Thursday, February 7th - Tad and I went on a tour to visit and learn about the work of the ‘Café Cuzalapa women’s cooperative’. We traveled by Van 2 hours inland on a day trip to Cuzalapa, inside the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve, to witness the production of the tastiest shade grown coffee in the region.
We arrived at the co-op, formed by 15 women in the semi-indigenous village, to be given a prompt tour of the small facilities. We saw the coffee being dried, bagged and roasted and then we were treated to a frothy cup of java.
We took a walk to see the Century-old shade-grown coffee plantations that continue to thrive and produce fine Arabica coffee beans. Many of these plants are scattered as land was cleared when coffee prices fell in the mid 1980's. Shade-grown coffee is grown under a natural forest canopy as opposed to “sun coffee” or “estate coffee” which is generally monocropped on large estates.
The ladies made us a lunch when we returned and of course we bought coffee, dried pumpkin seeds and dried Jamaica (hibiscus) flowers to make into tea.
We then boarded the van and headed to Cuautitlán, a village in the Aztec Empire. We strolled the town square, visited the church and bought huge $1 Ice cream cones! The church was over 200 years old and all the murals & statues were hand painted. Really beautiful artwork.
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