The Guatemalan coffee and the colorful and unique Antigua

The coffee plant.

Thank you to my friend Charlotte, who kindly accepted to be my model! :)

The coffee beans, after removed from the coffee plant.

Antigua, Guatemala

Guatemala was a surprise for me. I did not know what to expect, but certainly not so much poverty. It is not the same kind of poverty that can be seen in Vietnam, though.

As soon as I left the ship and saw the mini-buses I certainly did not expected to be equipped with AC, as it looked very basic ones. Surprisingly there was AC! Thankfully because it was bloody hot! :)

As soon as we left the port, Puerto Quetzal, the mountains were surrounding us. There are a few volcanoes that are still active and we were fortunate enough to see an active one called the Fire Volcano. In general, all around Puerto Quetzal there are locals selling plenty of tropical fruits by the highway.

In our way to the coffee farm it was visible how basic the houses are. There is no organisation of territory and the houses are built randomly. Our guide mentioned it, that there is no control in what regards to the architecture, so as long as the locals have the money to buy a land or a house (as they prefer) they can do it. The same does not happens in Antigua, as the governments wants to keep the architecture in this Unesco World Heritage.

The houses in Puerto Querzal look like shanties. The clothes are hanging randomly and the ladies are washing the clothes manually meanwhile their kids are playing around. This children are not playing with Iphones, Ipads or anything from this technology generation. They manage to play happily with none of those items. The chickens- "gallos" are free and walk charmingly by the highway!

It took us around 1h30 to get to the Filadelfia coffee farm where we had the opportunity to see the steps needed to make coffee one of the most pleasurable things we have in our life.

The coffee bean can be found inside the coffee plant - something that looks like a red round fruit. After we remove the beans from inside we can eat this red plant which surprisingly is quite sweet. Our guide told us that in Guatemala they do jam with this plant.

After picking the plants and removing the beans those are left drying in the sun for a few days (the number of the days depends on how hot it is) without the skin. And it's time to roast the beans!

The smell in this farm was unique and extremely pleasant. After the visit we had the opportunity to taste the with some cookies and croissants.

In our way to Antigua we had the opportunity to see 3 people in the same motorbike. By the way the locals look quite relaxed driving this motorbikes, just like if they were sunbathing!

Antigua is just so beautiful with it's Spanish colonial houses quite in a bad state, but the architecture remains the same. Our guide told us that the population is not allowed to build houses with more than 1 floor to keep the landscape and the architecture needs to respect a few rules. He said that it is a big cost to build in there, so many people decides to sell or abandon the buildings instead. We did visit quickly a Jade industry which sells a wide variety of jewelry and we proceeded to the main square where all this ladies in the most colorful costumes are trying their best to sell souvenirs. Some of them even carry their babies in their back meanwhile trying to earn some money. Kids are working as well as there is not much of a working law.

Some facts about Guatemala:

• The main industries are the coffee production, sugar cane, banana plantation (once Guatemala was called the Republic of Bananas), tourism. Once visiting Puerto Quetzal it's clear that agriculture plays an important role in this people's life and it's visible how this industry is lacking sophistication as most of the work is done manually.

• In Guatemala there is no such thing as unemployment benefit . If they want to get paid they need to work.

• In general the population is very dedicated to work.

• The cost of electricity and water is very low (about 5 USD per month for the electricity and 1 USD for the water per month)

• The main country buying coffee from Antigua is Japan. They are also the country who pays more for it

• 20 % of the population in Guatemala is illiterate.

• The English at school is very basic - learning a good level of English it's expensive

• There are several languages spoken in Guatemala and influenced by the Mayas

• The harvest season determines the scholarship season as the children need to help the parents. The families are paid by kg of what they collect, so as much people there is working on it better.

• Average salary is 300 USD/month

• Cost of a house in Antigua: around 2 billion. Outside Antigua may cost: 120.000 USD (even if the houses looks like shanties)