Sunday, January 16, 2011
Guatemala Delegation - Climbing a new mountain!
We´ve had a few days to connect with Farmer to Farmer friends (As green as it gets) in Guatemala´s old capital, Antigua and are now off to Huehuetenango and Santiago Atitlan! We´ll be visiting master weavers and ironing out our next shipment of organic Guatemalan Coffee from a women´s cooperative in Huehuetenango! We hope to post photos soon but the bus is leaving!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
HONDURAS - Rio Negro
by Andy
Just about every time I come to Honduras, I pay a visit to the mountain community of Rio Negro. Consisting of just 80 houses, Rio Negro does not even make it onto google maps, but the community has had an exaggerated role in the development of the National Park.
When I was here in the Peace Corps, one of my free time activities was to go and visit other volunteers. Those of us who came in at the same time had a special affinity for each other, having bonded through several months of sequestered training in language, culture and technical skills. Luckily when I discovered that I was to be assigned to Comayagua, I learned that one of my training class, Bill, would be actually living in one of the communities in the buffer zone of the park. Bill was assigned to Rio Negro and his goal was to help install drinking water systems for four different communities near Rio Negro. Bill hit the jackpot in terms of Peace Corps sites, partly because he landed in the house of Don Maximo Velasquez, both a loving family and the center of life in Rio Negro. At first during my service I would go up to Rio Negro to hang out with Bill and visit him, but almost instantly I realized that Rio Negro could be a starting point for visiting the cloud forest part of the National Park.
I would bring friends from Comayagua to Rio Negro and Bill would take us to see the dams and pipes of the water systems of the communities he was helping. We noticed what was obvious to everyone in Rio Negro already, that the creeks near Rio Negro were beautiful. To follow the creek up to the place where the communities draw their water was to walk through marvelous 20 year-old cloud forest in then process of recuperation. There were tree ferns, orchids, palms, and wildlife. Right along the creek there were remnant trees from the original forest, massive towering trees that carry vines and bromeliads and other life up to the canopy. The creek itself was crystal clear and rushed in and around polished boulders, some impossibly large. When we finally get to the place where the community draws its water, we realize why they stopped there. There is a waterfall that is at least 100 feet tall.
We picked out Rio Negro as a place to start bringing people to the Park. One of the goals I had was for as many people from Comayagua as possible to get to visit the cloud forest on the mountain that has been looming over them for their whole lives. Once people visit the cloud forest, they return with a new energy to protect it. Rio Negro was perfect because the creek creates a microclimate that brings the cloud forest down to an accessible altitude. Of course, there were other benefits. The view is fantastic, the people are friendly, and if you want to climb the mountain there are trails that take you up to the ridge where the old growth forest is. We brought high schoolers, business people, gringos, teachers, and everyone was transformed by the experience. It was like discovering a treasure in your back yard. People could see the direct relationship between the forest and water, especially drinking water. When the National Park was to receive a grant, we instantly thought of Rio Negro as a possible site for a visitors center. When there was a national call for people to go on an Ecotourism course in the U.S., I thought of Avilio, Don Maximo´s son and one of the most animated people I have ever met.
When my family came to visit, of course I brought them to Rio Negro. My father opened my eyes to a new type of tourism that I had not thought about yet. Agricultural tourism. As enchanted as he was with the forest and the waterfall, he was thrilled to see the entire process of coffee production. He had been drinking coffee for his entire adult life, and had never really experienced the other side of it. For him it was like meeting a long time pen pal, face to face. Avilio and I talked for hours about the tourist potential of Rio Negro and how if people could make money from the forest in that way, they might not cut it down.
Now flash forward fifteen years. Avilio has three eco-huts that he built to house tourists. Other people in the village have constructed their own eco-huts. The visitors center is about to be inaugurated. The people make incredible artisan goods to sell to tourists. The attention to the watersheds has meant that there is still a significant and growing forest cover above Rio Negro, where in other communities the destruction has advanced considerably. There is a tour guides collective, which functions by having them take turns leading people to the waterfall. Many of the guides have learned English. The families have been trained in how to prepare food for tourists. Rio Negro has found its way into various guide books like the Lonely Planet. There is a steady and growing trickle of people coming to Rio Negro. It has fame throughout Honduras.
Our trip was exactly what one could hope for from an eco-agro-tourism perspective. It is thrilling to look back and realize that I had a hand starting everything that has happened in Rio Negro.
Just about every time I come to Honduras, I pay a visit to the mountain community of Rio Negro. Consisting of just 80 houses, Rio Negro does not even make it onto google maps, but the community has had an exaggerated role in the development of the National Park.
