Coffee Up The Goods

Hello my lovelies,

Well as you all know I am a massive Tea lover having spent a lifetime scratching her head wondering what all the fuss is over coffee. Tea loving hippy here has finally got it. I have discovered a wonderful use for coffee. ART. Yes, pure and simple….art.

I don’t care that most people need a coffee to kick start their morning and believe I’m a weirdo for thinking it tastes like dirt. It’s OK, everyone is entitled to drink sludge if they want to. Me…I’m just not that person. So when wandering the streets in Granada, Nicaragua and coming across a street artist that paints in coffee I thought to myself “Finally! A good use for coffee”.

Carlos, the ingenius artist makes paint with it. A simple recipe of about a kilo of coffee, mixed with….ummm….something (my Spanish isn’t that good) and viola – you get 500ml of sludgy coffee paint. This he creates gorgeous artworks with on his own recycled paper. WOW. Yes, he makes his own paper from old office stationary and not only that, he makes the paper bags for you to take the artworks away in.

A truly beautiful eco friendly idea. One I fell in love with so of course I bought one.

Who would have thought I would find a kindred spirit on the side of the road? What a wonderful start to the day. Especially seeing as it was a public holiday being the holiday of the Virgin Mary so they set firecrackers off all the time with no warning making you want to duck and roll!

Little discoveries like this make travel a blessing.

And you know, I think the Virgin Mary was there that day and sent us Carlos. He has only just moved back to Nicaragua but warned us that because of the holiday, cops were a bit light on so watch out for pick pockets. A street angel looking out for us and protecting us. As in all countries, the chances are slight but things do happen and we found out later that a couple of tourists had cameras stolen so our street angel protected us. Thank You Carlos!

Nothing special, he just displays his artworks on the street for people to look at and buy if they so choose. Me, I love supporting local artists and who knows, maybe it'll take off and I'll be rich someday. OR, one of my friends will want a coffee fix and try and eat my painting. It could go either way.

But please, next time you see a street artist stop. Have a chat. Nine times out of ten they have wonderful stories, have lived extraordinary lives and they may just end up becoming your saviour. This is mine. Meet the kind hearted Carlos, planet friendly street artist extraodinaire!!