Absolute silence. That's exactly what a hotel sounds like at 4:30am. In the middle of it all was Jose, Patricia, Steve, and myself preparing ourselves for a 7:15am flight back home. So why the extra early time? The hotel shuttle had the convenient airport shuttle times of 5:00am, 7:00am and 9:00am. But no worries, we all were a bit anxious to head home after traipsing the coffee fields for the last week and see our families. It was amazing how many people were actually up and moving about the city at 5:00am on a Saturday. We arrived at the airport after a 20 minute drive through the streets of Managua relatively unscathed. Immigrating out was easy and we were in the gate area by 6:15. So, we thought it would be a good time to grab some breakfast in preparation for the ride home. Breakfast seemed fairly innocent staring back at me, but boy would I be wrong. As we ate a fairly hearty airport breakfast, we reflected back a bit about our adventures and the differences that we made in the lives we touched this passed week. It was an amazing feeling to realize that the combined effort of three companies could have such an impact and all of our new friends would make sure that impact will last for years to come. Before we could give to much thought about it, it was time to board the plane. I tried to catch some sleep on the plane, but it was not meant to be. 2 ½ hours into the flight I was enjoying my time cramped in a tiny airplane bathroom staring at the toilet and reliving my breakfast. Turns out, breakfast was not quite as innocent as I thought. I’m not sure if anyone reading this has ever had an illness while flying on an airplane but my recommendation is to avoid it at all costs! There was still an hour left on this flight, a four hour layover, and the second three and a half hour flight home. The thought of that was killing me! It was shaping up to be a looooong day. Finally at 4:25pm Pacific time, Jose and I landed in California 14 hours after we started and I was glad to be there. Fortunately, my ill-fated breakfast only lasted about 36 hours and I have been good to go since then!

We truly hope that you have enjoyed our blogs and want to take this opportunity to tell you that it’s not over! Please check back often for new posts as the Green Coffee Department goes on various adventures or simply talks about the exciting world of coffee. We will be posting at least once a week so make sure that you join in on our journeys!

Since we are only able to post three pictures per blog, we invite you to click the link below and check out the rest of our photos from this exciting trip.

Adios Amigos!

Jonathan

Farmer Brothers Co Picasa Albums