Snapshots: Panama - Second Full Day

Day two kicked off with pineapple yogurt and coffee fresh from Mike and Debbie's garden. Feeling full and caffeinated we drove into town to hook up with a local zip-lining company.

Since we had a coffee tour scheduled for early afternoon, Brooke, Lex and I followed behind the truck carrying the rest of the participants, along with Heidi and Dominique, up to the hill top so we could jet out as soon as we finished.

We quickly suited up and got our instructional demonstration out of the way.

We took the truck up a bit further, then hiked in to the first push-off point.

The guides were great a pointing out things along the way, such as one of the worlds smallest orchid.

Then, suddenly, it was time to jump off the first podium. I'm not the least bit ashamed to admit I was terrified, which surprised me. One of the guides literally had to pull me up to the cable, hook me in, and push me off before I would go. By the time we were almost finished with the 12-15 lines, I was all about it and couldn't wait to go again.

We're officially certified!

We then headed back into town to grab lunch (for $2!) and wonder around for a bit before meeting up with Rich for the coffee tour of his coffee farm.

Playing soccer in a private church courtyard before we got kicked out.

The wind was ridiculous

Rich picked us up early afternoon and we were off.

Rich retired a few years ago and fell in love with this coffee plantation.

It was great getting a tour from someone who has first hand knowledge of how this end of the coffee trade works. And we learned how much money these farmers do not make. Rich is very thankful he's retired and not dependent on the income of the farm, and is working hard to educate people on how the industry works and ways to make it better.

This little guy, Israel, is the son of Rich's foreman. He's all about making money right and begged to have a job to do when he found out we were coming. Rich is determined he will not be a farmer (most are paid below the national minimum wage, taken advantage of, and rarely make it out of poverty) and is training him in all kinds of other things.

After a tour of the grounds it was time to get down to business - and taste the coffee.

We sniffed raw beans,

got a quick coffee "cupping" education,

and lined up the cups to start tasting the different roasts.

Happiness.

Rich had to reset the roaster so we entertained ourselves in front of the tasting room.

Then it was time to get roasting our own batch. We nominated the birthday girl to be the roaster.

Once we got it started we had some time to kill, so with a few Panama beers provided by Rich, we wondered out to his grandkids' tree house to take in the views.