Winding our way through Bolivia

By Florent Gout, Coop Sol staff and Green Bean manager

Usually when we travel to coffee producing countries, the plane lands in lowlands…and then we make a trip up to the coffee regions to visit the producer groups… but in Bolivia it’s the reverse!  In May, Mike, Brad, Shiyi (CoopSol Intern) and I landed in the high lands where the capital La Paz is located. The Bolivian capital is actually a combination of 2 cities. What they call “La Ciudad” is the actual downtown containing the touristic area, the shopping streets, and residential districts It’s located 3,600 m above sea level, and this is where we stayed the night we arrived, in the peaceful Hotel Rosario. The sister city El Alto, is the popular district of the capital, located above La Paz, on a dry plateau at 4,000 m above sea level. El Alto is a popular district where people live and where coffee processing plants and coffee exporters’ offices are located. A huge cliff splits La Paz from El Alto.

During our visit in La Paz, we had two very interesting meetings at Fecafeb’s (federation of coops who exports Bolivia’s coffee) office to better understand their role and the coffee world in Bolivia. We also toured the Mejillones processing plant where the coffee from AIPEP and PASYBOL (our producer partner coops) will be processed this year. Mejillones is a coop member of Fecafeb located in Caranavi region and owners of the plant in El Alto. Driving around we witnessed the success of President Evo Morales by reading the tons of “Evo para siempre” or “Gracias Evo” billboards.Through it all, we staved off “la puna” (altitude sickness) by drinking tons of the infamous coca tea … but as everybody knows… “la hoja de coca no es la droga” (the coca leaf is NOT a drug!)!

We continued our adventure with Lili from Fecafeb, to the coffee region of Caranavi. We drove down from the “moon-like” atmosphere of El Alto, to the lovely rural city (or village) of Caranavi, – that’s 4,000 to 1,200 m in 5 hours! We met with Lisa and Ariane from DED, a German NGO that supports Fecafeb with on-site agronomists who work with coffee producers. Over the next couple days, during our countless road trips in the DED jeep, we learned that Germans not only have Michael Schumacher (famous formula 1 driver)… but also Lisa and Ariane who rank among the top drivers of the world! After our time in Caranavi, we drove 3 hours across the forest of Caranavi and to the warmest welcome ever at Pumiri, AIPEP homebase. We spent 2 full days with AIPEP…which gave us ample time to chat about the coffee trade, fair trade, organic production, prices, and coop management – conversations that would last into the night! We also visited a farm where Brad and Mike got to try their hand in picking coffee cherries for about an hour.That night, we stayed at the local school which had been set up as a dormitory for our visit! On the way back to Caranavi, we stopped by the collecting center of Mejillones to cup some fresh lots from AIPEP and Mejillones in the very well-equipped lab which is managed by Martial,a national cupper.

After a shortvisit to APROCAFE and a member farm called La Golondrina, from whom we have just begun sourcing, we said goodbye to the wonderful region of Caranavi for a long drive to the region of Inquisivi where Pasybol is located. We did the long trip in 2 steps, with a night stop in the quaint tourist town of Coroico. During the 7 hour-drive from Coroico to Pasybol on tiny, dusty, winding roads alongside the mountain precipice, we experienced breathtaking landscape. We passed through the coca region, crossed over a number of mountains and rivers, and stopped in the little but unforgettable village of Cicuata where the the residents celebrated in some kind of annual festivity with live music and several games all around on the central plaza… we will never forget the man sleeping on the side walk after having partied a little too hard! And we will never forget the soccer shot that blew up the six tin cans for a 1-Boliviano prize!

We arrived in Pasybol exhausted from the trip…but were soon revived by our first encounters with the coop and their charismatic president . We spent 2 days with Pasybol, in which we were able to introduce Coop Coffees and to compare differences between the conventional and fair trade coffee chains to members of their coop. We learned a lot about the organization during meetins with the coop and a visit to the farms.We also managed to make it on the local radio stationfor a very friendly interview.. Pasybol is a coop with tons of potential. They are the only coffee producers coop in the region of Inquisivi, they have a very well-equipped lab, they are introducing cupping skills to farmers and farmers’ children, and Freddy as the manager of the coop is doing an fantastic job of strengthening the coop and making them more efficient in the coffee market. They alsoreceive support from the Spanish NGO Ayuda en Accion and have developed their own roasted coffee brand that they are now trying to sell domestically. Pasybol members are proud to be cultivating the highest coffee fields of the country, and they have high hopes of making their product the best coffee Bolivia has to offer!

After our adventure in Bolivia, we will never forget the warm welcome we received from the 3 coops we visited, and we will certainly never forget how far at the end of the road these groups are located. We will always remember the dizzyingly windy and dusty roads we drove on, the wonderful landscape we got to see, and people with whom we shared the adventure, Lili from Fecafeb, and Lisa and Ariane, Formula One drivers in their own right!

See more photos of Pasybol                See more photos of AIPEP               See more photos of FECAFEB

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