Travel Courses

My first visit to Cape Verde was in March of 2006, when I led a rather generalized travel course (aka study tour) on the subject of sustainability. It took almost two decades for the proverbial stars to align for a second course, this one focused on the geography of coffee and volcanoes. 

Much of the world's best coffee grows on volcanic soils. The island of Java is perhaps the most iconic example, but the Central American coffees that I know best are grown on dormant volcanoes, and the specific minerality of long-ago volcanoes is thought to be contribute for the rich variety of flavor profiles in those coffees.

The coffee industry of Cape Verde is unusual in that the majority of its coffee grows on an active volcano. Moreover, wine grapes are grown on the same volcano -- the island of Fogo. During our travel course, I became a bit more familiar with the volcano and with both of these agricultural products. I decided that I could best contribute to the progress of the country's coffee industry by returning for a much closer look. I have applied for a sabbatical leave to do exactly that in the first half of 2026.