nueva Alianza

The past couple of days we have been in Xela (shay-la) also named Quetzaltenango. When we first rolled into Xela we were nothing less than naive in our approach of getting connected to coffee farms; our only security was that Xela was known as a coffee capital. We arrived at a hostal called the black cat, totally hip and unlike any other experience we have had in Guatemala. After settling in and recovering from traveling, Aaron spent some time looking through a tourist book. In the book there was an advertisement for a place called "Cafe Conciencia." The advertisment was for coffee farm tours and purchasing fair trade coffee. With no other leads and little to grasp to the 8 of us head out to find Cafe Conciencia... ironically the businesses was located on the other side of the block. We entered through the already opened iron doors and turned right up the ascending stairwell. Somewhat apprehensive and curious if we were in the right place, we wonder into a room of young Guatemalans conversing. A 30-something year old man approaches us with a mixture of curiosity and kindness. His name is Omar and after hearing our ideas and reasons for being in Guatemala he immediately becomes an ally. Omar begins drawing out a map of all the coffee farms in the area, telling us which are organic, which would be most interested in our business plan, all the while writing phone numbers that will put us in direct contact with the farmers. (One of the farmers, Rigoberto, happened to be there as well. You will here the tale of his finca, Santa Anita, soon.) If that doesn't sound unbelievably providential, Omar tells us later that he would be leaving town the next day, so if we hadn't caught him when we did... we would have missed this opportunity. One contact resulted in the chance for Jason, Kane, Aaron and I (noel) got to go to a coffee finca about one hour from here named Nueva Alianza "New Alliance". An extraordinary place where not only organic coffee was grown but bio diesel is produced, hydro-electricity is used, macadamia nuts are grown to shade the coffee trees, as well as a few other un-developed proyectos. On top of all this, the coffee was actually pretty good. So needless to say we were pretty encouraged to be able to buy 15 pounds of green beans to bring back to the states.
Today and tomorrow we have 3 more farms to visit. We are so thankful for the connections that were made.
Other than that, we are all doing well. We love each other and take care of each other well. We want to say more but our breakfast is on it's way. We love you all and thank you all for your support and little posts on our blog. Keep it up dudes.