SAN JOSE – Costa Rica will have its own theme park devoted to coffee. According to Tico Times, the project is scheduled to open in 2017 and will be located south of the capital. Watching the full process of growing, processing and marketing coffee will become part of Costa Rica’s many attractions at the country’s first coffee theme park.
The Parque Temático del Café will be built on a five-hectare coffee farm in the community of Frailes, Desamparados, south of San José. Frailes is one of Costa Rica’s main coffee-producing regions with 1,800 coffee producers.
Construction is expected to last three years and will include a processing plant, restaurant, coffee shop, laboratories, coffee cupping rooms and a museum. It will be funded by the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Zaira Marín Robles, general manager of the Desamparados Agricultural Center, said the project hopes to attract visitors interested in rural tourism and will help diversify income sources for coffee producers of that region. During a second stage of development, the center will offer lodging that allows tourists to extend trips and enjoy nearby attractions such as trout farms, Marín said.
Further details will be disclosed during the “X Coffee Fair – Frailes 2014,” to be held Jan. 17-19.
The fair will offer several types of coffee for sampling and for sale, including organic coffee, traditional Tico food and drinks, concerts, exhibits, barista demonstrations, art and coffee-picking contests. Local artisans will sell crafts made from coffee bush wood.
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