Private Tour: Doka Estate Coffee Tour, Grecia and Sarchí Oxcarts

What your day looks like

Your breath-taking adventure begins with a pickup from your hotel and a relaxing private drive through the wonderful Costa Rican countryside on air-conditioned transportation and a recent model deluxe vehicle or mini bus. Your guide will point out many sights of interest including coffee plantations, sugar cane and citrus plantations, diverse fruit stands, and rural farming communities. You will be heading Alajuela Province, about 45-minute drive from San Jose. Upon arrival at the beautiful property of Doka Estate, you will have some free time to use restrooms and explore the surroundings before starting the Coffee Tour. Discover the step-by-step process of seed germination to the first crop of our plants. There you will observe and be explained the development process of the plant up to the point of recollection of the ripe grain. You will also learn about the history of the estate, its owners, the production and varieties of plants, the geography of the area, and the traditional ways of cultivating the grain. After the visit to the plantation, processing plant, and packing house, you will enjoy a delicious traditional lunch. Continuing the tour, a few minutes’ drive will take you to a small and traditional town called Grecia. Grecia is noted for its unique church, Iglesia de la Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, made entirely of pre-fabricated steel plates painted red. There are several urban legends about this church. One recounts how the church was donated by some foreign country, and sent to Greece as a gift, but was wrongly shipped to Grecia, Costa Rica. Another legend states that the final destination of the church was the city of Puntarenas in Chile but was disembarked, by mistake, in the port of Puntarenas, Costa Rica, and later sent to the city of Grecia where it was assembled. However, records clearly show that the instruction, shipment, and construction of the church were a coordinated effort of Grecia's population, the Catholic Church, the Costa Rican government, and Alejo E. Jiménez Bonnefil (1858-1922), a Costa Rican coffee producer and exporter who was in charge of commanding and importing the church from the manufacturer Ateliers de la Société de Courville in Belgium, in the late 19th Century. During our tour, you will be able to visit this church and walk around Central Park. Neighboring Grecia, a few kilometers away is the quaint little town of Sarchi, known throughout Costa Rica for its beautiful and intricate arts and crafts and souvenirs. A key artisan town in Costa Rica, Sarchi is best known for the vibrant and pretty oxcarts that are handcrafted here and sold all over the country. A national symbol of Costa Rica, the oxcart plays a key role in the country’s history, as they were used to transport coffee beans & other goods to nearby and faraway markets and ports. Starting in the 1840’s most of the rural roads were very rough making the oxcart the sole means of transportation for families even though the trips could take weeks at times. Highly ornate, these oxcarts are elegantly craved and are usually hand-painted with bright colors. The painting of the oxcart is a Costa Rican tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. Today most of the oxcarts in Costa Rica are used as ornate decoration as well as symbols of Costa Rica in celebrations and parades. The largest and oldest oxcart factory is also found in Sarchi. The Joaquin Chaverri Oxcart Factory was built in 1902 and is considered to be the birthplace of oxcart handicrafts in Costa Rica.