Category Archives: Boquete Coffee

The Panama You Came to Enjoy

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WHO SAYS YOU HAVE TO SPEND A FORTUNE TO LIVE IN BOQUETE?

Yes, you can pay over $2 million and buy a Gringo-style mansion, or buy a Panamanian-style home for $50,000.   Now the Panamanian home will be Panamanian-style, which MAY include a tin roof without any sound barrier (Think about that when it rains!), no hot water, and open windows (It IS the tropics!.   Or the Panamanian home may be a $1 million spread in Valle Escondido.  So, just like at home (wherever “home” may be), there is are, at least in Boquete, a wide spectrum of choices.

I know a very nicely furnished home for rent in Valle Escondido for $2,500 a month . . . OR, just to prove Boquete doesn’t have to be expensive, and in fact “expensive” may not be what you are or SHOULD be looking for in Panama  . . . and to put my money where my mouth is . . .

<img alt=”Living Room C” src=”http://richarddetrich.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/living-room-c.jpg?w=300&#8243; height=”200″ width=”300″ />FOR RENT: Nestled on our coffee farm in Palmira, surrounded by coffee, banana and orange trees, fully furnished 1 bedroom guest house at the entrance to our farm. Over 1,000 sq ft with living room (sofa, lounge chairs, flat screen TV, CD/DVD player), bedroom (queen bed), dining room (table & chairs), kitchen (with basic cooking and eating utensils, coffee maker – of course! – microwave and toaster oven), inside washer and dryer, large walk in closet and storage room. Hot water on demand (electric US-made Titon water heater, not propane), computer safe, and more. Covered porch, and flower-filled fenced in garden with space for small vegetable or herb garden. Birds and butterflies abound and help yourself to bananas, oranges and lemons. 10 minutes from downtown Boquete, 30 minutes from David.  $700 per month with 3-month minimum lease. $650 per month with minimum 12-month lease. Includes electric and water. 10% discount for cash upfront. Nonsmoking inside. Perfect for single or couple not wanting to spend a fortune. richarddetrich@yahoo.com. 507-6584-0213. Skype:richard.detrich

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Want to live in Boquete on both of your Social Security checks?  Perfectly possible, but contact me immediately.  Want to burn through as much of your trust fund as possible? We can accommodate that as well!  It’s just that a lot of folks, a lot who don’t have any idea what they are talking about, promote the idea that Panama is dirt cheap.  It isn’t!  Others, equally off base, promote the idea that Panama has become too expensive.  It isn’t!   Like living in the US, it depends on what you want, what you can afford, and what choices you make.  The cost of living in Altoona is cheaper than Ventura.

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Life On A Coffee Farm During Harvest

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Now that I’m back home in Panama and we are in the midst of the coffee harvest, I thought you might enjoy a look around.

Life starts in Panama at 7 am.  Usually I’m up and on my computer around 5:30 am, but the work day starts, and the pickers arrive and start picking by 7 am.  We don’t need an alarm clock.  If we should sleep in the dogs will be sure to wake us up because THEY eat at 7 am PROMPTLY.  We’re cat sitting for our friends Jackie & Brad, who often look after our animals while we are away.  Their cat Meow Meow knows how to push his way right into the mix.  “Did someone say ‘food’?”

While most coffee farms bring in Ngobe Bugle workers from the Comarca to pick, we rely totally on our Ngobe Bugle neighbors, some of whom have been picking for us since we bought the property in Palmira.  Melida has picked for us since our first harvest.

This is Milton and this picture was taken when we first bought the farm.  Milton was the first friend we made in Palmira.  A young kid who loved interacting with us and following Nikki around.

This is Milton today in the orange shirt!  Picking for us and hefting 60 to 80 pound bags of coffee above his head like they were bags of pillows.On our farm picking coffee is a family affair. By law children cannot pick coffee in Panama. But what are you going to do, leave your children at home unattended? So the whole family comes to pick: dogs, babies, kids, parents. Infants are generally hung in a tree in a white coffee sack while mom picks.  The kids play in the coffee bushes, hide and seek and a zillion games children can still make up if they don’t have Ipads and computer games. The kids run around barefoot through leaves which we know have at times poisonous snakes. But these are Indigenous children who have been running around through the leaves in Panama since before Columbus. The older kids more or less look after their siblings.

At 4 pm all the coffee picked for the day is brought to our little covered deposito where it is carefully measured out into yellow pales which hold one “Lata” (the official measurement) and each person’s pickings are recorded. The pickers are paid $2.25 for each 5 gallon pail or “Lata.”

Nikki’s own little twist is to celebrate the end of the day with big bottles of Coke appointing one very officious, proud little kid as the “Coca Cola Jefe” [or Coca Cola Boss] who gets to serve everyone.

