dos Manzanas [matagalpa, Nicaragua]

I was in Nicaragua for the first time in seven years. My friend Luis had recently moved back home from Panama and asked me to invest in Finca Massif. I traveled down to see the farm and to pay a man named Moncho for a little slice of mountainside property adjacent to Massif Matagalpa. During that trip I made friends with a small group of young coffee producers in Nueva Segovia, and everyone kept talking about "Brian's two apples." Dos Manzanas. In Nicaragua, unlike anywhere else I know of, they measure land, not in acres or hectares, but in manzanas: a plot equal to 7/10ths of a hectare. The moniker Dos Manzanas seemed to stick, and before long I'd decided that would be its official name. The locals still laugh every time I say it.

These two apples are remote. Traveling on the pavestone highway through the remote parts of central Nicaragua, it's a 10km drive up a dirt (depending on the weather, sometimes 4WD) road, ending in an overgrown hillside where we leave the truck and hike up a muddy, steep trail. At the top of this trail is Finca Massif and the house of Roman, our farm manager. It's a raw wood plank house with dirt floors, corrugated tin roof, and rustic kitchen, but Roman and his wife and kids seem happy. In the yard are ducks and chickens and a pig, along with a horse we bought him to transport heavy goods up and down the mountain trail.

Walk across the crown of Finca Massif, down across a creek bed, and you'll find yourself at the base of our farm. Dos Manzanas rises up steeply, ending in virgin forest high on the top of the mountain. It's home to howler monkeys and agouti, tropical flowers and plants, with bunches of finger-size bananas hanging from palms. A true tropical paradise, and the views are killer.