I woke up a little after five this morning, and thought I’d go watch the sunrise. But the sky was covered with clouds. So I stayed in bed instead.

We were planning to go on a long drive up to a high altitude. So I decided to go for a walk to get some exercise before breakfast.

Mountains were visible even through the clouds, and the hazy sky was just so beautiful no matter how many times I looked up. It was a very pleasant morning.

After breakfast, we drove two hours on a bumpy road to Carmelo’s cafe, where we had a cupping the day before 🚗

It has been a while since the last time I had a sweet drink and baked sweets! The espresso he served us was also very delicious💘🥺

It was so nice and enviable to see the cycle of harvesting, processing, and roasting the beans themselves to serve at their own cafe☺️

After a refreshing break at the cafe, we set off on another long drive toward La Paz.

The scenery outside the window changed dramatically as we drove our way up the mountain from the green-rich Amazon area.

It was sunny when we arrived in Bolivia.

But today, visibility was very poor due to fog or clouds. It must have been really difficult for the driver😮‍💨🙏

I was worried I might fall sick at an altitude. But I didn’t feel any discomfort as we got to La Paz.

I spent the first few days thinking, “There were plenty more days to go!” But time did fly by after the midway point.

I can’t believe that this trip will be over after tomorrow’s cupping🥺

I’ll write about the final day next!

On Day 1, we had a cupping and went on a wet mill tour.

The founder, Mr. Don Pedro is a very kind man. He told us that he had been working in an office before starting his coffee farm, and then he shifted his focus to coffee. When I heard that, I felt close to him. I felt a sense of empathy with him☺️I was glad that everyone could watch the Meet the Roasters Video during lunch to get to know me and LATTEST.

I felt inferior to the team I was traveling with because it was my first time cupping Bolivian coffee, and I didn’t have any knowledge about it. Or I had never even handled it in my store, either.

The only thing I did have was not knowing anything about Bolivia.

So, there must be things only I can discover and feel!!

Let’s make the most of this opportunity, learn a lot, and have a lot of fun!

With that in mind, I enjoyed many cups.

During the wet mill tour, all the sites made me realize that “coffee is science”.

I was surprised that the biology I had studied in university had something to do with coffee.

Even though we did everything on the itinerary for Day 1, Pedro suggested that we all have a drip competition on the second day! Everyone could roast the beans they use. So, we did.

I stayed behind to see the Probat test roasting machine☺️

When I returned to the cupping area, I found that everyone at the Agricafe was cupping the newest beans. I will never forget Pedro Pablo’s youthful smile at that time.

I told him he looked so happy.

He said he was happy because we were cupping the beans that were roasted just a couple of days ago😍🥳💛

That moment got me all tingly￰,  and I realized how much he loves coffee.

Meanwhile, as I watched Matsuki-san and Hashimoto-san roasting, daddy tapped me on the shoulder and said to go with him while he was cupping.🙌

I enjoyed cupping these excellent coffees🥰 After that, of course, everyone who was roasting also enjoyed cupping.

On the ride home, I learned about the charm of farms in the Samaipata area–I’d love to go there someday! I gradually got more and more captivated by Bolivia on this trip.

After a gorgeous first day, we started the next day with cupping.

After that, they drove us to the Alasitas farm past their farms. Don Carlos, the longest-serving Agricafe employee, radiated an aura of kindness! He watched over us with a smile from start to finish.

We had an Argentine-style barbeque with a drip & Aeropress competition while marveling at the beautiful farm.

It was a very extravagant time.

It was a wonderful experience to learn that even within Bolivia, different farms have characters of their own.

Mr. Celso had a calm and shy expression and a very gentle smile.

Surrounded by forest, his coffee plantation gave the impression of growing coffee together with nature.

We moved to the farm where the Geisha coffee is grown and continued climbing the steep slope until we reached where it is grown.

Breathless as we were, the view from the rugged slopes we climbed was breathtaking.

Yet it was easy to imagine that a harvest here would involve hard labor.

The slope was steep, going up or down, and we had to carry nearly 50 kilograms of harvested coffee cherries🤯

Although I already knew how many people put in much love, time, and effort to make a cup of coffee, visiting the actual farm made me want to roast and extract coffee with more love and gratitude than ever before!

Mr. Celso’s story of the abrupt termination of the plantation he had built and grown with people in the U.S. has its reasons. However, it was painful to hear that he had to change his existing employment and drastically reduced income. Thanks to the people on the farms, we can brew delicious coffee. I realized again that the coffee shop must also build a relationship with them to have a stable livelihood.

But of all people, I forgot to take a picture of Mr. Celso😭

PS On the way home, I ran into a grower washing his beans in the river water.

After arriving, the first thing we checked out was a nursery where they grow 500 seedlings of F1, a hybrid variety he created.

Cross-breeding can be a daunting challenge. You have to grow a single variety in an airtight environment and cut off the stamens before they open up. And then you have to take pollen from other varieties’ stamens and pollinate the pistils with a pen, one by one. He was such a geek who studies and researches coffee trees all the time👏

That wasn’t all I saw at Finca Isabel.

They were trying their best to grow coffee trees as naturally as they can, taking good care of the trees that have always been there.

This area was surrounded by the woods, and it was really comfortable being there, with birds chirping nearby. They don’t try to chase away the birds, which eat ripe coffee cherries. When birds eat cherries and excrete the cherries, they take the droppings and do natural processing with them, calling it Bolivia bird. Hats off to their ingenuity.

