Honduras - El Profe Alex

Since those early beginnings, I have taught thousands of children to read and write, to divide and multiply, and I have tried to help them find their way in our world, until I retired, somewhat nostalgic, in 2018.

That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t dedicated to the love of my life: coffee. On the contrary, I grew up among our family’s coffee plants and learned the skills from my father and grandparents. We were poor, very poor, and I had to help on our tiny plot of land before I felt ready for it.

However, later I felt grateful, because I was able to absorb so much knowledge, and learn so fast, when I was still a young boy. Thirty years ago, I was able to buy 0,7 hectares of land with money I had saved from my wages as a teacher.

Little by little, I was able to buy more land and now my son, daughter and I own a precious coffee plantation of 42 hectares. My children, Alex and Marcela, are both civil engineers. I am incredibly proud that they were able to get a much better education than I did, even though I learned them to read and write when they were little.

But we are passionate about our coffees and extremely perseverance. We are thinking about organizing tours to our beautiful finca with lunch on our porch and of course a choice of our own coffees. We may also start roasting our beans to offer them on the Honduran market at the premium price they deserve. Or we will start a coffee shop in town to offer patrons a relaxed time while they enjoy one of the specialties that we cultivate. 

We grow beans on 42 hectares of fertile land with lots of natural shadow. There are old pine trees covering much of our plantation and also the surrounding forest, which creates a cooler, somewhat humid climate. We have planted abundant banana, orange, and lime trees to boost shadow, as well as for personal consumption.

We grow several varieties like Pacas, Icatú, Anacafé 14, but the dominating varieties are Parainema and Obata.

The farm covers a range of altitudes, between 1,200 and 1,550 meters. We start harvesting our coffees at the lowest altitudes by the end of October and we end with beans on the highest parts around early March, assuring a long-lasting, high quality harvest.