Hacienda Buena Vista

Buena Vista was founded in 1833 as a farm and became a coffee estate, and what makes it worth the drive is that the machinery still runs. Water is diverted from the Canas river along a channel to drive a turbine, and from that single source the estate powered a corn mill, a coffee huller and a hydraulic system, all of it restored to working order by the conservation trust that owns the site. The turbine is the only surviving example of the Barker hydraulic turbine, the first reaction turbine, and was named a mechanical engineering landmark in 1994; the trust has run the estate as a museum since 1986. Guides start the machines during the tour, so you see the water gate opened and the wheels take up. Around it stand the plantation house with its furnishings, the slave quarters, the drying platforms and the coffee groves, and the tour is direct about how the labour worked.

The main sights

• The working water turbine - opened during the tour to drive the mill.
• The coffee huller - restored nineteenth-century processing machinery.
• The plantation house - furnished as it stood in the 1800s.
• The estate grounds - drying platforms, groves and the river channel.

When to go

December to April is drier for the hill roads. Visits are by guided tour with reservation only, on limited days, generally Wednesday to Sunday, and English tours are less frequent than Spanish. Book well ahead, as groups are small.

Things to know

Reservation is essential and walk-ups are turned away; tours run at fixed times and fill. English departures are limited. The site has closed for extended periods after storms. The road up is winding and the last stretch narrow.

Nearby

Ponce is twenty minutes south; Tibes ceremonial centre is nearby.

Key facts