They were really meticulous about cherry picking, too. When I tried to eat cherries, Fernando stopped me and said we can’t just pick all the red cherries like they are ripe. Then he picked the right cherries and handed them to us. Ripe Geisha cherries were so sweet like candy that I could eat them all day. The taste of cherries was different depending on the farm. That’s partly because different farms grow different varieties. But even the same variety tasted different between the farms. I wonder if this is what terroir means. I think I could understand what they mean by terroir a little better.

They teach pickers about what kind of cherry they are supposed to pick, like the color and conditions. This is to ensure the quality of cherries. So they don’t pay pickers for the amount of cherries picked, but pay them a fixed daily allowance. This goes to show how much they are committed to picking only the best.

And here again, women pickers were hard at work, too. When I asked why women, they said women are better at distinguishing between different shades of red😳

I was really happy to see so many times the power of women in Bolivia!

The drying beds in their home were also very beautiful. And the cherries being dried also tasted good😌

It was cool to see how they respect and preserve nature, and continue to explore a new coffee.

We started by picking coffee cherries.

Nassia told us to pick only the ripe cherries. What I thought were ripe cherries were actually not ripe enough by her standards. It really was difficult to quickly recognize which cherries are ripe and which ones are not. How skilled pickers are. I could only pick one ripe cherry😂 But I feel a deep attachment to that single cherry🥰💘

After picking, we removed the seeds from coffee cherries with a pulper, washed fermented beans, and laid them out to dry under the sun. We washed the beans in wooden buckets. I learned that just a couple of women do the washing, which is surprising because draining dirty water from the bucket takes quite some strength.😳

Nassia said she enjoys the work very much because she gets to hear “the voices of coffee” (the sounds of coffee when she touches them.)

I thought this is probably what terroir means.

LATTEST is also powered by women. I felt affinity for the Bolivian women’s strength. I was glad to know that there are so many women working hard around the world.

The experiences on the farms were precious. But the highlight of the day was Nassia’s loving hospitality.

After picking, we were treated to drinks at the lodge. Afterward, locals and Nassia performed Aymaran  music and dance as they served us lunch.

Nassia’s grandfather dedicated the music to the Mother Earth. We savored the bounty of nature.

We taught them how to use chopsticks, and after the meal, all of us danced together. It was such a heartwarming time☺️

We received a welcome in a traditional Aymara way

After lunch, Nassia took us to Elvis’s farm she’s been wanting to show us.

As soon as we arrived, I was surprised to see the amount of chemicals being sprayed around. We asked why they are using agrochemicals in this day and age, and they said the first batch of seedlings they bought from the government have been dependent on chemicals for growth, and that it would be difficult to keep them growing without chemicals/

But Elvis also grows organic coffee in other sections of his farm. Nassia wanted us to meet Elvis because she wanted him to know that direct trade can be an alternative and we can be trusted. Nassia just wants to bring more vibrancy to the community.

Nassia finally took us to a very big waterfall. It was such a magnificent sight. We actually got even closer than we did in the picture, close enough to feel the splashes. It was a healing experience that cleansed both our bodies and minds.

Throughout the day, I was really impressed with how purely hospitable Nassia and her family are, taking us to various places and entertaining us with amazing hospitality.

Thank you so much Nassia and Nassia’s family!

It’s been such an eventful Day 2.

Every night, I fall asleep before I realize it.

If I go on like this, I can’t share with you the thrills I feel in real time😭

I will do my best and wake up early starting tomorrow😂

Turning back the clock to a time before my morning post…

We left Japan on September 5. After stopping over at Los Angeles and Peru, we landed in Bolivia at 6 in the morning on September 7.

The airport is at an altitude of 4,000 meters.

I was worried that I might get altitude sickness as soon as I arrived. I did feel slightly anemic, but I was able to get through it by focusing on my breathing and taking deep breaths☺️

Visible from the airport were 5,000-meter high glaciers. It was breathtaking to see their colors change as the sun rose🥺

But apparently, there used to be more glaciers. Once they melt away, they are gone forever. I felt that I need to do more to live a lifestyle that’s friendly to the Earth.

Impressed with view after view I’d never seen before, we drove through the streets of La Paz, nestled among tall mountains, climbing back up a hill toward Taipiplaya, our destination on Day 1.

It was really fun to see the changing scenery from inside the car, from barren mountain slopes with no green to areas lush with bushes.

After a nearly 5-hour drive from the airport, we got to a beautiful house where three generations live together.

She and her family introduced themselves in their garden, and gave us such a warm welcome, thanking us for coming all this way.

They served each of us a naranja citric juice as a welcome drink. It was really tasty.

We had fish caught in the Amazon, potato, papaiya and homemade salsa sauce for lunch. Most of the ingredients were locally sourced. The family lived such a wonderful lifestyle, consuming locally grown foods and cherishing the local community.

After lunch, we visited a nearby washing station that processes commodity coffee.

My impression of commodity coffee was mass-production with less care in each step of the process. But this washing station was small-scale.

But workers didn’t seem to examine the quality of coffee cherries. They are paid a fixed amount. We were told that exceptionally good beans are processed separately. But by the looks of it, that extra labor didn’t appear to add to pickers’ wages. 

They are doing what they can to produce coffee beans with few sales methods. But if they had alternative selling methods, I wonder which they would choose.

After leaving the washing station for commodity coffee, we visited the farm of Roland, a cousin of Juan.

A woman had just come back from picking. She has a little boy. She lives and works here during the picking season.

It was a special experience to see coffee trees and cherries and the pulping work in my first ever visit to a coffee farm.

Two days have flown by since we arrived here.

I harvested and processed beautiful coffee cherries yesterday.

It was hard to figure out which cherries are ripe and which ones are not.

Though I only scratched the surface of it, I learned how difficult it is to pick coffees.

I’m looking forward to seeing what today holds in store for me!!