El Trapiche Sugar Cane Tour
El Trapiche sugarcane mill machines were brought to Monteverde from San Ramon de Alejuela in 1948 by Iginio Santamaria. The machines were transported for approximately 15 days by oxen to the area that we now know as Santa Elena. It was there, where they were installed and began their work as a sugar cane mill, El Trapiche.
Later in 1961 one of Juan Santamaria Campos’ sons formed a company with Ricardo Arce and brought a sugarcane mill with a diesel motor to the site. They worked for 10 years after which time Señor Juan Santamaria Campos continued the work of producing sugar on his own with the help of his family, which consisted of his wife, and their five daughters and six sons.
At this time the sugar cane was brought from neighboring farms for preparation of the sugarcane. At the end of the process the produced sugar was divided up between the owner of the sugarcane mill and the owner of the farm.
The work of processing the cane began the day before with the cutting of the sugarcane and transporting it to the El Trapiche, sugar-processing machines. The following day grinding of the cane began at 3 a.m and continued until approximately 10 am. With this process 20 hundredweights were produced and then transported by horseback to the community of San Luis where it was sold for the price of 15 colones per hundredweight.
After a while the work of El Trapiche was halted and abandoned until 1989 when Juan de Dios Santamaria Hidalgo and his family took over El Trapiche and started up operation again. Then in 2005 when the family opened the doors of El Trapiche to tourism, it was no longer a place of large amounts of production of sugarcane but rather a place where they can show visitors how the Costa Rican ancestors processed and produced the sugarcane with their educational and cultural tour.
Today this is what the family still strives to show tourists, a tour where one can appreciate a little piece traditional Costa Rican life. We have accomplished this goal with the help of local Monteverde hotels and popular attractions in the area such as the canopy tour, suspension bridge tour, and the Cloud Forest Reserve of Monteverde as well as others who have made it possible for one family to demonstrate a new type of tourist attraction to the Monteverde zone.
Not Students $30
Students $25
Guide, transportation 9:30am/2:20pm