When I was here in the Peace Corps, one of my free time activities was to go and visit other volunteers. Those of us who came in at the same time had a special affinity for each other, having bonded through several months of sequestered training in language, culture and technical skills. Luckily when I discovered that I was to be assigned to Comayagua, I learned that one of my training class, Bill, would be actually living in one of the communities in the buffer zone of the park. Bill was assigned to Rio Negro and his goal was to help install drinking water systems for four different communities near Rio Negro. Bill hit the jackpot in terms of Peace Corps sites, partly because he landed in the house of Don Maximo Velasquez, both a loving family and the center of life in Rio Negro. At first during my service I would go up to Rio Negro to hang out with Bill and visit him, but almost instantly I realized that Rio Negro could be a starting point for visiting the cloud forest part of the National Park.
I would bring friends from Comayagua to Rio Negro and Bill would take us to see the dams and pipes of the water systems of the communities he was helping. We noticed what was obvious to everyone in Rio Negro already, that the creeks near Rio Negro were beautiful. To follow the creek up to the place where the communities draw their water was to walk through marvelous 20 year-old cloud forest in then process of recuperation. There were tree ferns, orchids, palms, and wildlife. Right along the creek there were remnant trees from the original forest, massive towering trees that carry vines and bromeliads and other life up to the canopy. The creek itself was crystal clear and rushed in and around polished boulders, some impossibly large. When we finally get to the place where the community draws its water, we realize why they stopped there. There is a waterfall that is at least 100 feet tall.
We picked out Rio Negro as a place to start bringing people to the Park. One of the goals I had was for as many people from Comayagua as possible to get to visit the cloud forest on the mountain that has been looming over them for their whole lives. Once people visit the cloud forest, they return with a new energy to protect it. Rio Negro was perfect because the creek creates a microclimate that brings the cloud forest down to an accessible altitude. Of course, there were other benefits. The view is fantastic, the people are friendly, and if you want to climb the mountain there are trails that take you up to the ridge where the old growth forest is. We brought high schoolers, business people, gringos, teachers, and everyone was transformed by the experience. It was like discovering a treasure in your back yard. People could see the direct relationship between the forest and water, especially drinking water. When the National Park was to receive a grant, we instantly thought of Rio Negro as a possible site for a visitors center. When there was a national call for people to go on an Ecotourism course in the U.S., I thought of Avilio, Don Maximo´s son and one of the most animated people I have ever met.
When my family came to visit, of course I brought them to Rio Negro. My father opened my eyes to a new type of tourism that I had not thought about yet. Agricultural tourism. As enchanted as he was with the forest and the waterfall, he was thrilled to see the entire process of coffee production. He had been drinking coffee for his entire adult life, and had never really experienced the other side of it. For him it was like meeting a long time pen pal, face to face. Avilio and I talked for hours about the tourist potential of Rio Negro and how if people could make money from the forest in that way, they might not cut it down.
Now flash forward fifteen years. Avilio has three eco-huts that he built to house tourists. Other people in the village have constructed their own eco-huts. The visitors center is about to be inaugurated. The people make incredible artisan goods to sell to tourists. The attention to the watersheds has meant that there is still a significant and growing forest cover above Rio Negro, where in other communities the destruction has advanced considerably. There is a tour guides collective, which functions by having them take turns leading people to the waterfall. Many of the guides have learned English. The families have been trained in how to prepare food for tourists. Rio Negro has found its way into various guide books like the Lonely Planet. There is a steady and growing trickle of people coming to Rio Negro. It has fame throughout Honduras.
Our trip was exactly what one could hope for from an eco-agro-tourism perspective. It is thrilling to look back and realize that I had a hand starting everything that has happened in Rio Negro.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
photos from rio negro, honduras!
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| Riding in the pickup on the way to Rio Negro. |
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| Andy with Donn Natalia, Don Max, and Avilio |
let us know if you have questions for farmers here in honduras and with farmers and weavers with our next delegation in guatemala!
HONDURAS - We´re back from Rio Negro
Today we are back in Comayagua after three days on the mountain in the community of Rio Negro. We visited coffee farms, saw microhydro projects, had meetings, went to the waterfall and ate and drank a lot of good stuff. Photos and stories to come soon.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
HONDURAS - Making Bocashi Fertilizer
by Andy
Yesterday we went to visit a piece of land owned by our friend and guide Hector Oviedo. Hector is a tireless thinker and worker for sustainable development in his country. He is a person of principals and purpose. He was my best friend while I was in the Peace Corps here. At the time Hector, who is trained as an Agricultural Engineer, had just lost his job with the state-run agricultural service because his political party had lost the recent elections. That meant he had plenty of time to hang out with me and hike around on the mountain and talk about protecting the forest and sustainable agriculture. Since then, his life has revolved around numerous projects, all aimed at improving his country.
