On the very last day of my Plus3 Ecuador trip, we did one last company visit to Hacienda Victoria. Throughout the past two weeks, I could almost imagine myself living here and there in Ecuador. But, the minute we pulled into Hacienda Victoria, I knew this would be somewhere I would absolutely love to work.

Hacienda Victoria is the world’s largest producer of cacao nacional. They pride themselves on the care and specialization-per-customer that they put into their crop. The hacienda is 500 hectares and is only 12 years old. We had two tour guides- the head of agriculture, and the head of business operations. Both spoke very good English and were very fascinating people. Their hacienda is a big deal but they also took pride in how they help smaller farms in Ecuador too.

Stephanie, the business operations rep, has the job that I could fully see myself doing. She travels to clients to pitch their crop and processes. She has to know the hacienda inside and out, market it towards the target client, and then sell it.

I grew up on a commercial horse farm and spent a lot of times traveling between different farms with my dad. There is a type of professional and “homey” aura to the farms I grew up loving and Hacienda Victoria has it too. I can tell they work hard and have a passion for their crop. Other than the atmosphere, their grounds are absolutely beautiful.

Hacienda Victoria is located about an hour from the second largest city in Ecuador- Guayaquil. The city can be dangerous at times; but from my short drive through it, it seems really nice. I know there are many museums and landmarks to explore in the area. On the other side of the hacienda is the coast, which I really enjoyed. I would like to try more local food from the coast, as I had seen a huge fish market. I am not sure if I would live towards the coast or towards Guayaquil, but I know I would just love to work at Victoria.