We built the trail across the finca so that our visitors could walk through an amazing diversity of landscapes. We tried to harm the forest as little as we could, carving a very basic trail. There are no bridges, no stairs, no facilities whatsoever, and yet, the path will lead you across meadows, secondary and primary forest, creeks and even a small waterfall.

The 'long' trail is about 3.4 km long and brings you from 515m to 640m. You climb up the crest and walk through the other side, crossing 2 creeks in the way.

A finca is a farm whose area lies between 5 and 500 hectares. Less than 5 Ha, it is called a Quinta, over 500 Ha, it is called an Hacienda and, in between, a Finca.
Our finca is mainly covered by forest and that's the way we love it. We still have 14 Ha of meadows to develop farming activities though. We believe that it's more than enough to create a well balanced project, combining organic unextensive agriculture and reasonable livestock. As a consequence, we did plant 2.000 coco bean trees, hundreds of fruit trees and vegetables - mixing them to avoid soil depletion (and we did not forget to plant flowers because aesthetic is part of our project as well).
As for livestock, 15 steers, 3 horses and a dozen ducks are running around, nearly free...

Although Bijagua used to be a historical area for coco beans plantation, it seems the local weather is not adequate for this type of culture. However, we wanted to give it a try. The 2.000 trees we planted on a very steap meadow are now struggling their way through. We had our first fruit in 2016. Then we lost all our plants in the flooding caused by the hurricane Otto. Then, because we are stuborn, we replanted 1200 trees in a better protected area of the finca. Eventually, we hope to produce a bit of our own chocolate. After all, we were Belgians once...

The finca was once covered with meadows dedicated to milking cows. The previous owner decided to let the forest regrow on the steapest parts. We decided to carry on the process by planting 200 trees in such a way that the forest would extend to our house. We also built a few dams so that flowing water from the creeks would create ponds. The idea was to attract wildlife out of the forest.
That is why we planted a number of fruit trees. Moreover, with the help of a local association whose self-assigned mission is to repopulate the country with endemic plants, we planted rare or endangered species to take part to the protection of nature here in Costa Rica. Hence, trees such as Cocobolo (Balbergia retusa), Ron Ron (Astronium graveolens ), Corteza Amarillo (Tabebuia ochracea), Cristobal (Platymiscium pinnatum), Almendro de Montaña (Dipteryx panamensis) or Caoba (Swietenia macrophylla) are gently growing. Of course, we'll be long dead before they reach their maturity but that does not matter.