Finca la Esperanza Chocolate Tour

This morning we drove up into the hills to the Finca la Esperenza farm for a chocolate growing and making tour. It is a family-run operation, and they hire a neighbour as a translator for the English tours.

Oscar got to help the farmer harvest some yuca while we were waiting for our tour to start.

The first part of the tour was a walk through the forest, where we had some of the best wildlife sightings of the trip so far. We saw a sloth relatively low to the ground, two toucans and a hummingbird nest with babies in it.

The farm was a mix of cocoa plants and coffee, and also some pineapples, guava, and a smattering of small livestock and exotic birds.

Our guide explained how they cultivate the cocoa beans and let us try some of the raw seeds right out of the pod.

After checking out the peacocks, roosters, ducks, turkeys and other birds, we went back to the main area to learn about the process to make chocolate from cocoa beans.

The kids got to try different methods of grinding the beans, and we sampled the beans at different stages of the process.

We got to taste some very fresh hot chocolate and at the end got to try the finished chocolate product.

After the tour, they served us some Costa Rican snacks, including some very yummy yuca fritters.

Penny made some new doggy friends at the farm, who followed her around for scratches.

Back at the house, we did an easter hunt with chocolate soccer balls and mini chocolate bars, and had a swim in the pool to cool off.  Tomorrow, we have a long drive to the beach!