First Mañana Madera Coffee Harvest for 2009

Our coffee has begun to ripen. First come the delicate, white, barely fragrant flowers. Next, clusters of green beans form and eventually turn red. Dark red means ripe and time to pick. Some of the beans mature faster than others and recently, the first batch was ready to be plucked. Omar, our gardener did a sweep and gathered the ready reds. We took the sacks full of coffee to our neighborhood coffee beneficio, Cafe Sitton.
Coffee is measured by the "Lata"....see the little blue container? That's a Lata. Our preliminary pass yielded 7 Latas. Prices change and usually increase as the season progresses but this early in the game we got $4.55 for each Lata. We will continue to harvest through February when the season concludes. We are thoroughly enjoying being Coffee Baron and Baroness Pigott and savor a delightful cup of Mañana Madera coffee from our 2007 harvest each morning. Come on down and try it for yourselves!

The Mother Nature Twist

Took a trip to Panama City to pick out some furniture essentials for our new home which is supposed to be completed in early December. The shopping experience was quite different than it would have been in the US to say the least but all in all it was a successful, fruitful journey and to put a positive spin on it, a learning experience.

Upon our return, Mother Nature decided to throw a big twist into the mix to keep things exciting and dumped tons of rain in the mountains above Boquete. The rivers began to churn and eventually rage and ultimately flood. We were evacuated from our little river side rent apartment last night by a Bombero (fireman) who told us to GET OUT "Ya" which means RIGHT NOW in Spanish. Now refugees, we've been taken in by our kind friends Thomas and Michelle who fortunately have electricity and water and are being most hospitable indeed.

We checked on our rent apartment today and it thankfully did not flood. It is without electricity/power though and will likely stay that way for at least two weeks. Not exactly sure what the game plan is from here, but we're just feeling thankful that we're okay and that our rent house and future home are survivors too. Check out some of the pics, pretty amazing. The power of water is certainly not to be underestimated: http://www.boqueteweather.com/flood.htm