Visit to the Coffee Farm

I was not sure if I heard it right when Bobby Timonera, a known photo journalist, told me that he was interested to visit our coffee farm in Bansalan. Our coffee farm is located in Sitio Ararat, in the foothills of Mt. Apo. I happened to know him months before I surfed into his site, kapetabay.com. A certain Benson from Cebu left a comment on his blog saying that coffee from Bansalan tasted like camote. I found the observation odd because I have known coffee from Bansalan as one the best in the region. I immediately put my comment right there and then that their impression on our beloved coffee is wrong. I suggested that I will send samples of my beans, the catimor variety and the civet coffee for cupping. Bobby, being a coffee lover, was glad to know accept my offer for him to taste my coffee and give his honest opinion. The following day, I sent my coffee to Iligan City where Bobby is residing.

I met Bobby and his close friend, Roger Marcelo, that night here in Davao City. It was great for he also gave me the chance to participate in cupping with Bob Martin, the owner of Mindanao.com. Cupping is all about tasting different kinds of coffee. That night, we had 6 kinds of coffee.

Back to our plan to visit the farm, we left Davao City bound for Bansalan on board on Bobby’s cute but very dependable car, a Nissan March. We left ulas at about 5 am and by before 7am, we are already at the Bansalan Fire Station where we will meet with bebing, my sister in law. She will go with us going up to the coffee farm. The trip to the farm is about 30 minutes on board a habal-habal, a motorcycle used to convey passengers in remote areas.

We left the fire station at 7:30am and the road is really slippery. It rained cats and dogs the night before and the motorcycle tires had to be fixed with chains for us to get through. The road is really muddy and slippery. We arrived at sitio Ararat before 9:00am and the cool, refreshing mountain breeze greets us which seems to rejuvenate our spirits. It is really cold up there. The reading on Roger’s altitude meter is 1350 meters above sea level, on which bobby said, a great factor for coffee production. According to Bobby, best coffees are in same altitude. He also said that same with Yemen and Ethiopia, where the best coffees are, we are along the equator belt, in between the tropics of cancer and Capricorn.

Aside from their love of coffee, these two guys are really good in photography, they simply took pictures on almost everything and the results are amazing! Their cameras capture what the environment has to offer and they got the best. They took a lot of pictures of mt. Apo, carrots, cabbages, people, horses, etc.. As I said, everything that they saw, they took pictures of it. It is really nice to hear when somebody in the coffee world will tell you that the farm is nice and the place is really good. Both bobby and roger told me that the place is really beautiful.

We left the farm after feasting on whole native chicken tinola at around 11:00 am. We took the same habal-habal going back to town. The trip going down lasts for less than 30 minutes. Due to slight rain, we have to walk for several meters due slippery road condition. We had just a rest for about 30 minutes in Bansalan Fire station and we hit the road back again to Davao city.

The visit to the farm is a wonderful experience. Having two wonderful guys made it even better. Roger made his last shot at chowking in toril. He had a close up photo of that delicious –looking, very colourful halo-halo. Just the same, the result is simply amazing.....