Gringos on Horseback

It sounds like an hors d’oeuvre, but it’s literal:

We spent Christmas Day at Finca el Cisne, a ranch that has been owned by the Castejon family since the 1880’s. They produce mostly coffee, but also cardamom, chocolate, dairy and beef cattle, fruits and vegetables, and renewable energy. In addition, they run a small guest house and day excursions with home-cooked meals, horseback riding and visits to nearby hot springs.

Our host, Carlos Castejon, picked our group of eight or so up in Copán Ruinas for the 45-minute ride out to the ranch. Joe, as usual, wanted to ride in the back of the pickup truck with the rest of the crowd, but I was glad I played the middle-aged card and sat inside, because Carlos turned out to have a wealth of information to share about the area, ranching, and the world markets for coffee, cardamom, and chocolate. (And because he was educated in the States and therefore speaks impeccable English, I could understand everything he said.)

Like almost everyone we’ve met on our trip, the group was an eclectic and international mix of very nice people. There were two young women from San Francisco on a diving vacation, two French Canadiens from Quebec, one of whom used to be the travel organizer for the Canadian prime minister, a pleasant young English couple, and us.

We spent the morning riding. The horses were really terrific: spunky, but not temperamental; so often trail-ride horses are so bored that they’re just not that much fun to be with. I absolutely loved my horse, Muñeca; she was cheerful, responsive, pretty, and exactly the right size for me. I tried to figure out how to smuggle her home, but I didn’t have a big enough purse with me.

Joe was a bit uncertain that his two weeks of lessons at Camp Algonquian would be sufficient, so Carlos seated him on a very experienced horse, Lucero. Lucero, it turned out, had been Carlos’ horse when he was Joe’s age. It wasn’t too long before Joe got comfortable and confident enough to canter and even gallop a bit.

We rode past some cardamom plantings. Apparently there was a cardamom boom a few years ago, and all the ranchers planted cardamom; now, the price is a quarter of its high, and everyone’s looking for something else to plant.

After becoming reacquainted with the literal meaning of “saddlesore,” we had a delicious lunch, which included fresh watercress salad from the garden, fresh cheese from the ranch’s cows, fresh tortillas, Christmas turkey with an indescribable stuffing of onions, garlic, raisins, olives, and several kinds of chiles, mixed vegetables including the pacaya flower. For dessert, bananas in a caramel-cardamom sauce. And of course, a cup of very perfect coffee.

Carlos took us on a short tour of the coffee processing area, which was quiet for the day because of the holiday. Coffee berries, as you may know, are picked only when they are perfectly ripe and red; the fruit is washed off the seeds, which are then thoroughly dried in the sun. The beans are turned and raked several times during the drying time to prevent fermentation, which gives the coffee and unpleasant flavor. Here is a farm laborer raking coffee beans:

The discolored or misshapen beans will be sorted out, and only the best ones reserved for sale as premium coffee.

The group then piled back into the pickup truck and headed (or rather, jolted) a few miles down the road for a lovely and well-deserved soak in the Luna Jaguar hot springs. A convivial dinner of fresh chicken soup, more fresh tortillas, two kinds of squash in a light cream sauce, and homemade chile sauce followed. The three of us crawled into the truck once more, and Carlos took us back to our hotel, where we slept like the proverbial logs.