Day one was mind blowing in itself. To think you can get on a plane at home, something you're so used to, and a few hours later you're off that same plane and interacting with a world that you've only dreamed about.
Manuel at Don-Eli Micro Mill
El Llano de La Piedra
The next thing I remember was a couple days later when Carlos took me to the fields above Don Eli Micro-beneficio at which we had already been processing hundreds of pounds of coffee out of every evening. This is part of his park named Tematica (various subjects in english) where he hopes to create a coffee themed retreat. The lot of coffee trees he brought me to at Tematic is called Chamaco after its previous owner. During the hike up the breathe taking landscape and through the fields of coffee, Carlos was telling me the story of the lot of coffee.
Carlos showing me around Chamaco, Tematica
Carlos helping me pick coffee at Chamaco, Tematica
He told me that Chamaco bought the land in the 70's and as it was popular with many farmers at that time to uproot the rainforest and plant new neat rows of a high producing and disease resistant catuai coffee variety, Chamaco decided to keep the rainforest and the 50 year old typica trees that already grew wild. When Carlos bought it from Chamaco a couple years earlier he decided to uphold the same philosophy with the land.
Picking my competition coffee
I'm with the coffee that I will use for barista competition
When we were walking through the field I felt so centered and I was really focused on being in the moment. The forest was so peaceful: the air. the smell, the sounds, the light. We literally had to find these wild, 100 year old typica trees growing under the canopy of the forest. The typica grew so tall and only birthed a few of these tiny cherries. Carlos sat me down deep in the field and told me that he wanted me to pick coffee from this lot, process it, and compete with it back home.
Maria Jose, Carlos' youngest, helping me pick coffee
Maria Jose helping pick at Chamaco, Tematica