Hector has done trial plots of organic agriculture, he has a business installing microhydro turbines for electricity, and he has a machine that make economical blocks for building houses out of packed earth and cement. Five years ago he bought a property close to Comayagua, with the intention of setting up a demonstration organic farm. It is in the hills, where pine and oak mix with other species. The land is hilly and some parts are degraded from over-use. But there are beautiful forests and a small creek that flows through, and Hector made a decision to do everything he could to rehabilitate it. He started by not cutting down any trees and allowing the forest to recover.
Now it is 5 years later and pine trees are sprouting everywhere and the creek area is lush and shady. After aborted attempts to grow lychee trees and some other crops, Hector is setting up a small plot of coffee. He wants to do it organic from the very start. The nursery was started using a soil mix that is part charcoal and part worm compost. He has thousands of plants lined up in a shady spot near the creek, all ready to plant. As we pulled up, he had 4 people digging holes to plant the coffee plants. Our job was to make bocashi fertilizer to feed these new plants after they go in the ground.
Bocashi is a type of compost that Hector learned to make in Costa Rica. It is a Japanese invention that involves fermentation, sort of like making yogurt or sauerkraut with soil amendments. When we arrived Hector had set up the piles of the ingredients and and had a flip folio of paper to teach us how to make the fertilizer. Adalid and his family were there and they had set up a sort of camp kitchen and were roasting meat and cooking beans. It was a fertilizer picnick. Hector started by talking about how a Japanese volunteer had come to vegetable growing region of Costa Rica, where they were using a lot of chemicals and still having problems with pests, disease, yields and weeds. After the introduction of bocashi and other organic methods, an organic movement started, which was rooted not so much in trying to get higher prices, but rather in the health of the plants and improved yield. We were all intrigued.
Hector gave us the recipe for bocashi, and then we got to make some, followed by a great lunch. The basic recipe is to take a source of dry manure (chicken and goat) and mix it with a source of carbon (coffee hulls) and some soil and then start adding the extras. There were three bags of ground charcoal, a bag of rice germ, a bag of agricultural lime, a gallon of molasses, and also a bag of finished bocashi as a starter. You mix it all together with enough water for 50% moisture and then you mix and monitor over then next 7 days. Essentially you have made a big pile of pickles for the earth. Not only does the bocashi add activated minerals, but the main function is to improve the microbial balance in the soil. It is sort of like an acidophillus pill for the soil. As an organic grower myself, I am certainly interested.
After the work and lunch, we toured the rest of the farm and learned about weeds and which ones are good or bad for the coffee.
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| Me having lunch in front of the coffee nursery during Bocashi day. |
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| Adalid's Family (Front to Back): Dariela, Cindy, Suyapa and Melvin |
Hector has done trial plots of organic agriculture, he has a business installing microhydro turbines for electricity, and he has a machine that make economical blocks for building houses out of packed earth and cement. Five years ago he bought a property close to Comayagua, with the intention of setting up a demonstration organic farm. It is in the hills, where pine and oak mix with other species. The land is hilly and some parts are degraded from over-use. But there are beautiful forests and a small creek that flows through, and Hector made a decision to do everything he could to rehabilitate it. He started by not cutting down any trees and allowing the forest to recover.
Now it is 5 years later and pine trees are sprouting everywhere and the creek area is lush and shady. After aborted attempts to grow lychee trees and some other crops, Hector is setting up a small plot of coffee. He wants to do it organic from the very start. The nursery was started using a soil mix that is part charcoal and part worm compost. He has thousands of plants lined up in a shady spot near the creek, all ready to plant. As we pulled up, he had 4 people digging holes to plant the coffee plants. Our job was to make bocashi fertilizer to feed these new plants after they go in the ground.
Bocashi is a type of compost that Hector learned to make in Costa Rica. It is a Japanese invention that involves fermentation, sort of like making yogurt or sauerkraut with soil amendments. When we arrived Hector had set up the piles of the ingredients and and had a flip folio of paper to teach us how to make the fertilizer. Adalid and his family were there and they had set up a sort of camp kitchen and were roasting meat and cooking beans. It was a fertilizer picnick. Hector started by talking about how a Japanese volunteer had come to vegetable growing region of Costa Rica, where they were using a lot of chemicals and still having problems with pests, disease, yields and weeds. After the introduction of bocashi and other organic methods, an organic movement started, which was rooted not so much in trying to get higher prices, but rather in the health of the plants and improved yield. We were all intrigued.
