Biking the Coffee Finca Trail
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
48
141
Trip End
Ongoing
Loading Map
Juayua,
El Salvador
Monday, March 26, 2007
After a quick breakfast we hopped on the mountain bikes and followed our guide, Juan Pablo, out of town. This is when we were reminded that we were in the mountains. The first massive hill made us get off our bikes and walk them up the last quarter. It was a very humbling experience. About 30 minutes of biking later and we turned off into a massive coffee field. This land is all part of the coffee cooperative that has over 600 members and has been around since the 60´s. We peddled along the dirt road until we came to a massive La Ceiba tree. The tree trunk was easily 10 feet around and 100 feet tall. As Juan and I climbed into the tree he told me he guesses it is about 100 years old but is not sure. From up in the branches we could see all the back to the town of Juayua. Kay took a bunch of photos of me acting like a child in the tree and then we headed out of the fields.
We rode into the center of small town called San Jose de Majada (pronounced ma ha da) It was a cute little square with a pretty church and a few people around. This is a very sleepy town and I doubt they get many visitors. Out of town and up another massive hill that required us to walk again we arrived at the coffee museum and processing plant for the cooperative (Cafe de Majada Coopertiva). Across the street from the museum is the processing plant. When we peaked inside the gate the first thing we saw was two giant signs that said Starbucks. (more on that in a bit) There we met Ms. Beltran who is the museum currator.
Bags for Starbucks
She gave us a lovely tour of the museum and then took us to the gardens out back so we could have some coffee. While enjoying the shade and the coffee she came back and told us that she had arranged a tour of the plant for us. Cool!We crossed the street and were met by the plant manager who proceeded to give us a two-hour tour of the entire plant. We saw everything from where the raw beans come in to the final packaging for sale locally and internationally. The plant is massive and about 30-40% of their production goes directly to Starbucks. They ship all over the world for them. The bags we saw were stamped with Starbucks Hamburg and were being shipped out later that day. Starbucks even has their own rules for processing that ensure they meet the organic requirements they have set forth. For example their beans are all dried on large cement pads under the sun while beans for other companies are dried in ovens or with some chemicals. Starbucks also only receives raw beans and do all the roasting themselves. This probably explains the burnt taste because all of the coffee we have tasted here, same beans, is incredible and smooth. Surrounding the processing plant as far as you can see are fields of coffee. The manager told us that the first thousand meters up the hillside are all Starbucks coffee trees. After our tour and another cup of coffee, I´m buzzing with caffeine right now, we get invited to come back on Wednesday for a picnic at Ms. Beltran's family finca. We thank her and accept the invitation. The people here have been incredibly nice.
We hop on the bikes and head for home. Along the way we stop at a little plant farm (called a Vivero - or nursery in english) and Juan points out all of the flowers from the area, including several types of Orchids. This area is known as the Ruta de Flores (flower route). After walking out bikes up a few more hills we are at home and dead tired. The entire bike tour lasted 7 hours and we need showers.
