Santa Eduviges

Rodrigo Vargas' company, Santa Eduviges, is one of the largest single-family owned operations in Costa Rica with 32 farms, totaling more than 3,900 acres of coffee fields spread out on the hillsides of the active Poas Volcano.

This year, Vargas, a third-generation coffee farmer, will sell 70 percent of the more than 7 million pounds of beans harvested on his farms to Starbucks.

Vargas believes that Starbucks, purchasing huge quantities of specialty beans and requiring a set of regulations called Cafe Practices, saved the coffee industry in Costa Rica.

Manuel Valdes' story:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004315134_starbucksmain30.html


Seasonal coffee workers unload their baskets of coffee cherries into a transport truck at the end of the day at Rodrigo Vargas' coffee-farm, Santa Eduviges in Costa Rica. Workers receive plastic tokens worth money for each basket they deliver.


Rodrigo Vargas' family founded the Beneficiadora Santa Eduviges in Costa Rica's Alajuela Province. The family manages more than 3,900 acres, where 200 permanent staff members and 2,300 temporary workers harvest coffee November through February.


Rodrigo Vargas looks over a field once owned by his grandfather. Vargas is the third generation of his family to grow coffee. Its operation, Santa Eduviges, is one of the top single-family owned coffee-production companies in Costa Rica.


Joel Martinez, 28, of Managua, Nicaragua, picks coffee berries early in the morning in the Santa Eduviges fields.


Coffee plants at Santa Eduviges are examined. From left, Edgardo Alpízar, an agronomist at Santa Eduviges; Carlos Mario Rodríguez, director of agronomy at the Farm Support Center (FSC); Peter Torrebiarte, FSC general manager, in center; Chris von Zastrow, Starbucks general manager Africa (in vest); and Orlando Mora, an FSC agronomist.


Workers walk through one of the fields at Santa Eduviges. A variety of banana trees are planted among the coffee plants to help soil quality. These trees help meet Starbucks' standards for soil conservation and shade-tree requirements. Workers use plastic buckets, called "cajuelas," to collect the coffee cherries. While picking, they tie the buckets to their waist, a practice that has not changed in more than 100 years.


By late afternoon, tractors and trucks file down the farms' dirt roads to be loaded with the day's harvest. Most seasonal workers that pick coffee in Costa Rica are Nicaraguan or indigenous Panamanians. Even though Santa Eduviges provides free day care, children sometimes work side-by-side with their families. Above, a young boy watches a man fill a cajuela with coffee before it is unloaded unto the truck behind them.


Workers, including Ignacio Rodriguez Castro (in red hat), spread out coffee cherries just hauled in by the field workers, in the bed of a transport truck.


Wilmer Flores, a seasonal worker from Nicaragua, cashes in his plastic tokens at the end of the week. Workers receive one token for filling one basket, or cajuela, of coffee. In December, one token equaled 700 Costa Rican colones, or around $1.40. The value of a cajuela varies throughout the harvest season. Starbucks requires workers are paid the minimum wage set by the Costa Rican government.


Maixcol Ibarra, 20, cuts hair outside a row of worker housing at Santa Eduviges. Permanent workers pay for electricity, and no rent. Seasonal workers do not pay rent or utilities. "We really need those people," said Norman Alpízar, a supervisor at the Santa Eduviges mill. Many Nicaraguans migrate to Costa Rica to pick coffee due to harsh economic conditions in their home country.


Martha Lopez, 36, of Granada, Nicaragua, cooks rice and chicken by fire inside her home at the end of the workday.


A worker carries a bag through a Santa Eduviges field.


Mauro Zelaga, 46, said pay and overall conditions have improved at Vargas' farms over the years. Zelaga, from Nicaragua, said he has come to work in Costa Rica for 20 years. Due to harsh economic conditions in their home country, many Nicaraguans migrate to Costa Rica for jobs.


Seasonal coffee workers in Costa Rica unload their baskets full of coffee into a truck at the end of the day. The process is called "medida" or "to measure."


Workers unload their baskets of coffee cherries into a truck at the end of a busy day at Santa Eduviges. Rodrigo Vargas, whose family founded the company, said "Starbucks saved the coffee industry in Costa Rica."

All images copyright The Seattle Times

Mas fotos.

Xin Pei Zhang, 42, serves tea to a friend inside of his Chinese medicinal store/tea shop Yuan Sheng Hang in the Chinatown. Zhang, his wife Ya Mei Xie and a friend shared several types of hot tea, including a 100-year-old Pu'er black tea.


Concrete, WA.


Jonathan Warman, of Emerald City Guitars, holds a 1955 Fender Stratocaster guitar priced at $75,000.


Surprise on my car one morning.


Alley.


Pathway outside Leavenworth, WA.


Leaves in the Cascades.


Construction worker twins. Super nice guys. Unfortunately, I lost their contact info. But, I do remember they said they had matching camaros as teenagers.


Twins Emma, left, and Nora are part of an increasing number of children born with the help of egg donors. They and their mother have a special, and very rare, relationship with the girls' ''egg mom.'' Most egg-donor children are unable to meet their half-siblings because of privacy issues. They sit outside their egg mom's house in Bellingham, Washington.


