Earthly Connection – Part 3

After another day of work in the coffee fields it was the weekend and we had company arrive the Friday night. The guys from the permiculture group arrived and I was going to have more of an in-depth talk about the farm. The family I was staying with was the parents of one of the member s and he has worked on the farm for years.

Saturday Dino the member of the permiculture group and the part of the family I was staying with showed me around the farm. In Tingana there are about fifteen families that live on the reserve. His family is the only family that produces coffee that is organic and the rest use forms of pesticides on their crops. We then talked about the coffee beans themselves and where the coffee is sold too. In Perú there is not a big demand for coffee in restaurants and barely anyone drinks coffee. In restaurants you usually find they serve instant coffee. So with such a low demand all the good coffee that is produced on the farm is sent out for international sale. Perú is stuck with the bottom of the barrel coffee that is picked out of the good batch. It is a very interesting industry and I have much more respect for coffee and will be more informed on where my coffee is coming from.

After the tour of the farm we headed into the field of coffee to harvest the last of the fruits. It was coming to the end of the season of coffee and there was not much left on the plants. It was nice this time working in the field because I was able to talk to group as we worked. The group is made of three guys that are in the university at the moment studying environmental engineering. They are 19, 20 and 24 years of age and it was fun hanging out with them. I have not really hung out with guys my age and never really saw into the world of guys in Perú. There are a lot of similarities to the structure of guys down here is Perú as in North America. In Moyobamba though the culture is heavily surround by motorcycles and every guy in town seems to have one. Actually everyone in town rides motorcycles instead of cars even women. It was interesting the first time seeing a woman riding a motorcycle with her purse of to the side and heading to work. There are barely any taxi cars here; they have three wheeled motorcycles that bring the people around the town. It has been fun riding on the motorcycles around the town but has been very insecure as well because there is a lack of safety with not wearing protection. The upside is that everyone is riding motorcycles in town so people a very aware to motorcycles on the road. In North America it is the opposite where people drive cars a lot more then motorcycles and do not see or pay attention to motorcycles on the road. So yes I am taking a risk with not wearing protection though I have felt comfortable with this situation.

After a good lunch break after the coffee picking we headed to the river to go fishing. Also going up the river was a chance to see monkeys in the trees and more wildlife. Though we had to make sure we caught fish because if we didn’t we would not get supper. We got our supplies together and headed into a dugout canoe. As I said before the river seems calm but the current is very strong and we had to go up stream first. It was not bad with three of us paddling but there were some tricky parts to the trip. Paddling through the river was amazing and very scenic with the trees hanging over the water and birds flying around. The river here is much tighter then the part that I entered Tingana and nature is in your face. The river is a lot darker and when we stopped paddling to start fishing the forest came alive. You could hear the birds from far away and just the sound of the water and trees moving could be heard. You could hear a leaf drop from the top of the canopy of the tree and hit every branch on the way down.

We found out who were the good fishers on this trip up the river. By the end of the trip I caught three fish; Sandro caught one fish along with Junnior. Dino on the other hand caught fifteen fish and we joked about that this is the reason why he is the one with the girlfriend and not us. It was a good bonding moment for the group not only for me but form them. They will be starting an organization from nothing and will need a strong group to change the minds of people here in Moyobamba.

On Sunday it was not a day of rest for us. We headed into another coffee field that needed to be cut down. With saws in hand we started to remove the coffee plants that were in decline and left a stumping hoping for shouts to come up the following season. After we headed back up stream to fish some more in the river and this time around I got to see monkeys swinging from the trees. As we approached an open part in the river we could hear the tussling of branches near the edge of the river. You could also see the movement of plants swinging side to side. It was hard to see the monkeys at first because of the darkness of the river and the colour of the monkeys. Then you could see the white faces move and then I got to see them leaping from one tree to another. It was exciting to see them and we got to see more upstream a little bit more and they were closer to the boat. As with seeing the monkeys it was a good day of fishing bringing back a lot of fish once again.

That night we made a bonfire outside and roasted the catches of the day. I got to try a fish that is similar to the catfish but with an exoskeleton. It was like eating lobster because most of the meat was in the tail of the fish and you had to crack it open. It was good to have the bonfire after a good day of work and fishing. It was a good bonding moment with the guys of the group even though they had to go through a little of a struggle of communication problems. Though they resolved it and the day still turned out great along with the weekend.