Weekend Getaway

We were long overdue for a little family time, so we decided to drive 90 minutes north to a quaint little town called Buena Vista. It's right on the edge of Amboro National Park, which is beautiful. We swam, ate good food, read, slept, played at the park and visited with the Toucan (who was re-named, YouCan! by Asha). We also went to Saturday mass in the beautiful church off the plaza. One afternoon, we went to a Cafetal, a coffee plantation, and saw the plants and how they process the beans. They are certified organic and sell some of their beans to Starbucks. The company sells 90% for overseas export, keeps 8% to sell in country under their brand and then the 2% that isn't quite up to par, they sell to other coffee companies here in Bolivia. I found out that low grade coffee has a lot of roasted husks and not so much bean. It was good for our kids to see where coffee comes from and we've discovered that Bolivia does in fact have really good coffee (please don't stop sending us Starbucks though, okay?). Did you know that a mature coffee plant only produces 1kg of processed coffee beans per year? So for our family, we would have to add another 14 coffee plants to our solo plant in our front yard to support our yearly consumption of coffee. Wow! So on Sunday we headed back home, feeling more refreshed and ready to face life again. It's good to escape once in a while and have someone else cook your food and wash your dishes.