Our Great Adventure: Boquete Day 337 21/08/2015

We'd missed the opportunity to visit a coffee farm when we were in Colombia so decided that we would whilst we are in one of Panama's main coffee growing areas. We'd book a tour leaving at 1400 so had a leisurely start to the day, enjoying breakfast at a local cafe. The town has become a very popular place for US retirees. In fact the cafe was full of them and it clearly catered for them with the size of the breakfasts. We ordered pancakes, which were more like apple sponge pudding, and both left over half. Back at the hostel we started to update the blog and do a bit of planning for Costa Rica when we were joined by Hilda from Berkeley, California. Her family were out rafting and she was keen to hear where we'd been. The three of us then popped out for lunch at a local restaurant before we said our goodbyes and went off on our tour. We were picked up by Rich who owns Finca dos Jefes in the hills above Boquete at about 1450m. It was raining when we arrived (and cold!) and we were glad of the large veranda that we sat out on whilst he told us about how he came to own the farm, the coffee industry and it's challenges, particularly for the local farmers in Panama. Afterwards we had a walk around the farm before going back to taste his coffee. We also had 'tea' made from the bean husks. Rich roasts his own beans on the farm and we had a demonstration of the process. It was all very interesting with some similarities with what we'd seen on our tea plantation tour in Malaysia. It certainly made us think about the products we buy back home and the importance of fair trade. In the evening we went to Mike's Grill but after having a quick look around did a u turn and instead went to an Italian nearby. Ironically this was full of Americans as well, the reason why we'd not stayed at Mike's Grill!