Vidanta Resort’s Heart of the House Tour

Vidanta Resort’s Heart of the House Tour

We donned dorky paper chef hats when Christan from the Joy Squad took us on a 90-minute tour behind the scenes of the massive Vidanta Resort in Nuevo Nayarit/Vallarta, Mexico. From housekeeping, to food service, to wine, to excruciatingly delicious gourmet chocolates, we had a chance to see how a large luxury resort is run.

Vidanta has six resorts in Mexico, and Nuevo Vallarta, just north of Puerto Vallarta, is the flagship, with 5,000 employees trained to serve guests with an amazing attention to detail to make their experiences at Vidanta extraordinary.

We traveled through 1.7 kilometers of tunnels in an open-air van escorted by a staff member on a segway. In the huge bowels of the complex, we found administrative offices, carpentry, laundry, vehicle repair, electrical repair, spare parts, supplies management, bakery, ice cream factory, homemade jams, grocery store, trash and recycling (11 tons of recycling per day!). We saw one of the employee cafeterias, the staff gym, shuttle buses for employees, a hospitality training classroom, and a simulator in which staffers learn to serve meals, clean and prepare bedrooms, and more. We were treated to bread, jams, charcuterie, chocolate, and – the best surprise of all – discovered a wine cave for tasting!

The Heart of the House Tour runs once a week, on Wednesdays, and is limited to ten people. It’s worth a few hours in the morning if you’re curious about how Vidanta is run. And it’s worth it to see chocolate high-heeled shoes!

Info:

Vidanta
Vidanta Nuevo Nayarit/Vallarta
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Where Does Chocolate Come From? Touring a Cacao Farm, Part 2

We continue our walk through the cacao farm Finca Hekiti in northwestern Puerto Rico as we watch the cacao get harvested from the bean pod, learn the process of converting the pulp into chocolate, and taste the final product!

(Watch Part One here)

Info

Airbnb Experiences Link 

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Where Does Chocolate Come From? Touring a Cacao Farm, Part 1

We visited Finca Hekiti on an “Airbnb Experience” to learn where chocolate comes from. We learned so much more about the conservation of the forest and the life within it, that we are releasing this video in two parts. It’s long, but if you are interested in chocolate, and in forest sustainability and diversity, take the time to follow Finca Hekiti’s Co-Founder & Co-Director Ricardo Albarracín on this tour of the nine-acre farm in northwest Puerto Rico.

This is how the Airbnb Experience we signed up for (at a cost of $35 each for 3.5 hours), entitled “Educational Farm Tour in a Cacao Forest”,  was described:

“We will receive the guest, walking through the cacao forest, learning about the farming practices when it comes to fine grain cacao, learn about the importance of agroforestry, permaculture and nature conservation. Depending on the tree production during the time of your visit, you will have the opportunity to view the cacao fruit, taste the fruit fresh from the tree and perhaps have the opportunity to harvest or plant cacao. We end the experience tasting the cacao fruit pulp and artisanal chocolate tasting.”

But Finca Hekiti is much more than a chocolate farm. It’s a passion. Hekiti Eco-Agroforestry Education Organization is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agro-ecological farm focused on the conservation and management of existing forests and their biodiversity in the Las Marias and Añasco mountains. It’s dedicated to education in agroforestry, agriculture, tropical fruit varieties (primarily fine grain cacao), forest inventory, fauna and flora. Oh, and chocolate! Come learn with us!

Info 

Airbnb Experiences Link 

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