So this is what our good coffee looks like . . . all these beautiful red coffee cherries ready to be sold to the beneficio which will process them and eventually send them around the world. The yellow cherries are also ripe and are a particular strain of Arabica we have that turn yellow when ripe.

Once the pickings are all counted and bagged they are loaded onto the truck to be taken to the beneficio to be sold. We are getting $6.60 per Lata, of which $2.25 goes to the picker, about $2 goes to fertilizer, chemicals, new plantings, and about $2 goes for labor, so roughly we net 35 cents a Lata. If a Lata may end up as 10 pounds of coffee that sells in the US for $15-18 a pound – you can see the money is NOT in growing coffee.

Ken Davids wrote in COFFEE REVIEW, “ . . . Boquete Valley resembles California’s wine-growing Napa Valley. The Boquete terrain is more precipitous than Napa’s, its river more sparkling, its farms less pretentious, but the feel of an entire community focused with passion and sophistication on a single specialty crop is familiar . . .”

At the beneficio our coffee is mixed in with the coffee of all our neighbors, little farms who could not possibly afford the very expensive branding and marketing schemes of the likes of Fair Trade, Bird Friendly Coffee, Rain Forest Alliance, yada yada. But Boquete produces some of the best coffee in the world, specialty coffee, Geisha coffee and others. Coffee, like wine, has an amazing variety of flavor and taste . . . and we are proud to be a part of the coffee culture of Boquete and helping to preserve something that we hope will endure.

The coffee is my wife’s retirement project: cruising the Seven Seas is mine. People always ask if we “make money” on coffee and I reply that it is a “hobby farm” meaning that my wife promises me that someday we will break even.

Every night folks bring in their coffee. Some folks bring 100s of bags, others a half-dozen, and some may come in a taxi with only half a bag. It all gets mixed together and eventually goes around the world. A lot gets sold to Starbucks which uses our flavorful coffee to boost the flavor of their various blends. So if you’re in line at Starbucks, know that perhaps every billionth bean is from our farm.

Sabino’s Coffee Beneficio

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It turned out that we had several sacks of our “B” grade green coffee beans that we had held out for our own use and were not going to use so Nikki gave it to our farm worker, Sabino, who lives on our farm, to see what he could do with it.  Sabino and his family are processing the coffee the traditional Ngobe Bugle way, packaging it, and have developed a cottage industry selling the coffee in little one cup packets to our Palmira neighbors, mostly other Ngobe Bugle friends.

I thought you’d enjoy seeing the process.

The coffee is “toasted” in a steel pan over an open fire in a traditional fagon cooking arrangement which is where dinner is also prepared.

This is no $50,000 coffee roaster with precise temperature and timing. This is the traditional way that coffee was roasted long before high tech! It is a light roast, uneven, certainly not the “burnt” (to quote my Indian guy) Italian-style roast. And it is surprisingly good coffee given the rather crude roasting process.  The key is to have a hot fire and pan and keep stirring as the coffee is cracking away.

Since most locals buy their coffee ground and aren’t into $2,500 Jura Capressio machines (and ours has NEVER worked after being sent back to the factory in the states at our expense several times) that supposedly do everything but drink the stuff for you, the coffee must be ground.

This is a cottage-industry, a family affair, so the kids grind the coffee on their patio.

Packaging is of course necessary. I searched all over for the right bags with gas valves that cost a small fortune. Sabino uses plastic bags, 300 for $1.50 in town, and makes each bag into two packets, each a single serving of coffee, or about two heaping tablespoons.

Now how to seal these things. Well I spent over $100 for a sealing machine. Sabino uses a candle.

Who said anything about vacation?

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This is my six-week vacation between 3 months on GRAND PRINCESS and 3 months on RUBY PRINCESS. Vacation? No way! It’s work, work, work. I’ll be exhausted by the time I get back on board the ship. We live on a farm, but I”m too old and soft to be a farmer. I’m not cut out for this! I’m up at 5am, work on my lectures for a while, and then it’s off to plant, and transplant and trim. I’ve finished replanting 100 trees since 90% of them were dead or dying because they were buried above the soil line and the roots of these baby trees were stuck in 4″ of pure chicken shit. Today I started planting another 300 trees. Coffee trees, like most tree crops, periodically need to be replaced. Not that they wouldn’t live decades longer, but their production trails off. [Like me?] Part of my problem is I really can’t communicate. I try, but without the nuances of the language and a complete vocabulary . . . I’ll blame the fact that the workers shortcut, do about half of it the way I asked, etc., not on their being Panamanian, but on my inability to speak the language. Heck, I can’t even chew them out properly! Sure, you can come to Panama, hang out with gringos, and never really need to speak Spanish. But if you want to do something, to undertake a project, to work with people and have them work with you, you’d better speak their language . . . and pretty fluently. May I live so long! It doesn’t help that I’m here, and then I’m off to work on the ship and in 3 months manage to forget most of what I’ve learned.

