Starting off the day was horrible for me. The night before I had really bad allergies. All night I was sneezing and blowing my nose. I finally was able to fall asleep like around one in the morning and that definitely did not make waking up at 6:30 am easier. My throat was killing me in the morning, which was quite frightening because that is usually the first thing that happens before I catch a cold. Lucky my engineering abroad family packed for situations like these. I was given an allergy pill and powdered vitamin C. This definitely made me feel way better and ready to take on the long and exciting day.
Walking up to the biofabrica in the morning is always hard for me. Especially because the road up there is so steep plus adding the high altitude leaves me very winded, but it's definitely not because I'm out of shape. Once getting to the biofabrica the view always leaves me speechless. The village of Provedencia between the vibrant green mountains and within the clouds is truly an unforgettable site. At the biofabrica we plan out the daily tasks for the team that stays at the biofabrica and the team that works on the trout farm site.
Once at the trout farm it's time to work. Most of the team has had their focus on the bioswell aspect of the project, but Maria, Matthew and I have taken charge of the surveying aspect. The surveying of the land was doe to indicate us where and at what elevations the filtration system had to be placed in order to work properly. On the third day we finished taking elevation points and began to dig on the forth day to start creating the terrains for the filter system to sit. Today before lunch, we finally finished creating all the terrains ar their proper elevations and sat the tanks for the filter system. After lunch, I began to create trenches the water piping will be placed, while the rest of the team filled the bioswell with gravel. Overall we got a lot done on the trout farm which feels amazing, but was very physically exhasting.
After a long day of working hard, David and Arturo gave us an amazing tour of the coffee process. We began at the biofabrica where David explained to us the intital stages of the coffee plant. The coffee plant must be allowed four years of growth before beginning to pick them. When ready for picking the coffee plant gets picked three times in the summer before entering the winter, when the picking season is over. Thousands of immagrants from Panama abd Nicaragua come during the picking season for three months to pick the bright red coffee bean.
Once picked the coffee is taken to be weighted and tested before being processed to the wet-meal. At the wet-meal the coffee bean is cleaned out by extracting the pulp and mucus, creating borsa. Borsa used to be thrown in the river because nobody had no use for it, well not until Arturo found a perfect use for it. He began to use it at fertilizer, now everybody in to region uses the borsa instead of contaminating the river. After the Wet-Meal the bean is laid out on the ground to dry. If there is no room on the ground anymore they send the bean to dryer machine that dry's the bean in 12-14 hours. It was fascinating to see how much work goes into something I drink almost everyday. This tour really opened my eyes to appreciate farmers that are going the extra mile to farm organically.
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