This Puerto Viejo culture tour will take you to one of the Bri Bri villages where you will be welcomed and taught how to make chocolate before visiting the Talamanca Waterfalls to go swimming. This tour is popular because it provides an opportunity to interact personally with members of Costa Rica’s indigenous culture and discover the beautiful natural environment where they live. Plus you will learn how to make chocolate from the cacao bean and do plenty of tasting!
One of the last Bri Bri reserves in the country is located in Talamanca. You will be picked up from your hotel and brought to the reserve where the indigenous people will open their doors and invite you in to learn from their culture.
You will be visiting the village called Watsi. Here you will meet five generations working together to maintain a vibrant community. This tribe still follows many practices of their older traditions, intentionally living in balance with their natural surroundings. You will see how they cook, live their every day lives, prepare medicinal plants and produce chocolate.
Did you know that real cacao is chock full of cancer-fighting antioxidants and contains a large concentration of vitamins and minerals? You will learn about this and more during the unique chocolate-making workshop in which you will be participating.
After you make chocolate and taste many forms of it, you’ll hike through a well maintained rainforest trail with your bilingual guide leading you to the breathtaking Talamanca Waterfall. Bring your bathing suit to jump into the crystalline pool or feel free to just sit at the water’s edge and admire the lush tropical surroundings.
Your group will stop to eat a meal of traditional Costa Rican food typically consisting of meat, fish or a vegetable choice, beans and rice, finely chopped “pico de gallo” salsa, tortillas and various garnishes. The meal also includes a beverage. At the end of the tour you will be driven back to your hotel.
This Indian Reserve tour at Puerto Viejo includes a bilingual guide, lunch, drink and transportation from Cahuita, Puerto Viejo and Punta Uva. One way transportation from your hotel to the indigenous village may take from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on your pick-up location. Combined time of village visit, chocolate-making workshop, waterfall hike and swim, lunch and round trip transportation can take from 4 to 5 hours. Please bring hiking shoes, insect repellent, bathing suit, towel, camera, sun block and rain gear.
The Indian Reserve Talamaca Waterfalls and Chocolate tour is available from Cahuita, Puerto Viejo, and Punta Uva
Latitude: N 9° 37' 34.71"
Longitude: W 82° 50' 59.86"
09/13/2023
The waterfall was a disappointment
07/12/2023
I wish we would have had a written guide to all the information we learned about the plants and what they can do/ are used for. Loved the Bri Bri. Gloria was a nice guide.
02/18/2023
A little drawn out but waterfall swim was fun
09/20/2021
Glory was amazing
08/25/2019
Exceeded expectations. Super guide and goos fun.
06/27/2019
This was a great tour. The beginning of it was a little longer than expected but overall a good experience.
09/29/2018
Good experience, but I expected more cacao beans and to be able to pick them. The food made by the indegenous people was very good.
04/03/2017
Aaron was our guide & he was great & had a real connection with the local people which added to our experience
11/01/2016
Best guides and tour of the trip.
03/08/2016
I thought the chocolate making would have been more detailed.
02/14/2016
This was very interesting and very moving. Very impressed.
03/13/2015
WAY too long - itineary said 6 hours, lasted 8 hours. Tried to fit in way too many different things at once, when we really could have done with just half of what was offered... in the end did not swim in Waterfalls since we were just ready to return to hotel after very long day