When exploring the farm of Don Guillermo’s Life Monteverde, we got the chance to speak with some workers and volunteers. Most of the workers are from Nicaragua who get government permission to travel into Costa Rica each coffee season. At places like Doka estates, housing is provided and paid for by the coffee company, but smaller scale farms like Life Monteverde are not able to. However, the Nicaraguans we spoke to said that they live right down the road from the farm along with some Tico workers.

The life of a Tico worker consists of long days with a lot of manual labor, but all the ticos we encountered said they loved their job. Even the volunteers who temporarily live with the Tico workers said that everyone working on the farm loves it. The labor that has to be done on the farm deals with animals, coffee, and compost. Each brings challenges to the work day of a Tico. For example, in the composting process, they create a natural pesticide to deter parasites and diseases from the coffee plans. The workers need to precisely add enough food for the microscopic bacteria that ferments the mixture.

If I were the child of a Tico farmer, I would want to expand on the farming business. I would be primarily focused on sustaining the nature of the coffee business to continue it years down the line.