Cocoa farm and Chocolate making!

Unexpectedly amazing! We had Tony/Antonio as our guide and he was absolutely great. This is a comfortable private tour visiting a family farm. It’s not just cocoa, there are many interesting plants and fruits to try. We chopped off cocoa pods, knocked guava from the tree and plucked citrus fruits. Very hands on. We were guided by the son of the owner of the farm Rody, who lives there. After going through the entire process from tree to chocolate bar, we had a delicious lunch at Rody’s house. If you are looking for a hands on, personal experience this tour is for you. I don’t know how you can visit this city and not do this tour.

This was one of the best tours we have ever taken. We learned about the entire process of how chocolate is made, from the flower to the finished bars and drinks. Our guide for the day was Allyson, and she was very warm and friendly. Back to the farm. We saw many different types of fruit trees while we were there, and had the opportunity to try some of the fruits we’ve never had before. Back to the chocolate process. This was extremely interactive, and our son, who has ADHD, was engaged the entire time. You really use your 5 senses to make the chocolate. There is a lot of hard work and time that goes into it. We had a couple of chocolate drinks (one cold and one hot), and both were great. I don’t want to give too much away as it was a very special tour. We did get to put our own ingredients in a chocolate bar to take with us. Lunch was wonderful! We had some allergies and food issues in the group, so they had to make a variety of items that tasted great. Everything was fresh, and the presentation was incredible. They served limonda at lunch which was really good too. For those wondering, they use filtered water, so it’s safe to drink. But bring some water with you on the tour, as it does get hot in the sun. You are in shade quite a bit, but water will help. Also, don’t skimp on the mosquito repellant. The organic ones don’t work well. There are a lot of mosquitos, but they also have mosquito spray that we used, and that stopped them from attacking us. My best advice is it’s annoying (and only for the first 30 minutes of the tour), but forget about it, and enjoy the farm. It’s amazing!

We had just had a week in the Galápagos Islands and had a free day before we returned to the USA. We looked at the reviews and found a tour of a cocoa farm where they take you through all the steps involved to make a chocolate bar from the picking of the bean to making the bar. What a treat. It gave us more appreciation of how much work and care it takes to produce even one bar of chocolate. This was a family owned farm where all employees are family. We had lunch that was excellent and prepared by one of the family members. We were accompanied by Allison who was a true professional. She gave us great information and helped describe the activities at the farm along with Jamil the family member that helped us along the way to make hot chocolate out of the beans we helped pick. It was a sweet ending to our vacation