Finca El Cisne

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One of the highlights of our time in Copan was our overnight visit to Finca El Cisne, a 2000 acre ranch. Carlos, one of the sons in the family which owns the farm, was our fantastic host during a day and a half of riding around the ranch to see the cattle, fish ponds, coffee and cardamom plantations, and numerous varieties of fruit trees and vegetables. During our ride on the first day, we stopped to sample fresh young coconuts, tamarind, and a bizarre fruit called guabana. We had a great lunch of fresh grilled tilapia from the ponds, which we ate by the swimming hole on the property - a very welcome stop after a morning of riding around the ranch. There was even a cocoa bean tree beside the guesthouse, but unfortunately the raw beans are a long way from chocolate!

Later that afternoon we also visited their coffee and cardamom processing plants. There is nothing like the smell of pounds and pounds of freshly picked cardamom concentrated into a small room...heaven!!

The most challenging part of the day was gettting used to riding horses again. I should mention that these horses are not trail-riding, follow the leader types...true ranch horses, there's nothing more they enjoy than a good run. We had made the mistake of admitting that we had some experience riding (although Carlos chose to ignore that it had been about 20 years since the last time for both of us). The other woman who was with us hadn't ridden before, so she ended up with the placid horse, while Berm and I got a pair who always wanted to be at the front of the group, even when that meant galloping past everyone else to make it there. By the end of the day we'd reached truces with our trusty steeds, and they let us end the day feeling like we were in charge!

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Photos

Carlos and a coffee bush
What it looks like before Starbucks gets hold of it

Comments

[Drago]

Bonanza
you guys look gracefull up there on your stallions, how is the saddle sores? or is all the fresh air giving saddle sores of a different kind..hehhehe stay safe

[sienna]

nice!
Hi Berm and Ally! Looks like you are having an amazing time, wish I was there with you!!!!

[Neil Pandit]

Glad all is well!!!
Hi, Sounds like you had the horses that we didn´t want to take. We have only ridden horses twice in our lives so we went for the placid ones. It was still good fun and managed to get the horses to gallop a bit before they tired of our weight!!! Anyway, hopefully hear more from you soon. Neil

[Carlos Castejon]

Hola de la Finca
hola Alison and Berm One year later I found your blog on the net... It has been more than a year. It always nice to read comments like yours. Thank you and hope all is well is your lives. And so you know, Ali, the horse you rode Cleopatra has now a three month old colt name Helio, Berm, Lucero is 20 this year and still the best. Carlos Castejon Finca El Cisne