Marleni showing off her organic coffee plantsWe spent the morning exploring the Finca Cafeteria “La Arboleda” today. We met the owner Marleni, our host of the day and she greeted us in her home with cookies and crackers before we set off. She took us for a hike through her farm, built on a steep hillside above her house. All her coffee was shade-grown, and she had plants that had been in her family farm for over 100 years. When a large shade-tree died, the coffee plants below stopped producing, but as trees grew up and provided shade again, those plants were able to start producing again.
Walking through her farm, we noticed that nearly all her plants had berries on them, but only a few here and there. She explained that rather than having a set harvest season, her plants produced berries at a much slower pace, but more consistently during the year. This allowed for a more continuous production, but much smaller scale than a more traditional farm. Just the day before, she had roasted about 10-15 pounds, and that was her harvest for the week.
Marleni explained that the more traditional newer farms planted coffee plants and the produced berries twice a year in large quantities, and the plants would last for several years before needing to be pulled and replanted. The production was obviously greater, but it required more nutrients in the soil to produce at that quantity. She preferred the organic, smaller production of her small family farm.
She then took us back to her home where she made us a “perfect” cup of organic coffee. While we waited for the water to heat up, we ate “Subido de Maiz”, a corn wrap, similar to a moist cornbread. It was boiled in a leaf and was a traditional indigenous food in the valley. She heated the water to 90 degrees Celsius, and slowly poured the water over the filter to produce small cups of deliciousness. We enjoyed the coffee and sacks and bought a few pounds of coffee to bring home.
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
5 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
6 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
1 week ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.