Tres Leguas

Finca Tres Leguas is a small farm run by Nelson Salinas, located 15 Km or three leagues south of the city of Loja. 

It was Nelson’s grandfather who started farming in this farm in the early nineteen hundreds. For the first half of that century and until the 1960s, coffee was a thriving crop in the area and finca Tres Leguas was surrounded by many other coffee farms. Today, Nelson’s 1 hectare of planted coffee is one of few coffee farms remaining in the area. 

Proud of having battled against the odds and continuing with his traditions of growing coffee, Nelson tells us that he’s been working on that farm since the age of 13. The old adobe house where we’re taking shelter from the midday sun was built by him, his dad and his grandad and is now used as a storage and kitchen for the workers who come for harvest season.  

Nelson lives on the other side of the steep valley. To get to his farm, he has to hike for 40 minutes, down and up the slopes as there is only a footpath that leads to his finca. At the age of 63, Nelson does this 5 times a week, many times carrying sacks of coffee on his back.

This, high altitude coffee produced in Tres Leguas is washed on-site and laid to dry on African beds inside marquesinas or polytunnels.