Hector gave us the recipe for bocashi, and then we got to make some, followed by a great lunch. The basic recipe is to take a source of dry manure (chicken and goat) and mix it with a source of carbon (coffee hulls) and some soil and then start adding the extras. There were three bags of ground charcoal, a bag of rice germ, a bag of agricultural lime, a gallon of molasses, and also a bag of finished bocashi as a starter. You mix it all together with enough water for 50% moisture and then you mix and monitor over then next 7 days. Essentially you have made a big pile of pickles for the earth. Not only does the bocashi add activated minerals, but the main function is to improve the microbial balance in the soil. It is sort of like an acidophillus pill for the soil. As an organic grower myself, I am certainly interested.
After the work and lunch, we toured the rest of the farm and learned about weeds and which ones are good or bad for the coffee.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
HONDURAS - The gang is all here!
Yesterday was a transition day for us. I picked up our laundry in the morning while Zac went to San Pedro Sula to meet Jeff and Analisa. Later, Hector and Adalid and I went to Tegucigalpa to pick up Deb and Pete. We all were reunited last night here at the hotel and ate huge quantities of food at the hotel restaurant accompanied by cerveza with lime. Alll is well.
Today we are going to Hector´s farm to make Bokachi fertilizer for his coffee plot. Looking forward to a nice picnick.
Today we are going to Hector´s farm to make Bokachi fertilizer for his coffee plot. Looking forward to a nice picnick.
Friday, January 7, 2011
HONDURAS - In the Cloud Forest
A typical cloud forest view
In the morning before the clouds cooked off
Melvin, Hernan and Che Barnes in front of a massive fallen tree
Bromeliads and vines cover the trees in the cloud forest
Looking up at a cloud forest tree. Notice that the lateral branches are literally covered with aerial plants.
We got back yesterday from our camping trip to the cloud forest and I can honestly say that it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Our plan was to cross the mountain from the southeast corner of the Comayagua Mountain National Park starting in a place called El Horno, hiking up to the cloud forest on the ridge and then following the ridge to the center of the Park in order to hike down into Comayagua, which is straight west of the mountain. On the way up we wanted to visit coffee farms of the people in the organic coffee co-op, but my main plan was to spend a good chunk of time in the cloud forest. We succeeded.
The way the mountain ecosystem is stratified means that in the valley there is a tropical dry forest. As you go up the mountain, this gives way to a pine and scrub-oak forest, which gives way to a pine and sweetgum forest, which is replaced by cloud forest as you get closer to the top of the mountain. The cloud forest is a rich jungle-like ecosystem which receives both abundant rain and horizontal precipitation when the clouds come in and all of the vegetation captures the moisture and the drops fall to the soil. The forest has many types of ferns, palms, moss, orchids, bromeliads, bamboo-like plants, and vines - all are capable of capturing the moisture from the clouds. Where rivers and creeks flow, there is generally also a corridor of broadleafed trees extending down from the cloud forest through the pine. This stratification is dependant on temperature and moisture. In different areas of the mountain the point where ecosystems change is higher or lower, depending on moisture. The rains in Honduras generally come in from the Carribean in the north, so on the north half of the mountain the cloud forest starts at about 1500 meters above seas level, while in the dry south, the sweetgum and pine extend all the way up to 1800 meters. The presence of the cloud forest is why the Mountain was declared a National Park, both for the diversity and because the cloud forest captures and stores gajillions of gallons of water. Where it has not been cut down the cloud forest consists mostly of giant trees, all covered with plants of many types. It is a magical place, and I was looking forward to being there for a good long hike.
The first day we spent driving up to El Horno, skirting the south side of the mountain through the dense pine forests of El Tamarindo, where we met with three of the farmers from the coffee co-op. Once in El Horno, we went to an area on the edge of El Horno called El Sute, where we met with 8 farmers from the coffee co-op and stayed at the house of Don Chico (Fransisco), who is the leader of the co-op in the El Sute. The next morning we spent hiking to visit three different coffee farms in El Sute. Beautiful! Then after lunch at Don Chico´s, we got our gear together and hiked back to El Horno to meet up with our guide, Melvin.
