Chocolate Tour from San Jose

Great guide and outstanding venue
We had a great day beginning with out tour guide, Gerrardo with Greenway Nature Day Tours. He was on time, picking us up at our hotel in San Jose in a very comfortable Hyundai mid-size SUV. He provided bottled water, and was great in answering our questions along the way about Costa Rican culture, life, and some of the great things Costa Rica is doing, as well as challenges for the future of the country. Gerrardo was also very accommodating, stopping a few times along the way to allow us to take pictures at scenic sights. Once at the site of the chocolate tour and suspension bridge hike, Carolina took over as our guide. She has an undergraduate in biology from the University of Costa Rica. She was very knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna, as well as pointing out different insect, amphibian, and tropical wildlife while hiking to the jungle cultivation site. The walk across the suspension bridge was amazing, with wonderful views of the river and the surrounding area. With her co-worker Theresa, they talked us through the traditional method of producing chocolate from the cacao, including cultivation and its historical impact both locally and globally.

Amazing tour with a wonderful guide
The Tirimbina chocolate tour is a superb experience especially if you are guided by the beautiful and immensely charming Carolina, a fount of information, sly humor and magic. The chocolate you will eat is prepared by the lovely Theresa and is stunningly tasty. The setting is a tropical rain forest with iguanas, howler monkeys, humming birds and the occasional viper. A truly worthwhile experience.

Perfect from the start!
We were recommended by a close friend to try a coffee or chocolate tour. His recommendation turned out to payout so much in the positive I cannot thank him enough; but I would caveat that the experience we had that was so meaningful all started with our driver/guide Geraldo!

Geraldo showed up on time, greeted us, got us to the car, which was clean, nice and very comfortable. Our conversations just seemed to flow as if we had known each other for a life time; talking about everything and anything and providing us with great insight on Costa Rica. The drive was long, but didn’t seem that way because of the good conversations had by us all. Once we arrived at the bioreserve; Geraldo got us all squared away with the tour company and because we had a considerable amount of time before the tour; he took us on a mini tour which allowed us to see a sloth and most importantly to me; a poison dart frog! My hearing is pretty bad, but Geraldo was able to focus in on the singing little guy and point it out for me to grab a picture of it! We got back and went on our tour with Walter. Walter did a great job sharing the history of the park and the fauna and animals that we saw. After our tour we went back to the tour area and sat down in the restaurant. Shortly after our arrival, Geraldo showed up and asked about the chocolate…We were puzzled and stated there was no chocolate on the tour. He instantly jumped to his feet and took off. After a little bit of time had passed he arrived and we very apologetic…it seems the bioreserve had made a mistake and booked us on a walking tour and not the chocolate tour. Geraldo asked us if we had time to go back out on the actual chocolate tour and we were totally fine with it. Geraldo, that short period of time had engaged his company, the bioreserve company and worked out what went wrong and how to resolve it. After a very delicious lunch (I loved the ribs) we were off again with Walter, but this time to the small chocolate plantation on the bioreserve. Very informative, very interesting, but my wife found out that fresh chocolate with lots of cocoa is very bitter! Additionally to having the correct tour, we had a chance to see a basilisk sunning itself on a rock in the river and a mother sloth with her baby! We were back with Geraldo and on the road back to the hotel, the conversations continued to flow and Geraldo offered some extra stops for photos, but we knew we had those stops on another tour and passed so that he could get home at a reasonable hour.