Today we saw what happens to the coffee after it leaves the farm and before it gets put into a container and shipped to Level Ground. We visited Cooperativa Cafetera de la Costa, the co-op that acts as a facilitator to find buyers for individuals or groups of coffee farmers; RED, the association of organic coffee farmers, responsible for internal audits to insure that coffee farmers comply with organic certification standards and Alma Cafe, the milling plant and finally the shipping port of Santa Marta.
It was extremely hot today so we were all quite relieved to have a couple of hours free at the end of the day to take advantage of being in the beautiful location of Santa Marta by taking time to go for a swim.
Tomorrow morning we catch an early flight back to Bogota where will be spending our day there before flying back to Canada. Our suitcases might be full of some dirty laundry and purchases of the places we travelled, but our hearts will be forever full of the memories we had on this trip.
Our mode of transportation for the day!
What is that bandaid on your arm, Alicia???