When Don Adriano Cabrera arrived to Santa Cruz 45 years ago to begin his new life in the Galápagos Islands, he had but a single sucre in his pocket. The bustling town we see today was just a collection of small cottages with less than a thousand residents, yet with land costing 400 Sucres an acre, his dreams of owning a farm of his own were still a long way away.
For three years Don Adriano took what work he could find, until he had scraped together enough money to buy a small parcel of land in the Santa Cruz highlands and El Trapiche was born. Don Adriano planted sugar cane and coffee, and later the chocolate for which he has become famous.
Today his farm has grown to over 60 hectares yet he still farms by traditional methods, exporting his products to Chile and the United States. Although now in his eighties, he shows no signs of slowing down and welcomed us to El Trapiche in his own inimitable style.
