Six months ago the coffee bushes had their main flush of flowers, it was St Patricks day. This was early for flowering here and accordingly we are getting our first coffee early too. We are honey processing our coffee this year. Today, we inspected progress in the drying room. One tray had turned the magic color of green that indicates just 11.5% moisture. This first batch has been drying for around two weeks and tomorrow morning early, before the temperatures rise we will be bagging it for storage.
Early this morning Emily met Charlotte out on the farm.
Charlotte is a tarantula, bigger than my hand, and quite beautiful. She was out and about probably in search of insect life on the side of a new path through the coffee. With the rains the insects are everywhere.
We have planted around 5000 plants this year and the end is in sight.
We were very nearly done a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, the plants were unavailable to finish, so we were left with 500 empty holes and no baby coffee to fill them.
Today, we secured the plants for the holes. They were grown by a fine nurseryman in Boquete, seen in the dapper straw hat. Although they were expensive they are beautiful plants. By the end of the week or maybe sometime next, we will be all done with planting for a another year.
Today, we hiked the Ruta Sur, or at least a little bit of it. This is the route to the other side of the Volcano. The piece we hiked is in Palmira and is no more than a dirt track and walking paths. Some of these appear to become rivers in heavy rain.
Down through a valley of coffee we went. It was mostly planted with Catuai, over a river and into the forest.
These were some workers accommodations we saw on our way. Rooms with views. What more can I say.
The river at the bottom of the valley was gorgeous, could have jumped in the water but restrained myself.