The secret diary of a green coffee buyer aged 40 and 1/4
A trip around Central America Day 12 and the 5th country Honduras
Road trip !!!!! Today begins at 3 am. Yes there is a 3 am I thought there was only one, but a couple of hours sleep and were on the road. We have 8-9 hours ahead of us and a border control to get over.
Alejandro drives, I offer to take the wheel but not sure he trusts either me or the local police if they pull us over. We leave La Libatad on the coast and hear toward part of El Salvador I never visit. Were heading to the Honduras border. I try to keep Alejandro going with stories of my life, and he with stories of his. More and more on this trip, Alejandro is becoming a super close friend, and I feel me for him.
I end up falling asleep and Ale catches me sleeping on his iphone, its a great picture.
the whole trip Ale warns me of the Honduras border, and Honduras police, he says there bound to be trouble ahead. We cross the border in seconds, and the road is clear and calm, we have no trouble. In fact all the way to Siguatepeque its fine. Even Tegucigalpa the capital which Ale keeps his biggest horror stories for we scoot around in no problems.
We meet Erwin Mierisch at a petrol station just outside Siguatepeque, where the latest in the portfolio of farms Cerro Azul is. A farm we have bought from for a couple fo years, and I would like to start doing more.
We drive up to the farm which is amazing, very beautiful view of the lake. It such a mountainous area and lovely. Picture postcard views everywhere, something I was not ready for from Honduras. Last time visited, I drove through and it was so flat and boring.
The mill is a project under development. Erwin says this will be sorted over the next few months and years, but they have been working hard on getting the farm ready. We go and cup in brand new cupping lab, with amazing viewing platform that again the lake pops in to view.
We eat some very local food at the mill (thats super delicious) and jump in the back of a pick up truck to the farm. And the only words I have is WOW. Its manicured picture perfect again, very little shade is needed on this farm, so you can see the rows and the gullies. Its just well laid out, and lots of cutting back and replanting.
We visit the new farm that Erwin has also bought next door, and shows me 120,000 new plants in their new nursery. I see Geisha, Yellow Pacamara, yellow bourbon, longberry, Laurina its an amazing mass of delicious varietals. This is going to be off the scale.
We get to see the harvest being dropped off for the day, and the picking is impeccable. But then we have to make a quick get away, to drive to the capital Tegucigalpa which will be our overnight stop before an early start to Nicaragua.
I have an admission to make. I shared lots of Alejandro’s worries about Honduras. I have heard that its unsettled, theres car jacking, the police are corrupt, crime is high. But I loved Honduras. The short trip in the city, on the road and at the farm, I really loved it. The farms were beautiful, the vistas breath taking, but the people amazing.
More delicious food at a restaurant called red (I love it already) and great wine, I am ready for my bed, See you in the morning Nicaragua.
