We made one last final stop before leaving Monteverde to return to Heredia. At Cafe Monteverde, we had conversations with Guillermo about the economy, ecotourism, and sustainability in Monteverde. The farm was started in 1989, when they first acquired the land it was a pasture with almost no trees. Over the past thirty five years, they have been able to implement reforestation and grow many crops on the land. Fifty percent of the farm is forest and the other half are coffee trees and other crops. When growing coffee in Monteverde, farmers face the challenge of a harder climate to grow in which extends their harvesting season over multiple months. Because of this, Cafe Monteverde pays their coffee pickers five dollars per cajuela instead of the typical three dollars per cajuela. Guillermo told us this is to keep a good relationship with their workers and they acknowledge the importance of the job of picking coffee.

Many farmers in Monteverde face the decision of whether they want to continue using their land to grow crops or to utilize their land for other purposes, such as tourism. Cafe Monteverde mixes the two by offering tours of their farm to tourists and exporting coffee to US companies. Another issue that coffee farmers face is the use of pesticides and agrochemicals. Costa Rica is the leading user of agrochemicals per hectare of land in the world. This is because the coffee plants are susceptible to disease due to the climate. At Cafe Monteverde, they have been moving towards biofertilizers to try and lower the use of agrochemicals and in hopes that eventually, biofertilizers will be certified as organic.

I would say that this has been my favorite tour so far just due to how interactive it was and the activities that we were able to participate in. I thought it was interesting to take part in the process of planting corn and seeing how the compost was collected and used. The coffee tasting portion of the tour was also fun and gave me a new insight into the process of drying coffee.