Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
In 1998 our guide was keen to set up this guesthouse with his family. He had been guiding with us for 5 years, and we had continued to support him with guiding work while he trained in hotel management. He and his father acquired this run-down cacao farm in a village on the Paria Peninsula in Venezuela, a beautiful location but which was well off the beaten track so far as foreign visitors were concerned.
They started to put the farm back into production, growing the best quality ‘Rio Caribe No 1’ cacao beans for which the area had been world famous, and converting the hacienda to a guest house with four guest rooms. We visited them when the work on the hacienda was nearing completion, made suggestions, and thoroughly checked the area. Back in London we created a logo for them and began to promote the guesthouse and the Paria peninsula to our customers. The guesthouse has now become a local success story, giving work to local people including some very talented lady cooks! The cacao farm was able to attract microfinance support from the Chavez government to set up a refining plant employing local people to roast and grind the beans and convert them into high-quality chocolate, thus capturing the value-added that would otherwise be earned by importers in Europe and elsewhere.
Employing only local people, this enterprise has helped the local economy and directly benefited the local people whilst giving visitors the chance to learn about chocolate farming and stay in a beautifully run guest house. We take delight in actively promoting this hacienda. This is indeed a wonderful place and a real example of how responsible tourism works at its very best.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
