Harvesting coconuts

Mission Victoria here at Roca Blanca Beach has well over two hundred coconut trees because it was built in the middle of a coconut grove. The older trees are very tall and not many people want to climb 40-50 feet to harvest the coconuts. The coconuts need to be harvested every three months and in a climate that is warm year around, that means four harvests yearly. The limbs are constantly maturing and falling off. They land with a loud swoosh and thud. The coconuts that are not harvested frequently enough also fall from a great height with a resounding thump. We can only pray no one is underneath when they become loose and plummet to the ground. At times when no one was available to harvest the coconuts, they were given away to anyone who would take them down. At other times, they have been sold for the benefit of the campus. John is hoping to promote a more consistent harvest for profit and at the same time create more safety by cleaning the trees of old limbs. A young man, Gabriel, is the climber while John or another man, Fabian, holds the rope that will drop the coconuts and will later drop Gabriel. It is strenuous for the climber and also for the one whose neck is constantly cranked backwards to look high into the trees. (right bottom: John opening a coco for our guests?)

There are many benefits to having the coconuts all around. It provides fresh coconut juice for the guests, and fresh coconut meat to eat or bake with. The palms are used to make the thatched roofs and palapas (open sided building with thatched roof: below/center). The stem from the long leaf is cut free of its leafy parts and dried for a couple months to be nailed as slats for building natural home walls. (Right: an outdoor kitchen so the slats are spread apart for air flow and semi-privacy.) The old coconut shells are taken off by the truck loads to use as a source of fuel for baking the adobe bricks. The tree trunks provide tall, straight, four-sided posts and lumber. Nothing goes to waste as the local people use the resources God has blessed this area with.