On the plaza, on the left as you face the church, is Abarrotes Ulilsis (Plaza Principal 2, tel. 958/525-8091 or 958/589-8721, in Spanish), the store of coffee grower and dealer Filadelfo Ramirez Ordaz, who sells top-quality organically-grown Pluma coffee for about $5 per half-kilo bag, as well as his locally made coffee liqueur. If he’s available, Filadelfo offers to drive visitors out to the coffee plantation area via one of his very old rickety trucks. Best make (or ask your hotel desk clerk to make) an appointment with Filadelfo.
A safer (albeit less thrilling, given the road conditions) route would be to visit the coffee fincas on foot. Beginning at the plaza, walk past the Posada Isabel hotel and continue downhill along the road to the panteón (cemetery). From the cemetery you can enjoy views in three directions across lush mountain-framed river valleys. Past the cemetery, the downhill road leads two miles (three km) through coffee farms, marked by the shiny dark-green-leafed coffee bushes beneath the shady overhead forest canopy. At valley bottom, arrive at a river and a high 200-foot (60-meter) gushing cascade on your left.
After a cooling dip in the pond beneath the waterfall and perhaps a picnic lunch, visit the Tres Cruces coffee finca (9 a.m.–noon, Mon.–Fri.) a fraction of a mile back uphill. There you can see where the coffee pickers bring the harvested beans and watch the beans getting weighed and recorded in the logbook by the overseer, and then washed and set out to dry. Other fincas that you may visit in the area are La Providencia, San Francisco, and Margaritas. Be sure to wear long pants and carry insect repellent to deter mosquito and no-see-um attacks.