Overview

My name is Juan Maria Caceres Pinto; I’m Uruguayan by birth, 39 years old and a Systems Engineer. For many years I lived, studied and worked in the United States until four years ago when I decided to come to Nicaragua because a friend suggested I visit. I came with a map and without knowing anyone, I traveled throughout the country and I fell in love with the northern region with its climate, people and atmosphere to which I’m more accustomed. Later I returned on another trip to look for land in Matagalpa because I really liked the cool climate and they suggested I meet someone who owed money to the bank and needed to sell their property, we negotiated a price and I bought the farm. What I liked most was the landscape, more than the coffee, and I wanted to burn down all the coffee plants but some people told me, “Don’t be a fool, make the effort because with this altitude you can harvest a very good coffee.” So I decided to give it two years to see how I would do with the coffee.

Someone once told me, “A foreigner who comes from Uruguay, without knowing anybody in Nicaragua, shows up suddenly and buys a coffee farm… that’s crazy!” Thus came the name of the farm, “The Crazy Uruguayan”, located in the community of Aranjuez, Matagalpa, which has unique natural conditions like virgin soils, high altitude, a cool climate, a protected area called “El Arenal”, and a natural water source; conditions which when combined with some good advice from agronomists now produce an excellent coffee from trees that I once wanted to burn down.

Finishing among the 25 best coffees in Nicaragua is a surprise for me, because in Matagalpa there are coffee farmers with 4 or 5 generations of experience and I didn’t even know about coffee. It makes me proud, but it is more the surprise of one who applied sweat and blood on this farm, which has borne fruit.

While looking for information on the internet, I came across the Cup of Excellence and at the suggestion of some friends, who assured me of the high quality of my coffee, I made another crazy decision to participate for the first time in this competition. This prize is a strong motivation for me to continue moving forward and improving the quality of my coffee and my farm, with the hope of selling my coffee for even better prices.