The tour then proceeds to El Nazareno, a stop that leads to Guayabital—a coffee-growing village—and descends to the Las Rosas ravine, with a visit to the Los Luises estate to learn firsthand about planting and harvesting; it culminates at Orellana Café, where a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or a mocha made with beans grown and processed in the municipality brings the visitor’s journey full circle.
This itinerary design not only supports tourism diversification; it also provides a clear narrative about the added value of cocoa and coffee when they’re integrated into the cultural circuit. Interacting with producers, artisans, and baristas helps visitors understand how cultivation, fermentation, and roasting techniques shape the sensory profile—and how that knowledge translates into entrepreneurship, jobs, and community pride. At a time when travelers seek authenticity and purpose, the route offers an intimate, walkable, photogenic experience that interweaves landscape, heritage, and gastronomy with a sustainability approach that prioritizes local crafts and purchasing. Institutional validation also sends a signal of confidence to operators, guides, and small businesses investing in low-impact, high-content tourism.
In parallel, the Ministry of Tourism also validated the “Chocolate Route” in Araure, conceived by producer Juan Pablo Alfonzo of Cacao Portuguesa. Scheduled to launch in November, the tour proposes a journey through the “scents and flavors” of cocoa from cultivation to its transformation into chocolate, and it connects with urban and heritage landmarks: it starts at Bolívar Square, passes by Nuestra Señora del Pilar Church and the Puente de La Mujer, and ends at the “Villa del Carmen” Cocoa Production Unit, where visitors observe processes, ask questions, taste, and understand the bean’s traceability. The experience is conceived as an immersion combining history, popular religiosity, music, and gastronomy, with an explicit emphasis on environmental sustainability.
The announcement gained symbolic weight around World Tourism Day, celebrated on September 27—a date that underscores the need for more innovative and inclusive destinations. In this context, Portuguesa’s cocoa routes represent a natural continuation of a global trend: turning agro-productive chains into tourism stories capable of moving, educating, and more fairly distributing the benefits of travel across the territory. By integrating interpretive stations, points of sale, and rest areas, these routes highlight the efforts of families and cooperatives that—despite challenges—have kept ancestral knowledge alive. The staggered programming of activities—from gentle walks and guided tastings to simple workshops on grinding and tempering—makes it easy for diverse audiences to participate, from students and families to specialized travelers.
With these validations, Portuguesa positions itself as a living laboratory of experiential tourism built around cocoa—a product that is both memory and future. The opportunity now lies in coordinating operators, local governments, and communities to guarantee quality, safety, and service standards; strengthen signage and guide training; and ensure growing demand does not overwhelm the carrying capacity of rural spaces. If everything is thoughtfully aligned, every cup served at Orellana Café, every bar signed by Julia Artigas, every step through the Los Luises estate or “Villa del Carmen” will become another link in a shared narrative—one that turns Portuguesa into a destination and cocoa into the sensory passport of a region opening to the world with an aroma all its own.
