Exploring Guatemala...Day 2

Today was another day of orienting ourselves to Antigua and getting to know each other. We woke up and had eggs and refried beans cooked for us at our hostal. Following this we went on a hike to the Sierra Christo- a large cross on top of a mountain.

We had an incredible view of the city that would have been even better if we had gone earlier to avoid the fog that covered the volcanos.

Following this we went to lunch at a restaurant that served Guatemalan food, not that I was adventurous at all and got a plate of grilled vegetables and guacamole. 

The highlight of the day was our tour of a coffee plantation! I learned every step of the coffee process and am about to outline everything I learned which might take a while but I want to remember! 

There are two types of Coffee: Robustus and Arabica. Robustus is what instant coffee is made of. The coffee plantation we visited grows Arabica but, the problem is Arabica's roots only lasts 5 years, which is not profitabe for a coffee plantation owner. So, what they do is make a hybrid of the Robustus roots which lasts 50+ years and the Arabica plant. They combine them with parafilm and the Arabica seed grows for 35 years until becoming a hybrid plant with the Robustus roots. So, for 35 years from March-November every year there is the growing season for Arabica coffee beans which are bright red on these coffee trees. 

The coffee plant flowers before they become beans.

From March-November the flowers turn into the bright red seeds which is the "womens" job to pick. They grow in hundreds per tree. 

The cherry layer on the outside is then peeled off in a machine which turns into two coffee seeds. 64 coffee seeds makes a cup of coffee so 32 red seeds.

There are two layers, one which is Kahlua is peeled off the seeds before they look like this. Both are done in machines. 

These are all the bad coffee seeds which are too small or large and are made into instant coffee. 

Water is poored in and the good red seeds and the bad red seeds are seperated. The good red seeds sink and the bad ones which are either infected with bugs or not ripe enough float. 

The pulpers take off the cherry outside to make the two seeds. The cherry outsides are used as fertilizer or used for cherry jello!

The seeds are separated by size in this machine. The ideal size is medium because the density to volume ratio is idea but the small and medium ones are processed separately and then combined in the end to make second tier coffee. 

The seeds are then dried and fermented and look like this. 

 The seeds are then put through the machine below and the last layer is taken off.

 After going through that machine the beens look like this! They are all ideally medium sized beans but then must be separated by density. The most dense beans that are medium sized make the best tasting coffee.

This is the density seperator, denser beans when the machine vibrates go to the left and less dense ones go to the right. 

Women then have to sort through the beans and pick out the bad ones. The same beans are cycled through three rounds of women to make sure only the best coffee seeds make it through.

The beans are then packaged into these bags and shipped to other countries to be roasted and made into coffee beans that are used in Starbucks or in our homes!

My cup of freshly made coffee!

All of us at the coffee plantation. 

It was quite a day. We drove back on the vans where I got to ride shot gun and bond with Alex who is a 24 year old Guatemalan who is studying engineering, piloting, and computer science! We had dinner at the SEC offices met more people from UConn Georgetown and Notre Dame on our trip, and drank together in our hostal where the manager the nicest guy made sure we had a great time! 

Looking forward to meeting my homestay tomorrow! We leave at 7:30 with all our bags packed and a quick Spanish for dummies class before we enter our house.