Inland Traval to
Copan, Guatemala
May 10-12 2004
After
we left the other group from the Tikal travel Betty, Kevin and son Peter
from S/V Citation and we took a chicken (local) bus from the Rio Honda
to Coban. According to our Lonely Planet Central America on a Shoestring
book Coban has a population of 20,000 people and was once a stronghold
of the Rabinal Maya. There was a large immigration of German immigrants
founding vast coffee and cardamom fincas (farms). This gave Coban the
look and feel of German mountainside. Today Coban is a pleasant town despite
a lot of rain and chilly weather, which the coffee agriculture needs.
As
we got into town we found Pension Monja Blanca which we comfortably stayed
for two nights at $24 a room with breakfast being extra like $2-3 per
person. It had been an old monastery built in the 1880’s. There
were beautiful gardens surrounding the interior with a patio that we had
wine and snacks. You would not know there was hustle and bustle outside
the walls. That night we found another good find. Casa D’Acuna Restaurant
Italian at a 60’s Hostel. . There was much art on the walls and
offered many music, and art classes as well as a coffee house. The hostel
was three and four beds with shared baths. We did not stay there we liked
our pension.
Coban
Center
The next day we toured the town. There are many little outlying villages
that you also can take local buses to which we didn’t want to stay
too long here. In the town there are many coffee houses and tasting. In
the center is a market an old Cathedral and a palace with contra war memorabilia..
In the outskirts we found Templo El Calvario. You get the best view from
the top of this church. It was about 100 steps up to it on top of a hill.
Pat didn’t climb cause she is doing well but still nursing her sciatica
injury to her leg and is really bruised at this time. Indigenous people
leave offerings at the altar and you can see the Mayan and Christen combo
again. On the high altar there were things like eggs, feathers, fire corn
and other staples.
Next we went to W.E.Dieseldorff’s Finca Santa Margatira ,Coban. A coffee farm and processed roasted and packaged the beans. What we learned was quite interesting plus Pat just got a high on all the coffee smells.Interesting facts are that Brazil and Vietanam have the market on coffee right now so all these small farms and Guatemala in general are suffering with a 40% unemployment due to lack of agriculture right now. Some farms are not selling therefore don’t have the $$ to fertilize crops for next year and it becomes a bad circle. The “coffee experience “ is a guided tour thru a plantation. We had a Mayan women to guide us who also speaks good English and she has done this for many years.
The coffee from Coban has the soft rainfalls and acid soil in the mountains
is what makes it one of the best coffee plantations in the world. The
process selection of the soft yellow skin of the bean, which when peeled
off ,exposes the green bean it then undergoes selection that separates
the heavier bean from the lighter. They are fed thru a machine that carries
them thru a stream of water. The lighter ones flow to the top and are
skimmed off for lesser coffees or instant . Type A is the heavier and
taster coffee.
”A” coffee further passes a visual selection that separates
perfect bean according to size color and shape from the rest and then
finally the last stage is done thru colanders to separate the bigger beans
to obtain export coffee. This same coffee is roasted and sold in Guatemala
as Exclusive. The further coffee tasting ended up with a cup of coffee
not different tasting which was a little disappointing. We also got to
see the plantation .
It starts with a flower on the tree then becomes green and sometimes then
red all right on the tree before it is harvested and processed. This was
fun it is like good wine it depends on where the plantings are and the
temperature during the maturation period.
That night Rich wasn’t feeling well (T-diarrhea) and so didn’t
join us for dinner. The next morning we left getting the Pullman bus for
his comfort. We went to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan.
The Flower The red or green bean
The
Drying process of coffee beans
. Roasting the Beans
