They fill the basket, tip it forward into the burlap sack, sling the sack unto their backs, pick until the sacks are filled with 40 to 70 kilos of coffee beans, then head to wherever they have left the pickup or burro. There they empty the beans into large buckets with tops. That is to protect the beans in the transportation down the hillsides, to stop them from being crushed or bruised. They pick in wave after wave, for days, from before dawn to sunset. The beans are brought to the patio.
Men come and wait as their beans are weighed and gather in groups, women in other groups.
Children run around and slide across the patio on carts that look like Palo jacks. The beans are sun-dried. Men with shovels turn them again and again all during the day. At night, they cover them with large tarps against the dew. As the beans dry, they turn from bright red to purple to burnt to black.