On the happy side of things . . .

Several student at the University in David who are studying to be language translators have asked, as their final course project, to translate by books [ESCAPE TO PARADISE and CRUISING THE PANAMA CANAL] into Spanish. I think it’s a fantastic idea and I wish them well. We’ve been trying to get together, but with me gone much of the time it has been a challenge. They said they’d come up to Boquete and I agreed to meet them, “In front of the municipal building by the post office” last Saturday. Of course I forgot that it is the Dia de Los Ninos in Panama, a big children’s day celebration that is a time for games, dancing, bouncing things, pony rides, story time, art work – you name it! – for kids. And in Boquete all of that takes place . . . you got it! . . . in the plaza right in front of the municipal building and post office. Amazingly, with zillions of kids and parents and music and dancing, we managed to connect.

Remember Abe Lincoln ?

I have a soft spot for student in college and university, I guess because I spent so much time myself in school.  Remember Abe Lincoln?  How he read and studied by firelight.  Well, that spirit lives on.  The quest for knowledge and to go to school is particularly awesome when it’s a 21-year-old Gnobe Bugle kid whose parents never went to school at all and who lives with relatives on a neighboring finca where he helps pick during the coffee picking season.  He’s studying at the university here in Boquete at nights and wants to be an English teacher.  First class the teacher states that she wants all homework assignments submitted by computer.  Right.  Understandably that is the way schools work now, BUT how does a highly motivated kid . . . motivated enough to walk 1 hour to school at night after working all day and then walk 1 hour home in the dark after school  . . . a kid who spends every spare moment studying . . . how is this kid, who lives in a shipping container with his extended family of aunt, uncle and nieces and nephews going to access a computer when they don’t even have electricity or running water?  I admire his courage, his persistence, his willingness to struggle, his not expecting anything from anybody.  Is he at a disadvantage with the Latinos in his class?  Certainly.  Does he see that as a problem?  No, he is determined.  So whenever we can use extra help we always hire him.  And we spend time going over his assignments and helping him prepare for tests, shaking our heads at the educational system in Panama.

The Music of The Spheres

Sometimes on weekends . . . party time . . . the blaring of all the radios in town, and the thumpa-thump of someone’s boom box can drive you nuts.  I always want to get up early Sunday morning, stick some mega speakers in front of my house and blare out Widor’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.  But I resist.  But tonight, as are many weeknights, is a church night when something is going on at the tiny Pentecostal church up the road where my farm worker attends.  It is so nice to take the dogs outside at night, under the starry sky, and hear the sounds of praise accompanied only by a guitar and enthusiastic clapping.

Questions . . .

Is Tocumen airport now doing fingerprinting and facial scans? There was news several months old, but nothing current. Love your Blog! Caitlan

Thanks Caitlan! As far as fingerprinting and facial scans . . . not that I observed. Although Panama is increasingly in bed with the US’ world plot to control all information so is eagerly financing this kind of thing. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me.

Richard: I have your book and subscribe to your blog. Can you tell me the most active tennis facility/community in Boquete? Jack McDonald

Jack, I’m not a tennis buff, so I’m probably not the person to ask. Valle Escondido I know has one tennis painted cement court. Lucero Country Club, formerly known as Cielo Paraiso has at least two clay courts. and I think Boquete Country Club has a couple of courts. Maybe some of our readers can add more information.

Hi Richard, I recently bought your book…as my wife Laurie and I are close to retirement and have been studying the best places to retire once we do….My wife has a month’s sabatical next year and is looking to spend her 4 weeks in Panama to check things out…I intend to join her the last week,depending on what she discovers….We have read much on Panama, but find your book and style extremely helpful..Everyone interested in seeking adventure outside the U.S. and is considering this part of the World, should definitely buy your book!

I have so many questions and so little time…(and I’m sure you must be bored to tears with repetitive questions)….but here may be a new one for you….
I am an avid Fly Fisherman…love cold water/stream Trout fishing…I read somewhere that the mountain streams around Boquete contain Trout…is this true?

Thanks again and look forward to more discussion..
P.S. When the Mrs. reads this I know she’ll be thinking..with all the questions we have . , you ask that one…….Oy Vey…:)

lol, Jeffrey K.

