Rancho Heliconia
Quick Facts
- Location : Northwest of Monteverde in Cabaceras
- Area : 11 acres
- Hours : 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. daily
- Telephone : 2645-5109
- Entrance Fee : $35 per person, $25 students, $18 children, $24 groups of six or more
Coffee signals the beginning and ending of a work day on the slopes of Monteverde. Brewed in steaming chorreadores, coffee provides the livelihood for many of Monterverde's farmers. At Helaconia Ranch, guests are treated to their first cup after visiting the 11-acre organic farm where the coffee beans are grown. Visitors walk among the coffee plants on their way to the processing facilities. Guides provide details and answer questions about the coffee-making process while enlightening visitors on coffee's roots in Costa Rican culture.
read more closePreserving and educating people about Costa Rican heritage are one of the main goals at Heliconia Ranch. Owner, doña Roxana, belongs to one of the original Costa Rican families to settle Monteverde and encourages visitors to share in the experience of everyday life in the Costa Rican countryside.
After the coffee tour, guests are treated to traditional Costa Rican dances. Roxana sponsors a local dance program and features its best students for guests at the ranch. The performers don traditional outfits; the girls wear white, red and blue flowing dresses (Costa Rican colors) while the boys dress in cowboy hats and carry bandanas. Together the dancers enact scenes of the past; the girls grasp the sides of their long skirts and spin circles resembling coffee flowers in bloom.
Around the ranch, visitors can see what life is like on a typical farm with goats, sheep, horses and cows. Horseback rides around the property take visitors through lush fields and pastures past dairy cows with udders full for milking, through meadows glinting with yellow wild flowers. Huge trees form small sections of forest that separate the pastures and protect the local water supply.