Discovering Puerto Rico's EcoTourism at Hacienda Verde Tahití

above An allée of neem trees at Hacienda Verde Tahití.

Produced in Collaboration with Discover Puerto Rico

Photography & Words by Alison Engstrom

Having an authentic travel experience, while visiting somewhere new, can provide lasting memories and inspire new ways of living. While many different types of adventures can await in the great outdoors, enjoying an ecotourism experience can be even more enriching. Puerto Rico offers many including visits to a coffee or cacao hacienda (see story, A Place Where Cacao’s Supreme), and even becoming a farmer for a day. Hacienda Verde Tahití gives visitors a firsthand look at running a pitahaya (dragonfruit) and tropical plant farm set over 25 acres, with lessons of resilience.

above Ingrid Rivas spearheads the work on the farm.

Agronomist Ingrid Rivas and her husband Radames Arroyo, a civil engineer, purchased the hacienda in 2011, and initially, they focused on growing Tahiti limes. But they were hit with a severe draught, in 2014 and 2015, and lost their entire crop, but they had no intention of giving up. They decided to pivot and explore pitahaya because it required less water and it was a tropical fruit gaining popularity worldwide.

Just as success was on the horizon, Hurricane Maria hit and decimated all they had grown, still, they didn’t let it destroy their dreams or spirits. “Agriculture is the riskiest business, but it’s what we love and we believe. We want it to be a beginning of a legacy to our family.” She continues, “It is very important to love what you do, to always look up, and work hard.” The farm has rebuilt and is flourishing with pitahaya, which blooms in May and fruits through December, as well as a variety of botanicals they sell wholesale around Puerto Rico and at various points in the Caribbean. They have also opened another arm of their business by offering five property rentals—two are cabins and three are glamping tents—that are eco-friendly that let guests disconnect, be immersed in the restorative powers of nature, and life on a farm. When you visit Ingrid has one hope, “We want people to enjoy the simplicity, to love nature, the land, the sky, and to respect the people that work in agriculture. It is difficult, very humble, and necessary work for all the humanity.”