Jeffrey, Thanks for the comments and I’m glad you enjoyed my book. Please write a review on Amazon: it’s easy to do and it makes a big difference! I know that Panama is world-renowned for ocean fishing. Many of the world’s records for deep-sea fishing have been set off the Pacific coast of Panama. I know there are peacock bass in Gatun Lake: I’ve caught them! And I know that my Embera friends live off tilapia they catch in the river using underwater goggles and a homemade spear. We grow trout in Boquete and it is a specialty in many of the restaurants here. I believe that Jimmy Carter went fly fishing in Panama. I’m told that during the US Canal days, officially or unofficially, some of the streams above Boquete were stocked with trout. Costa Rica, about 40 km away as the crow flies, advertises fly fishing in some of the rivers that flow off our volcano, Volcan Baru, since we share a national park with Costa Rica. I am told that the water used in processing coffee in Boquete, although totally natural, somehow is no longer healthy for fish, but that if you go high in the mountains you can still find trout. Someone out there must have a better and more complete answer for Jeffery!

Tomorrow, tomorrow . . .

Tomorrow I take a rest from farming, lecture planning and research, and get to ride with the bus driver for our Panama Relocation Tour from Boquete to Panama City. Since now I’m always heading to or from the ship I always end up flying between Boquete and Panama City, so I’m looking forward to the ride down . . . especially with someone else driving so I can just look out the window and appreciate the scenery.

Then I’ll be blogging live all about our tour.

Just to close . . . a picture of my breakfast with berries picked right off my berry bush and bananas right off my tree. Life is good!

Good News!

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Two recent studies indicate that drinking coffee is good for your health!

According to CNN:

Two cups of coffee may help protect your heart . . .

A meta-analysis of five previously completed prospective studies finds that drinking two 8-ounce cups of coffee a day gives people an 11% lower risk of developing heart failure, compared to people who don’t consume any coffee.

The analysis, published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation: Heart Failure, reviewed five studies conducted between 2001 and 2011 and included a total of 140,220 patients.

“Heart failure shares risk factors with other cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes are particularly strong risk factors for heart failure,” explains Elizabeth Mostofsky, the first author of the analysis and a post doctoral research fellow at the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“We think coffee is lowering the risk for diabetes, which is lowering the risk for heart failure.”

But don’t reach for the coffee pot just yet. Drinking two cups of coffee may help prevent heart failure, but Mostofsky and her colleagues found that drinking more than four cups a day seems to undermine the protective quality.

“Protection slowly decreases with more consumption and it seems there’s no further benefit for people who drink five or more servings a day and there may actually be potential for harm,” says Mostofsky.

The studies that made up the analysis did not take into account if participants drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. However, Mostofsky notes that the studies were conducted in Finland and Sweden, two countries where caffeinated coffee is typically consumed. The studies also did not look at how the coffee was brewed, how strong it was, or what time of day the participants drank it.

The study also didn’t note whether the coffee participants drank was quality coffee or junk coffee. Generally Scandinavian coffee tastes are more refined and sophisticated than other parts of the world, so one might conclude that drinking GOOD coffee isn’t only beneficial to your health, but to your mood, satisfaction level and taste. Did I mention Panamanian specialty coffee is very popular in Scandinavia.

Go ahead and click the ad!  If enough folks click the ads I make a few cents on each click which is my sole payment for all the work I put into this blog!  Click at it!  And who knows, you might just find something interesting.

Another opening, another show!

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If you’ve ever been behind the scenes on a giant cruise ship just before showtime you know what a madhouse is!  There are cramped dressing rooms, multiple costumes laid out for fast changes, people running here and there, stage hands pushing sets into position . . . Cast members doing final stretches . . . practicing their plastered on smiles . . . the stage manager announcing . . . “One minute everyone!”  Lights out.  Stage cleared.  Music builds, lights come up, curtains open . . . and it’s show time!!

But those few minutes before . . . when everything is ready . . . waiting . . . waiting to pop!

And that’s what it’s like right now on our coffee farm in Palmira!

The winds are howling, the dust is blowing, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining and the greatest show on a coffee farm is about to begin!

The trees are loaded down with the buds of coffee blossoms just waiting for the show to begin!  Coffee had several blooms a year, but this initial bloom is the big one.  Because it blooms over a several month period, when it ripens the harvest stretches over several months, generally November through January.

Coffee has clusters of fragile-looking, white flowers that smell like orange blossoms only not quite as cloying.  It is a fantastic, fragrant smell.  Frankly, I’m surprised that no one has come up with a coffee blossom perfume!

When the entire farm is in bloom it is an amazing experience and just one of the many, many special things about Panama, things that offset the winds and blowing dust of the dry season.

I missed the winds, and the coffee bloom last year because I was at sea, so it is extra special for me to be home and enjoy the blooming season.