Hacienda Lealtad

Hacienda Lealtad was founded in 1830 in the mountains near Lares and has been restored with its buildings, water-driven machinery, drying platforms and the quarters where enslaved workers lived, which the tour addresses directly rather than passing over. Coffee is still grown and processed on the estate and the tour ends with tasting. It gives a fuller picture of how the coffee economy actually worked than most restored estates do.

Background

The estate has also been called Hacienda La Lealtad, Hacienda la Esperanza and, in 1880, Hacienda Paraiso. Its founder, Juan Bautista Plumey, was born Jean Baptiste Henri Plumey in France on September 8, 1797, and came to Lares with 32 enslaved people. It became the largest coffee plantation in Lares, its 69 cuerdas of coffee worked by enslaved people and hundreds of day laborers. A canal and aqueduct brought mountain water to a 17 feet hydraulic wheel for power. In 1880 its owner Miguel Marquez Enseñat paid workers in token money that could be spent only at the estate store. Edwin Soto bought it in 2007 and restored it, and its coffee now sells as Café Lealtad.

Source: Wikipedia, "Hacienda Lealtad"

What's there

• The processing machinery - water-driven equipment from the nineteenth century.
• The drying platforms - the terraces where beans were spread and turned.
• The workers' quarters - the buildings where enslaved workers lived, addressed on the tour.
• The working plantation - coffee still grown and processed on the estate.

When to go

December to April is the drier season and the most comfortable. Harvest runs roughly from August to February, when the machinery is in use. Tours must be booked in advance.

Good to know

Tours run on a set schedule and must be booked; there is no walk-in access. The mountain roads in are narrow and winding. The visit takes two to three hours and involves walking on uneven ground.

Nearby

Lares is nearby, and Adjuntas is southeast in the mountains.

Key facts