Carlos Guamanga

It’s an absolute joy to be back in touch with Carlos and his sweet family after many years of trying to get something to line up, finally we’ve got a foot in the door! On a little catchup convo on whatsapp it was incredible to see how much his kids have grown, and how sharp they both are. His eldest daughter, now a teenager, is working as a barista at a well regarded cafe in Pitalito run by someone I know from way back, Gustavo. The onesie I brought for Carlos and Patricia’s youngest when he was a newborn is a distant memory – now this kid is solving rubiks cubes in a minute flat (we saw the video evidence lol). The primary farm they had, El Recuerdo, now has an annex called La Esperanza, and with both, they now have a combined 3 hectares with coffee and the other half with food crops and forest. When I first knew Carlos, he was on the board of the Guacharos group in its inception, but he’s since decided to narrow his focus a bit.

Carlos just wants to nerd out on coffee and raise a family. He’s been doing that, incredibly well, in Bruselas for many years now. His drying beds are kitted out with Arduino boards and fans connected to temperature and relative humidity sensors. A squirrel is so comfortable during my last visit that it treats us like playground equipment, friendly and probably looking for a treat. At least four or five kinds of birds call through the hills planted with Caturra (these days it’s more Pink Bourbon). It’s a beautiful place to do creative, long-term work.