Guatemala’s Willy Wonka

We started our day earlier, arising at 6am to walk up the mountainside. I reluctantly got out of bed as Tyler whispered in my ear. Sure glad that I did. It was magnifico and gave us all the energy that we have been lacking. We also went to the hospital to meet with people about the set-up of the water system. Looks like it is going to be easier to do than we had thought.

Today, we met the man behind the golden ticket. Our first coffee farm/processing visit was very colorful. The owner of the finca was a thin, sombrero wearing, chain smoking, arm in sling for whatever reason, marimba-playing man.

We walked through the property and looked at the wee little coffee trees about 2 feet off the ground. Right now is not coffee season and so there was not much to look at. But he showed us where the fruit is separated from the skin and also where the bean is separated from the shell. Much of the equipment was very old, one piece 60 years to be exact.

The reason that I make the Willy Wonka reference is because as we walked through the property he was picking fruits off the trees: bananas, oranges, sweet limes and handing them to us as he was talking about his finca.

When we got to the end of the “tour” he asked if we wanted to hear him play music. He got behind a big wooden instrument that I found out from Felix was called a Marimba. (This is where I don’t understand why he had a sling on, he was playing with his arm just fine. ) Then I find out that he wants to dance with me right after Felix shows me how to dance the Marimba. Well I am just going to say that we didn’t dance together, which I would have done for the record. I found out that he may have been drinking a little bit and so I opted out of the dance invite.

You should also know that the man had a taper in a cage. If you know what a taper is prize for you. We now know what one is. He also had geese as guards rather than dogs. Yep.

So, we ended up going back to the apartment with two bags of beans that still needed to be shelled and chaffed. We sat around a table and did just that, somewhat desperate for a decent cup of coffee. We have been whole-heartedly enjoying instant coffee.

We leave you with the smell of stove-top roasted coffee in the air. Reminiscent of Sunergos, home and love at first sight.

(this was just one of the first coffee farmers that we will be meeting in our efforts to find and make relationships for direct trade with sunergos. bettering fair trade.)