The Quellomayo community is situated very close to the capital of Cusco’s Santa Teresa district. A rarity in this generally remote, impassable subregion of La Convencion province, it only takes Andihuela’s producers 30 minutes to deliver their coffee to the central warehouse in the capital (also called Santa Teresa).
The producers of the community intercrop their Typica- and Bourbon-varietal coffee plants using native leguminous Pacay trees for shade, nitrogen fixing, and optimal moisture retention in the soil. After harvesting their coffee, they carry out fermentation in plastic barrels for approximately 14 hours and then dry the coffee in solar dryers for about 14 days, depending on weather.
This small community is made up of 60 families, the majority of them are speakers of the native language Quechua. All smallholders, the average farmer’s plot size here is just 2 hectares.
The majority of Quellomayo used to dedicate themselves entirely to agriculture, until in January 1998, one of the largest natural disasters ever documented in the area occurred. Intense rains caused by the El Niño phenomenon triggered avalanches of stones and mud that wiped entire communities from the map and destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland. The 1998 El Niño season has gone down as one of the most destructive in history. After these disasters, 100% of the community’s population had to be evacuated.
After months of calm, the residents returned but were unable to recover all of the land. Much of it was covered with rocks and in conditions no longer suitable for agriculture. Therefore, only a fraction of the population returned to agriculture while the rest dedicated themselves to tourism. In the intervening years, a network of roads was created to open the way to the thermal baths of Cocalmayo. Meanwhile, the coffees of Quellomayo are truly spectacular, and we’re grateful that they continue to exist.
