Second day of Barista and Farmer was truly full of experiences. It all started with an unexpected parade at 4 am under our hotel windows. Very warm greeting by Pitalito! This little town knows how to celebrate life and their guests.

Nevertheless, at 6 am 10 baristas from all around the world were already up for the first competition, picking. Each barista was paired with one farmer from Las Rosas Coffee Association. Las Rosas help women to get education and become farmers all around Colombia, they help young girls to see more opportunities for the future, while helping women in difficult situations to see a brighter side by giving them jobs and skills needed for being confident and empowered. These ladies helped our baristas today to pick right kind of coffee cherries fast and precise, because, at the end of the day, it is a competition and the results will be judged. After working hard the whole morning competitors got scored by Sonja Bjork Grant, Rebecca Atienza and Scott Conary. And most of the cherries were picked by David Yuan from China and Daniel Munari from Brazil. Congratulations to the boys and their picking teachers from Las Rosas Coffee.

As you can guess from the name, Barista &Farmer is all about connecting the chain from ceed to cup. That’s is why right after picking went depulping competition. Yes, these days it is done automatically with the help of electricity. But what kind of fun it is? So 10 baristas did it using their physical strength and old-school depulping machines to really feel farmers.

Finca Bella Vista, that hosted us today, was more than welcoming by preparing a feast for us after which we all went on to study coffee at National School of Coffee Quality SENA, where competitors had a chance to do cupping (for some first in their lives!) and paint traditional Chiva car. Chiva car competition (remember, almost everything here is a competition!) will be over on June 7^th as competitiors can think about their design more in the privacy of their rooms. All he baristas stay in the school’s campus in the BIO house that was fully built by student f the school, like everything on its territory.

National School of Coffee Quality is sponsored by the government and offers free programs for teenagers and grownups to gain necessary skills in agriculture, coffee producing, culinary, veterinary and even construction! The school is almost fully sustainable, producing everything they need for classes and every-day life: from eggs and pigs to aloe vera and coffee.  As Colombia right now is going through piece stabilizing process after FARC ceased to be an armed group on 27 June 2017, with its forces disarming and handing more than 7,000 weapons, some areas are in need of skillful workers and bright young minds to restore and renovate the country.

The second day is over and we all feel super excited about what tomorrow brings us: new great paces, initiatives and people behind them. What is more exciting than drinking a cup of excellent coffee, celebrating life and developing great ideas?