Tierra Amiga is a sustainable, organic, and family owned coffee plantation. Photo / Lebo Lukewarm
Costa Rica is home to both beautiful chocolate and supreme coffee, which should pique the interest of most Kiwis, writes Brett Atkinson
“Okay, who likes coffee?”
In Costa Rica’s remote and hilly Tarrazu region, the answer can only be ‘Si’, especially after a meandering road trip from the national capital of San Jose with Intrepid Travel.
Asking the question is Lucidia Hernandez, the ebullient co-owner of Tierra Amiga, a sustainable, organic, and family owned coffee plantation secreted amid the folded and forested terrain framing the village of San Marcos.
Pedro Flores, Intrepid’s experienced local guide, explains we’re in the Los Santos (Land of the Saints) region, and as road signs indicating secondary routes to San Juan, San Marta and San Lorenzo all roll past, he confirms the essential elements – “always a church, a soccer field and a bar” – of every Costa Rican village.
Around Tarrazu, there’s also usually a coffee co-operative, operating as a shared distribution centre for the many small-scale farmers enhancing the region’s reputation as Costa Rica’s best coffee-producing area. Reinforcing their ongoing success, Pedro confirms Costa Rica’s top three coffees for 2023 all came from local Tarrazu farms.
Aided by her young daughter Ruth, Lucidia leads our group around Tierra Amiga’s terraced location. Biodynamic cultivation practices include complementary plantings of kale, bananas and mango, and back in an open-sided hilltop pavilion we’re soon enjoying a lunch harnessing fresh ingredients from their gardens and orchards.
Coffee made from beans roasted and ground by Lucidia’s husband Minor slowly drips through coffee socks stretched across traditional chorreadors (wooden frames), filling the space with the earthy and fragrant notes of Tarrazu’s famed Arabica provenance.
Minor’s also been busy baking bite-sized savoury buns in a wood-fired oven, and Tierra Amiga’s perfect Costa Rican afternoon aperitivo is revealed as shots of their homemade kombucha, refreshingly effervescent, and crafted from a zingy combo of sugar cane, ginger and verbena.
Coffee and kombucha are also essential sustenance for outdoor adventures on our week-long journey showcasing the best of Intrepid’s Costa Rica itineraries.
Edging forested bays on the country’s Pacific Coast, Manuel Antonio is Costa Rica’s most popular national park, and Pedro’s recommended early start is undoubtedly the best way to experience it.
Cooler morning temperatures mean the park’s larger residents – including sloths, deer and howler monkeys – are more active, while Pedro’s preternatural ability to spot smaller species amid the tropical tangle framing Manuel Antonio’s well-formed trails reveals vibrant blue and orange land crabs, tiny, red-eyed tree frogs, and the slender profile of a casque-headed iguana. Up close and personal viewing is guaranteed with the powerful optics of Pedro’s tripod-mounted monocular.
Negotiating the park’s Sendero Perezoso (‘Trail of the Sloths’) leads to the perfect half-moon of Manuel Antonio’s most popular beach, and while a mid-morning buzz is soon enlivening the cove – courtesy of an influx of visitors and the occasional troop of white-faced capuchin monkeys - it’s easy to rediscover a Costa Rican reverie via a short, sandy stroll across a headland to perpetually quiet Playa Espadilla.
Pedro is also the perfect guide to Costa Rica’s northern region around the town of La Fortuna. He remembers growing up in the shadow of Volcan Arenal – “we used to drink hot chocolate and watch the lava flow at night” - and while the sublimely conical peak is currently dormant and last erupted in 2010, it looms as a simultaneously comforting and imposing presence on La Fortuna’s western edges.
Following a tragic 1968 eruption which killed 87 people and blighted farmland, locals pivoted to tourism, and their second- and third-generation descendants now offer ziplining, river-rafting and canopy walks. In a country where monoculture agriculture can impinge on Costa Rica’s famed biodiversity, Pedro confirms tourism-focused use of land helps offset the growing impact of the pineapple and palm oil industries.
Importantly, more than 25 per cent of the country is protected as national parks or reserves, and an additional 50 per cent of Costa Rica is still forested.
Our own adventures around Arenal include a hike on the peak’s 1968 lava flow, negotiating regenerating forest with the surprising company of pheasant-like Great Curassow birds topped with spiky mohawks. A thrilling late afternoon thunderstorm provides the perfect rationale to adjourn to the soothing haven of one of La Fortuna’s thermal pool complexes.
Bookending a week-long showcase of Intrepid’s Costa Rica activities, a winding drive from La Fortuna on increasingly narrow roads eventually reaches just maybe Central America’s friendliest homestay operation.
Part of a rural community that started in 1991 when 925 remote hectares was allocated to 125 disadvantaged families from other parts of the country, the Juanilama Comunidad Agro-Ecologica has been an essential highlight of Intrepid’s Costa Rica experiences since 2015.
Nine families offer homestay visits around a shared orchard and garden enlivened by a dog and cat charging about like a Tico (Costa Rican) version of Tom and Jerry, while investment from FONAFIFO, (Costa Rica’s National Forestry Financing Fund), has allowed the community to regenerate a 19ha stand of native forest.
Slow but steady development, including reticulated water in 1997 and the introduction of electricity in 2002, and a focus on empowering Juanilama’s women has led to increased schooling and higher education across the entire community.
Our reasons for visiting are more food-related, and after a tour of Juanilama’s fertile gardens from Yamileth Soto Mendez, a daughter of one of the original 125 families, the evening evolves into a shared effort in the open-sided dining pavilion.
Working with Juanilama’s friendly culinary superstars, a kitchen infused with the comforting aroma of wood-smoke is the focus for a cross-cultural assembly line turning authentic Tico snacks including empanadas, patacones (twice-fried green plantains), and the only-in-Costa Rica treat of enyucados - crammed with beef and chorizo and a Central American spin on an arancini or Scotch egg.
In a country blessed with both coffee and cacao, the evening’s final treat is inevitably a mug of hot chocolate, prepared with organic beans from Juanilama’s own orchard, roasted on a wood-fire, and then crushed by hand into oil-rich cocoa nibs on an ancient metate (grinding stone) dating back to pre-Columbian times.
GETTING THERE
Fly with Air New Zealand from Auckland to Houston and continue to the Costa Rican capital of San Jose with United Airlines.
DETAILS
Intrepid offer several different itineraries in Costa Rica, ranging from nine days to 15 days, and costing from around $1900 to $2500 per person. Their Premium Costa Rica experience (nine days, around $5700) includes superior accommodation options and the company of Intrepid’s most experienced and highly rated local guides. As the world’s largest travel B Corp organisation, each Intrepid departure is offset for carbon neutrality.
When there's nothing as far as the eye can see, you may appreciate the company.