Simple Life

It was an interesting and educational weekend.
Saturday morning we took the four hour drive to Tepic in Nayarit. This is where Aaron worked in the spring of 2020. We met his boss and coworkers at the office where they cup and grade the coffee that comes in from the different coffee growing associations around the area. They showed us the some of the work they are developing to help the coffee growers with natural pesticides and new plants. 

These are new plants (about 3000 of them) that will be planted in the fields on the mountains surrounding Tepic. 
The drive to the coffee fields took a little over an hour. Much of the trip was on winding , rocky, mountains roads. It was slow going and dusty. The fields are on mountains and really not accessible to any kind of machinery for harvesting. The coffee cherries are all picked by hand as they reach the proper ripeness. These green cherries won't be ready for picking until spring.

Then we drove to one of the mills where the coffee cherries are brought to have the beans separated from the fruit and sun dried on large concrete patios. The patio at the mill we visited will hold about 3 tons of dried beans. 
Some of the coffee associations are farther out and higher up and bring there ripe cherries in and dried, green beans out on pack animals. It is absolutely amazing that I can buy a pound of good coffee for less than $15 US! 

The agricultural fields are interesting as the are used for multiple crops at the same time. Banana plants grow next to coffee plants, orange trees, and avocado trees. Each fruit is harvested in its due time, and all are harvested by hand. The farmers and workers live a simple, but hard life. 
Personally, I would probably gain much from living more simply and a little less privileged.

We spent the night at the Hotel Real de Don Juan across from the Governor's mansion. It is a beautiful and old hotel and the views from our room were spectacular. I'm sorry that I am not more of a shutterbug. Although I often look and appreciate the sights as I see them, I seldom take pictures to remember or share. My bad.

Yesterday we took a slow boat in a river through a crocodile preserve. We saw several crocs along the river and more in the zoo/breeding area. The river was fed from mountain springs and was beautiful. 
We visited San Blas, the old fort there, and then had a leisurely lunch on the beach on the way home. 
It was a lot of car time for a weekend trip, but it was very enjoyable and probably not the kind of sightseeing that most US tourists get to do. 

I'll try to share some of the pics that Chris or Jenny took. You'll have to check my Facebook or Instagram pages in the coming days.

John

Interesting side note: This past weekend was an election weekend in Nayarit (special election of some sort). Elections are held on weekends and the entire state is dry (that's right - don't drink and vote. Just vote!) during election weekend.