Field Trips!

Hi Everyone!

This past week we went on two field trips: one to a local coffee farm called La Azotea and the other to Monterico, a small Pacific coast resort town.

FIELD TRIP #1

On Wednesday afternoon, Ben’s Spanish teacher escorted the two of us and two other Spanish students to La Azotea, which is located outside of Jocotenango on the western edge of the Panchoy Valley (where Antigua and several other towns and villages are located).

Valle de Panchoy

Azotea is a five (?) generation coffee farm, and the owners have also developed several museums, including a Museum of Coffee, a Museum of the History of Guatemalan Music, an arboretum and garden with local flowering plants and trees , and an open-air “museum” showcasing different styles of housing indigenous to Guatemala’s different regions (coastal, highland, the area around Lake Atitlan, etc). The museums, of course, exist in addition to coffee production. Coffee beans (not really beans) are grown, harvested, de-pulped, dried, shelled, and finally roasted to perfection.

The road to the farm. There's a place that does horse therapy for handicapped children.

First, we took tours of all of the museums. Because this was a “Spanish class” field trip (Becky got the afternoon off from work to go along), Ben’s teacher had the guides give Spanish language tours. They spoke very slowly and between them, Becky and Ben caught most of everything that was said.

The Museum of the History of Guatemalan Music included examples of pre-conquest Mayan instruments (flutes, drums and other rhythmic instruments like notched gourds, and conch shell trumpets) and post-conquest instruments (including guitars and other string instruments, which had been unknown to the Mayans before the Spanish arrived). There was a display showing the evolution of the marimba, Guatemala’s national instrument. Some historians think that the marimba was actually introduced by West African slaves brought to work New World plantations. True marimbas always have wooden keys, but more modern version have multiple levels (like an organ) and are tuned to the Western scale, which makes playing in ensembles with other instruments easier.

At the Museum of Coffee, we learned that Guatemalan coffee is of the third best quality in the world, after Ethiopian and Kenyan coffees. All three are Arabica bean shade-grown coffees, more labor-intensive and more flavorful. Antiguan coffee is prized because it is grown in soil rich with volcanic ash. Yum? We saw the journey of the bean beginning with ripe sweet-tasting red “cherries” to roasted beans. We learned that the only difference between coffee roasts is timing, and that the darker the roast, the less caffeine the coffee ultimately contains. We also got to crunch on beans fresh from the roaster and have a cup of brew.

Coffee plant with homemade insect killer. A bottle filled with alcohol and kerosene. Supposedly, the insects are attracted by the alcohol and then drown in the kerosene. Drunko bugs!

Becky and Ben in the coffee fields

An explanation of coffee roasting. Bean tasting followed!

After the coffee tour, we wandered around the gardens and Mayan village area. And before we left, Ben bought something resembling a Mayan oboe. Fun afternoon all around.

Traditional Lake Atitlan region dwelling

This waist-high little structure isn't a doghouse. It's a traditional Mayan bathhouse and.. birthing house!

I think this flower eats people.

FIELD TRIP #2

This past weekend, we also had our first real trip outside of Antigua to Monterrico on the Pacific coast. We took a shuttle bus early Saturday morning and arrived at our hotel, El Delfin, around 11 AM.

Hotel El Delfin

Looking in from the beach.

We grabbed a quick lunch on the little boardwalk and spent the late morning and afternoon playing in the very strong waves, swimming in the hotel swimming pool, relaxing in hammocks, and playing volleyball at the expat bar, Johnny’s.

The beach is black sand, very beautiful, clean, and not crowded at all, but very dangerous with the undertow so that hardly anyone swims. Hard to convey how big and powerful these waves really were.

Afternoon Nap

Later in the evening, we played cards at the hotel with Becky’s colleagues, Andrea and her friend Jacob who was visiting from the States and Luke and his girlfriend Vera, before we all went back out to party at Johnny’s disco.

We were drinking a late afternoon tropical sangria on Johnny's beach-view terrace

Sunday morning was more of the same: waves, hammocks, and some food. We left at 4 PM. Our hotel cost only $5 per person per nigh, and the ride from Antigua takes only a little over 2 hours. But, we think we’ll probably take a long weekend and spend two nights next time we visit.