About Lucia Mamani of Bolivia

The treeless landscape of scrubby grass is dotted with alpine lakes and surrounded by snow
covered Andean peaks and the sun slowly rises above the clouds below us, highlighting the
sky in vibrant hues of pink and purple. We pass an oxygen mask around the car sharing it as if it was a joint and sip warm coca tea from a thermos in an effort to soften the effects of altitude sickness.
Arriving on the overnight flight from Florida after a brief stop in Bogotá, the change in altitude is a major shock to the body and the three non-locals in the car struggle against nausea,
shortness of breath and loss of consciousness as we pass through La Cumbre, the highest
point (at over 15,000 feet above sea level), on our trip between the El Alto international airport
(the highest in the world), just outside of La Paz, and the coffee growing community of
Caranavi five hours away and nearly 12,000 feet below in the Amazon river basin. The trip
takes us through the Yungas pass on the infamous and overwhelmingly beautiful “Death
Road”, a dirt track carved into the side of the mountain, once the main thoroughfare
connecting the Yungas region with La Paz.
Driving through the maze of dusty roads on the way to the Mamani farms we are enveloped by the surrounding hills dotted with small, mostly-abandoned coffee farms. Unruly coffee shrubs, are visible through a dense canopy of overgrown shade trees.
Due to instability in the coffee market, coffee production in Bolivia fell by over 70% in the
2010’s. During this time, many farms were completely abandoned or converted to produce
more profitable crops, mainly coca, the product used in cocaine production, and to a lesser
extent coca tea.
At the end of the drive we arrive to a small collection of farms owned by various members of
the Mamani family. The coffee fields carpet the sides of steeply sloping hills on Lucia Mamani’s land and small drying patios and raised beds rest on flat land at the base of the farm. Vigorous and bushy, forest-green Caturra shrubs are broken up by banana, citrus and leguminous shade trees.
The Manami’s are still growing mainly coffee on their farms and through the Sol de la Mañana
project set up by the Rodriguez family of Agricafe, Bolivia’s top processor and exporter of
specialty coffee, they’ve got access to a solid market that is willing to pay sustainable prices
for quality coffee.
Sol de la Mañana is a comprehensive program with the aim of transferring knowledge to coffee producers in the Caranavi region through the development of protocols geared towards
achieving long-term sustainable profitability for its members.