Day 6

We drove to what I expect to be one of only few tea plantations on the island, given that we had seen no others. Here we first had a walk through the plantation. Just like the previous days it started with a climb, so (just like the previous days) sweat mixed with sunscreen was running down my face and other parts of my body about 30 minutes into the hike. My doctor only needs to tell me once that my skin looks too old and damaged for somebody may age, so I generally did start my day carefully buttering myself up with sun protection, only to feeling that that had mostly been in vain about two hours later.
After a 1.5 hour hike we had a small tour in the factory. Contrary to plantations that I have been to in other parts of the world, the tea was not harvested by hand picking, rather two men would carry a large electronic razor across the rows of tea bushes, while one or two others would drag a bag behind it to catch all leaves. The inside of the factory gave me a feeling that I have had more during this trip, which did make me wonder where these islands are in terms of development. They seem to be ahead of parts of Asia and Africa that I have been to, but are in a number of aspects not as modern as I would expect from places that are officially European. A number of the machines in the factory came, according to the university student that was doing the tour, from the industrial revolution in England, but “they still work” and honestly I cannot think of any logic that can then argue against not using them. At the very end of the process though, there were still women handpicking the stems out of the final product and packing the tea. Some things never change (fast enough), once again making me feel thankful for the age and place that I was born in.
For our lunch break I decided to save my legs and not spend it hiking, but rather drink a nice cup of tea, which I had missed at breakfast in the hotel as they mostly served black tea. After that we climbed on our mountain bikes again, for a tour that was alternating between a few mid-level climbs and steep descends. Being 20 in total, we did tend to attract a lot of attention, particularly when we would all race downhill into a village, only to lose all potential admiration by dropping like flies and walking up the little hill on the other side of town. At some point with a few more hints on how to shift gears properly, I felt like I had this thing down and the relative rest I had taken the day before had its effect, so for the next hill that was higher than a bridge I felt good and ready to tackle it, but then I looked up ahead of me to see all my travel companions fall over like card houses, leaving me no place to pass and forcing me to walk again as well. Guess it’s a good thing I got this walking thing down at least.
At the end of what was going to be our last bike ride with Antonio I was designated to hand him his tip and as always I combined this task with my predilection for intercultural exchange. So I explained that in our country we would combine a thank you with three kisses and after confirming that we were both vaccinated and okay with this cultural exchange, I found out that also this formerly harmless gesture still feels the same post-COVID. I did feel the need however to point out that I do usually smell better when doing that and by his own account so does he.