Isabella Ariel celebrates the New Year a little early- 3 p.m. Dec. 28th -when performing with the Astoria Combo during a New Year's party at the South County Senior Center in Edmonds. The Astoria Combo has been performing ballroom dance music since 2005. "We play for wakes, and weddings and every fancy ball," Ariel said.


Courtenay Pearce smiles at me while dancing and his wife Connie Pearce(cq) at the South County Senior Center.


Duke Kang toots on his blower during a New Year's celebration-the afternoon of Dec. 28th -at the South County Senior Center in Edmonds. Seniors danced to the music of the Astoria Combo, who performs there every Friday, except the third Friday of the month.


Ron Coble tips his hat while performing with the Astoria Combo during a New Years Party, the afternoon of Dec. 28th, at the South County Senior Center in Edmonds.


Enumclaw cheerleaders cheer during the 112-weight match where Hornet Jason Gray sparred against Auburn Trojan Kelly Maughn at Auburn High School. Gray pinned Maughn later in the match.


Kennedy High School teammates applaud junior Nikki Vetterlein, center, during the Women’s 100 Yard Butterfly during the Girls State Swimming and Diving Championships.


Garfield’s LaNiecia Weatherspoon, 1, reacts after a foul is called on her during a against Ballard High School.


Dwight Smith, 24, pursues wide receiver Darrell Jackson, 82, during the Minnesota Viking vs. Seattle Seahawk game at Quest Field.


Butterfly room.


Seattle Fire Fighters walk through the bottom unit of an apartment building that was damaged during a fire in Whitecenter.



Eloise Evans, right, and classmates massage Vava Cole's head during Seattle Girls' School campout and bike trip on Lopez Island, Washington at the end of their sixth-grade school year, spring 2007. Cole was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma earlier in the year, and was given an 85 percent chance of surviving through high school. Evans is cancer-free, but survived 10 months of intensive treatment when she was a toddler. The two have become closer friends since Cole's diagnosis.

Celeste

Her name — the one on the right — is Celeste.

She works as the fashion correspondent for a San Francisco television station. Because of her profession, she dons the newest and most unexpected getups.

A lime-green wool blazer with fuchsia stripes. Pink and black houndstooth miniskirt. Fishnets. Black legwarmers. Suede pumps.

Celeste, who is reporting on the city's fashion week, is about to escort her three closest girlfriends to one of the celebration's top-shelf events.

To Willie Freitas, visual merchandiser for the Red Light shop in the University District, each month is a new episode in his West Coast version of TV's "Sex and the City." Freitas has invented names, jobs and identities for the four mannequins displayed in the shop's front window. The characters help him find inspiration. Each month their story changes. So do their outfits.

Celeste is the trendsetter. Her friend Jackie is a district attorney and a lesbian. Athena works as an art gallery owner. Daphnie slings drinks as a barista/bartender. She's trying to become an actress, but struggles. She is one of those "I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-my-life friends."

Freitas tries not to play favorites. He wants each of his mannequins to look equally good, but distinctly different. That way, different types of girls can identify with one of his four fashionistas.

But casting a set of characters sometimes creates challenges.

"If something doesn't look right to me, I feel like she hates it," Freitas says. "Sometimes they stress me out because I want them to look perfect."

BLUMEADOWS

"I wouldn't call him a normal person," says Jeff Andrew, former manager of Tommy's Nightclub — but definitely one of those people who's "just born to perform." Andrew is talking about guitarist BluMeadows. Also known as Maurice Mitchell Mills-Culpepper. And as Looking Bird in Blackhawk County, Iowa, where he was born.

With a wreath of buffalo teeth, bells and deer hoofs around his neck and a black suede hat with Macaw feathers on his head, BluMeadows stands out in a crowd. So does his voice as it drifts through the dark corners of a nightclub and out into the afternoon rain. A crowd watches him from an open window. Some begin to dance.

When BluMeadows performs, it's almost as if one of Seattle's guitar gods has risen from the grave.

Almost.

BluMeadows and Jimi Hendrix are alike in some ways. Both have called Seattle home. Their ancestors were black and Indian. Their musical love, the guitar. Played left-handed.

Hendrix was, in fact, a big influence on BluMeadows. But BluMeadows says he doesn't suffer from a case of hero worship. He just respects and covers the legendary guitar anthems.

Lamar Lofton, who sometimes plays bass with BluMeadows, says his colleague is able to connect to different types of crowds by playing a few tunes, seeing what moves people and then performing those songs well.

BluMeadows has played jazz, funk, reggae, blues and rock with musicians like Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis and Dave Lewis. He says he's toured with various groups through five continents. This past year, he played on tour with Jamaican reggae star Eek-a-Mouse. He also creates his own music, which he describes as "consciousness rock."

Wayne Rabb, a longtime Seattle professional drummer, took a few minutes trying to sum up his friend: "Words can't quite describe that gentlemen . . . He's a colorful artist, that's for sure."

For his part, BluMeadows says he's "just a visitor among all living things," going his own way. "I try to look through my eyes and no one else's."

