Puerto Viejo

March 30, 2006

With Chocorart in mind, I continued to hunt along the Caribbean for good cacao beans in Puerto Viejo, a world-renowned cacao growing region and beach paradise.



Most of the cacao producers in Puerto Viejo have done a fantastic job forming cooperatives or have stopped growing cacao due to local fungi problems and/or the monetary incentives associate with growing alternative crops to support the regions increasing tourism and party crowd scene.

The people in Puerto Viejo are super friendly and approachable, but because of the cooperatives, the fungi and the crop changes, most people are reluctant to have passing by gringas walking through their fincas and will find different ways of saying no. While in Puerto Viejo I stayed with a friend who owned cacao fields. We had set an appointment before my arrival to go and see his finca while I was there. The day of our appointment, he was several hours late for our appointment. He insisted that we only see the cacao fields next time I visited. Another person I met while in Puerto Viejo insisted that his family would never export their cacao and so therefore it was unncessary for me to see his fincas or even talk about them.

Gaining trust with growers is something that takes alot of time, and even if the only reason you want to see someones field is pure curiousity, locals are weary of exploitative foreigners and will find different ways of saying no. My experiences in Puerto Viejo taught me that the chocolate mission is fun, exciting and adventurous-I had lively conversations with local lobster fishermen, learned many legends of the region, possibly true, possibly fictious, probably a mixture of both and had some great swims in the sea-but it takes patience, persistence and a great deal of time actually living in a chocoalte growing region to form relationships here and learn about the people and their fincas.

Excellent people whom I am making famous in Puerto Viejo through the Taza Chocolate website: