Posted by Chris DeMarse on October 17, 2008 at 3:22am
At this point in my series of blogs I should be writing about my amazing coffee experience in Panama. I should be talking about the amazing amount of knowledge and perspective that I've gained as a part of visiting some of the best microlot farms in the world. I should be mentioning the brilliant amount of care and passion that is pour into each plant as it meticulously develops throughout the season. Instead I am going to talk about the rain; the rain that poured into rivers in the streets of Boquete and rushing over my Chaco sandals; the rain that fell like like gently trickling waterfall off the hood of my rain coat; the rain that washed all of my hopes and dreams of making coffee a reality on this trip away in utter defeat.I only had one day in Boquete to make things happen. Our trip was on a tight schedule and I was not the person in charge of that schedule, so I found our itinerary to be constrictive when it came to our stay in the mountains. We spent the early hours following our stay at Hostal Refugio Rio trying to track down the two contacts I had concerning private coffee tours. I called Daniel Peterson from Hacienda La Esmaralda knowing that there was a good chance he might be out of commission due to his wife's pregnancy, and when I reached him this was quickly confirmed. Daniel and his wife had invited their first miracle of life into their family just the day before. Much congratulations to Daniel and his wife.So I started calling Graciano Cruz from Los Lajones Estate to try and track him down.His emails were amazingly helpful and he seemed more than happy to show us around. The first few calls to him got dropped on the pay phone we were using, which was not completely defeating but rather annoying. I relented and went back to our hostel to wait for a possible email from Price Peterson because Daniel said he might get a hold of his dad to see if he might be free to show me around instead. At this point I was a bit apprehensive as I felt things crumbling beneath me. " Am I really going to miss out on a coffee tour?", I thought to myself.Growing impatient of both my situation and of the steadily pouring rain at this time, I made my way down to the gas station just down the street for one last attempt at reaching Graciano and a call to Price. I reached the office of Hacienda La Esmaralda where I was greeted by a chatty Panamanian woman spouting off a barrage of spanish that I couldn't really follow because Yo hablo espanol muy puquito. I just said in english, "Is Price Peterson there?", to which her response was, "Un momento por favor". Excellent. A chance to finally talk to to someone who might fulfill this dream. Price was more than cordial and seemed glad that I had called, but the rain seemed a bit daunting to the task of touring a coffee farm so he offered a tour the following day. I wanted to scream obscenities and stomp in puddles of dirty rain water at that very moment. I didn't have a "tomorrow" in Boquete. There was only a "today". I told him that, if I could work it out, I would call him in the morning. After a couple more attempts at reaching Graciano I sunk my head and and sullenly dragged myself back to the hostel.I started out knowing that this trip was not all about the coffee; it was about a lifetime experience and an opportunity to live differently for a week. It was very much that experience, but even days after the experience I feel like the kid in high school that wished he would've tried out for the soccer team or gone to open auditions for that production of Le Miserable. I cannot accept that this is the end of the story for me and Panama. Tickets are again only 350 dollars for February and I know that the Hacienda La Esmaralda will be in harvest season. So, the question remains: who is up for a trip?
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