El Porvenir

After being in the flatlands for the past week, we got a chance to travel up to a coffee co-op called El Porvenir that sits at the top of La Pelona, a mountain about four hours and 70/80 miles from Nueva Vida.  The pueblo is so isolated that halfway up the rocky dirt road we all hopped off the bus and loaded onto what is fondly known as an ox cart, pulled by a tractor and got super cozy as we rode for another hour up the rest of the way.  We arrived at about 1:30 and were greated by a wonderful lunch prepared by Ines, the wife of Rene who is a nice round man nicknamed "Watermelon."  We got to hike around the coffee plantation and learn how the organic farm produces its coffee, cocoa, bananas, and avocados, using 80 year old machinery. We ended up at a hut on a beautiful overlook that showed us the border of Honduras to our left, El Salvador straight ahead, and the rest of northern Nica to the right.  The sunset behind the active volcano to the left was spectacular!  That night we saw the moon rise up over the plains of Nica below us, and the expansive sky was littered with brilliantly shining stars.  We got to sleep on the patio in hammocks, which was at first thrilling and later quite chilling.  The sun and roosters woke us up at around 5:30am and we started our descent down the mountain towards the rest of our day at the sesame plant.

JHC also started a co-op at a sesame plant that is just getting up and running after a dude abandoned it a few years ago.  The guy who runs JHC, Mike, gave us a tour of the plant and the process with which the seeds are peeled and washed off before being bagged and shipped to the US, which is their main export.  Our jobs today were to dig two large 7 ft deep holes where plastic water waste bins will be placed.  Our boss Pedro started making fun of us and our newly acquired layer of dirt that made us suddenly look Nicaraguan.  We finally finished the day and all passed out on the three hour bus ride back to the JHC.  Tonight after dinner we get to go to a discoteca, so let's hope we can all rally in time for a fun night disco dancing away!

Saludos,

Grant, Kari, and Trevor