Our group consisted of myself, Zacarias Barnes, Adalid (President of the coffee co-op), Bayron (who works with ECOSIMCO, an NGO working to protect the park), Hernan (my friend from Comayagua), and Melvin (who lives in El Horno and works sometimes as a park guard). Six men with backpacks, tents, a big pile of food and a desire to climb the mountain - it sounds like a recipe for trouble. Climbing up from El Horno I got my first taste of what the hike would be like. As we climbed through pastures and pine trees on a well travelled path I was soon breathing heavy and sweating profusely. My pack was full and the path was steep. We climbed 300 meters in about 20 minutes and we soon had a spectacular view of the valley. For the next hour we climbed and hiked upwards and laterally across the mountainside through thick forest regrowth and pastures, until finally we reached the ridge that we would follow for the next three days. The temperature had fallen by several degrees and soon we were in a dense broadleaf forest. Finally! The first day in the cloud forest was like visiting an old friend. I was back with the tree ferns and purple orchids and the bromeliads of all sizes. Moss covers everything and the thick cap of organic matter made the soil bouncy. We camped and although the wind blew and it got cold, we were warm with the fire.
In the morning I noticed that the cloud forest we were in was actually secondary growth. Our guide, Melvin, explained that the owner abandoned it and focused on other land that was more easily accessible. The forest was only about 30 years old. I was amazed at how quickly it had regained the appearance of a cloud forest. During that day we soon found ourselves in virgin forest. The distinguishing feature was that There were fewer trees, but most of the trees we saw were enormous. They were also covered with aerial plants. Sometimes the aerial plants would grow so thick on the branches that the branches would fall off and land on the ground, blocking our way. Sometimes whole trees would topple leaving a gap where light streams in. Then we would get a chance to see what the canopy was like. It seems that the aerial plants can create an ecosystem of their own up in the canopy. They trap and store water, and as leaves decay, a sort of soil is formed on top of the branches. This happens to the point where when we see a fallen branch, it is often more plants and soil than wood. I love this image of plants growing on top of plants on top of plants and I just wanted to stay in the forest primeval marvelling. But it did not last long. The ridge is a dry place and we were out of water, so we climbed down into a valley and found water, and then located a trail that led us through abandoned fields and some corn patches and pasture. As thrilled as I was to see how quickly the forest regenerates, I was equally disheartened to see the burned stumps of the recently cut forest.
After we left the deforested areas, we entered the nucleus of the park and soon we were back in the primary old growth forest again. Walking along the ridge was slow going, because there were often massive trees that had fallen and there was no trail to begin with anyway. Melvin led the way, hacking at the undergrowth and advising us on the best route to climb over or under fallen trees. He can cut a trail with his machete as fast as we could walk. Quite amazing. Our second campsite was more protected than the first, and we had a nice fire again. Our fourth day we spent entirely in untouched cloud forest. We never even saw signs of human existence, such as evidence of cut undergrowth or clear trails. Sometimes Melvin would scout for us and I would just marvel at the beauty. Bayron, who had been working to protect the park for three years, had never been this far into the center of the mountain. He and Adalid and Melvin kept talking about how if people could only see the marvels that we were seeing, they would have to protect it. They also were hatching plans to create a network of trails following the ridges, with marked campsites and park guards in every community. We tossed around the idea of having a place that would rent out tents and sleeping bags and drop tourists off in a mountain village, where guides could lead them to the primary cloud forest. There was a lot of dreaming about what it would be like to have a well-developed national park. It was awe-inspiring to be in the midst of such an extensive forest. That day we reached our highest point, 2360 meters above sea level. The afternoon sun came through the trees on the summit while we relaxed and ate chocolate and checked to see if we had cell phone service.
In looking back on the trip I notice how much I identify with the mountain and the cloud forest. I have emotionally and mentally adopted the entire mountain. I rise when I see recuperated forest and I sink when I see a clear-cut. My heart swells as I walk the ridge looking for a quetzal, and I die a little bit inside when I hear that hunters recently killed a jaguar (or was it a puma?) in the outskirts of the park. In retrospect, I am taking a dualistic view on things. My brain likes to divide things into good and bad. I cheer for one team and wish ill upon another. This is a dangerous stance to take. As an accidental dualist, I place things and people into categories based on what they remind me of. I am quick to judgement and once something has been judged it loses its vitality. It becomes a thing that I know about that I can either hope for or fear. My challenge is to keep an open mind. In talking with Melvin, I got a deeper understanding of the complexity of the situation. I want to save the forest by removing as many people as possible. Obviously protecting the forest is good. But many on the people deforesting feel the rights of ownership, and although the state has declared the land a national park, it has not indemnified anyone. People need to eat, and my own idea of what a national park is might be getting in the way of what a national park could be. Maybe it is not an on-off switch, with people kicked out of the park completely. I don´t have answers, just awe and questions.
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