Sorry for the brevity of the prior post. Things move pretty fast around here. We split into two groups at the Bogota airport, and one group header to Perria, and the other, my group, jetted off to Armenia. It’s a short flight (35 minutes) or a long drive between the capital and these famous growing regions, so the airplane was the only way the two-day tour would work.
After landing, the group hopped in some busses and went to the nearby town of Beunavista, and later we traveled on to the research farm of Agrado.
The first big surprise came when we reached our first stop and found coffee at a high-end cafe in the middle of a finca named San Alberto served by wandering American baristas Scott Conrey and Jay Caragay.
After breakfast and awesome coffee served as Chemex, French press and espresso, the baristas clambered into some vintage (and frequent and reliable Colombian transport choice) Willys Jeeps. Off we rolled to some nearby farms where many of the baristas had their very first hands-on coffee farm experience, and by hands-on that’s exactly what I mean. After talking with the local farmers about their livelihood, we got down and dirty and after a detailed instruction, we planted coffee trees. They’re actually each tagged with our names so sometime after 18 months we can come back and pick the first harvest!
The day turned hot and sunny while we were at Agrado, as we moved through several stations set up to demonstrate what the research farm does on a daily basis for local farmers. You can read more about it in the April/May issue if you’re so inclined.
Although the day has been packed so far, we’re far from through. We still have the Juan Valdez theme park to hit tonight! As always stay tuned for more…
