Life on the Farm

Day 8 Tuesday February 6, 2018

A night of heavy rain that fortunately, towards sunrise lessened to a mist. Listened to the birdsong until getting up and pulling back the curtains to discover fabulous views across and down the valleys where the coffee was growing. By the time we’d finished our fruit salad and orange juice from the farm with fresh baking, granola, and turned down the eggs and tortillas, the sun had broke thru. We were then off on a tour of the coffee farm.

The farm is 64 acres mostly planted in coffee. It has a small building with about 8 suites and some cute as can be cottages. Our guide took us through the whole process from seed to cup of coffee. We’ve been on coffee tours in the past but none as rustic as this. In the busy fall coffee season, 140 workers are employed to pick beans getting paid about 25 cents a kilo. Good pickers can harvest around 500 kilos a day which translates to $43 for an 11 hour day. It is hard work as the slopes are so steep that it’s difficult to walk across let alone with a 50 k bag of coffee beans. No mechanical picking here. When the beans are sorted some have a small insect in them, making them sub-standard are sold for instant coffee. We learned a lot about the coffee trade through our very informed guide.

After the tour we were served a Colombian lunch. Colombians eat a lot of meat. Neither of us made it through the serving and Gail had ordered the vegetarian option.

After lunch Gail and Andrea from Switzerland, took a stroll up the seriously steep road to a lookout across the valley. Looking down the hill, it is hard to believe that anyone could work these slopes.

Back at the lodge, it was time to pull out books, laze by the pools and try to build up an appetite for tonight’s offerings.