3/27/15
I am glad that we have the group of people that we do on this trip. We all get along pretty well. In order to live, we don't need a lot of material things. All you need is food, clean water to drink, a roof over your head, and family. This trip has made me think about always trying to only take as much food as I will eat without wasting it and using less water by taking shorter showers.
Like one of the posters for world water day said:
"You don't appreciate the water you have until the well goes dry."
Appreciate what you have while you have because it might be gone tomorrow. Just Saturday and flying home Sunday. Then back to school in another week where we will all share our wonderful stories from Nicaragua. Tomorrow, we are going on a tour of a coffee plantation that's part of La Selva Negra. Here, we will be at a good elevation and climate for growing coffee. Then, we will load all of our suitcases and ourselves to the van and truck and head back to Managua. Waking up bright and early on Sunday. Woo hoo. Home sweet home once again.
3/29/15
Yesterday was our last full day in Nicaragua. Friday, it was our last day working on the hand washing station and we finished, pretty much. After spending the night at La Selva Negra, we went on a coffee tour. This was really neat. It reminded me of a few things I had learned in the coffee class from 2 years ago. Mostly just that coffee is usually (mostly always I think) grown at higher elevation and the 2 main kinds of coffee. Robusta and Arabica. Robust is most commonly used as an instant coffee, is bitter and doesn't taste very good. Arabica can have a wider variety of flavors that depends on the bean and how it is roasted. The ones I have tried before and at the cupping after the tour had a fruity flavor and the other a nutty flavor which was very good.
Sample of different kinds of coffee.
Photo taken by Sadie.
Coffee bag from Selva Negra Coffee Plantation.
Photo also taken by Sadie.
The guide showed us a picked coffee plants as the harvest season had already past. The coffee plants need a lot of shade in order to grow properly so there were a lot of trees where the coffee plants grew. Then, the rinse and ferment the beans to remove the skin. This creates a slimy waste water which is then reused as irrigation for other plants I believe.
This was one of a machines used in the coffee bean processing.
Photo taken by Erin.
Then the beans are sent to Matagalpa, a nearby town to be dried in the sun and later exported to other countries such as the United States. The guide also showed us that the plantation also harvests cacao beans. We all got to sample some. And for someone who doesn't like pure dark chocolate usually, they were really really good. Then, they showed us all the small houses where the workers all live. We saw the kitchen where they cook all the food. the pots were humongous.
I thought it was cool how they used the discarded coffee shells and beans to fuel the stoves. Very resourceful and efficient!
Coffee is a big part of the economy and culture in Nicaragua. At the plantation, there was housing for the workers to live in with their families. The plantation pays their workers above the average Nicaraguan. The coffee is harvested and the majority of it is exported all over the world. Coffee was first planted in the Pacific region in Nicaragua. The coffee harvesting season goes from October until February. About 95% of coffee plants are shade grown (equalexchange.coop). It is almost always grown in the mountains such as the Isabelia and Dariense ranges.
The Isabelia moutains where coffee is grown in Nicaragua.
The coffee industry supports over 45,000 families. This helps a lot of people in a country with 50% unemployment.
At the plantation, we got to do a sampling of three different types of coffee.
One had a fruity flavor, one a nutty flavor, and one no flavor at all
because it was Robusta, the variety of coffee used to make instant.
Later, we are going back to Managua.
Adios.
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