let us touch the bottle. He said that if some of the poison got onto the outside of the water bottle and we touched it, the poison could be fatal to us.

 

Then, we stopped by a pineapple plantation for a few minutes. We went to the restrooms and were given free slices of very tasty pineapple to eat. Our tour guide showed us a group of pineapple plants near the gift shop. The pineapples in the fields had already been harvested.

 

Please note that the stop to find the frogs and the visit to the pineapple plantation were not part of the tour. We were just very fortunate to have a very good tour guide. Hopefully, he won’t get into any trouble for making our tour more memorable.

[soo z q]

That was a very in depth description of your tour and I found it very helpful. Thank you so much for the time you spent organizing your thoughts into an excellent review!

[JJHNLC]

Thanks for all your input it was very helpful.

 

Lisa:)

[Ga-Fl Peach]

Thanks so much!