As for his passion, "One lifetime isn't half enough to get into music. You are just scraping the surface."

Welcome to the Shoreline

Last autumn, I was approached to photograph a story about the north Seattle suburb of Shoreline.

At first, it seemed like an ordinary, everday Seattle suburb. But... the writer had some good ideas and from there we started talking about:

What makes this place different? Completely ordinary? What is the heart of a neighborhood? Does Shoreline have one? Can a neighborhood, built around cars, evolve into something else? Who lives here? Who first lived here? Are they old? Young? Caucasian? Asian? Latin American? What do they like about where they live? What are the schools like? Where to people come together? How is the neighborhood changing? How might it change? Oh yeah, where is the good food?

It's good to be reminded to keep my mind and eyes open. Keep talking and meeting people. Keep going back.

Below are some of the images from the story:

To read Paula Bock's story: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=pacificpthere09&date=20071209&query=shoreline+and+bock

(Thanks PB for the help.)


Luis Bandala and his 7-year-old daughter, Miriam, finish dinner inside Taqueria El Carreton, on Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline. The Mexican eatery is housed inside a school bus lined with stools where customers can sit, watch Spanish television and enjoy a horchata. Shoreline's Latino population, now 5.5 percent, is growing fast.


Else Gerber, 4, walks with her father, Mike Denlinger, after attending pre-kindergarten at the Evergreen School in Shoreline. The city is known for its highly regarded public, private and parochial schools.


Patrick Hartley and Cindy Libengood tease one another in privacy before the start of the movie "Transformers" at the Crest Cinema Center, home of the $3 movie. The two Shoreline Community College freshmen met at the film early to catch up. Right now, there aren't any cafes open at night within walking distance. Some hope that will change as the neighborhood develops


Sooho Lee (center), an elder of the Korean Zion Presbyterian Church, talks with elders and deacons after the morning service. Sunday services draw around 200 members of all ages each week. The congregation, formed in 1985, has been in Shoreline since 1994. In Shoreline, nearly 1 out of 5 residents is of Asian ancestry.


A driver waits at a stoplight at the corner of 185th and Aurora Avenue North. Shoreline's piece of Highway 99 carried about 45,000 vehicles per day as of 2000, and more are coming. The neighborhood is about 15 miles from downtown Seattle and is split by three major thoroughfares: Interstate 5, Highway 99 and 15th Avenue Northeast. Shoreline's proximity to Seattle and public transit make it desirable for redevelopment.


Drummers in the Shorecrest High School Highlander Marching Band perform during their homecoming half-time show. School spirit in Shoreline is such that parents continue to attend home games years after their kids have graduated.


A car whizzes along Aurora Avenue, a tunnel of strip malls, casinos, ethnic restaurants and car dealerships.


According to King County's Metro Transit Trip Planner, you can hop a bus at 5:10 p.m. on a Tuesday at Third Avenue and Pike Street and make it to the intersection of Shoreline's North 145th Street and Aurora Avenue North in 32 minutes. The bus stops at that intersection about to cross into Shoreline.


Ahmed Ahmed, a 15-year-old Shorecrest High School student, walks past a long row of shopping carts lining the front of a soon-to-open Goodwill store on the corner of 15h Ave. NE and NE 155th St.


Aurora Avenue North both divides and unites the Shoreline. The commercial corridor bisects the neighborhood with busy traffic, strip malls and casinos. However, residents are drawn to its convenient shopping and ethnic eateries. The Taboo Video sign peaks from behind a sandwich of other boards.



Alberto Ortiz decorates a Day of the Dead alter inside his sister’s Mexican grocery store, Lupe’s Tienda. The three siblings, whose family originates southwestern Mexican state of Michoacán, celebrate the return and union of their deceased loved ones souls each November. They crafted an alter— decorated with fresh flowers, pictures, skeletons, saints and sugar skulls — for the last four years in the Shoreline shop. This year’s commemoration was a chance for the family to cope with the death of six relatives, and also to revisit their family’s history.


Ray Thacker is nervous around traffic. In June, a drunken driver hit Thacker when he was walking with his best friend, Blake Nelson (pushing wheelchair) to a Richmond Beach grocery. The accident left Thacker with a broken arm, wrist, leg and fractured spine. Thacker, his girlfriend Melinda Wheeler (above) and Nelson favor taking the bus, and using Shoreline's Interurban Trail.


Ron Fulgham mows around his backyard gazebo in Shoreline. Ron and his wife, Carrie Fulgham, married for 50 years, have lived in the neighborhood since 1969.


Ricky Zambrano, 9, fishes out his soccer ball while playing with his sister and cousin in their Shoreline cul-de-sac. The family moved to Shoreline from an Everett duplex around two years ago.


Families circle around the parking lot in a hayride at a pumpkin festival in Shoreline.



A couple walks in a neighborhood on the border of Shoreline and North Seattle.


Evening fades on the Aurora strip.



Before the Aurora Cooridor Project, sidewalks were only available along about 20 percent of Aurora Avenue North. Today, a section of Aurora between North 145th St. to North 165th St. is more pedestrian friendly.

Maurice