8 am – Woke up in Antigua and walked through the Antigua market.  Picked up Carlos’ friend Alessandro who took us for breakfast at Finca Filadelfia.

9:00 am – We had an amazing patio breakfast complete with a fuming volcano.  I took a tour of Finca Filadelfia with Aura.  They had a very impressive farm. Shade-grown Caturra, Catuai and Bourbon.  Great processing equipment, beautiful tile patio and complete roasting and packaging set up.  I spent a lot of time with Aura walking through every step their coffee undergoes.  It will be very interesting to compare this coffee process to that at Palmira.  This farm clearly has great resources; specifically great and complete equipment and plenty of water.

11:00 am – ROAD TRIP!  Off to Huehuetenango with Carlos.  These roads are nothing like MN.  Up, down, left, right (I feel like I’m trying to unlock a secret level on Zelda) stop, go.  I really enjoyed our conversation today as we drove and drove.  We talked about: coffee and the challenges at Palmira, the complexity of poverty, Guatemalan adoptions, and the Guatemalan government.  Very challenging.

5:00 pm – Stopped in Huehuetenango (city) to stop by for a quick hello with Carlos’ sister and back on the road again.

8:00 pm – Pulled off the Inter-American highway (absurd amount of speed bumps in Huehue) just a few miles south of Mexico and onto a winding dirt road that climbed to the village of  New Palmira.  Carlos’ mom greeted us with a feast.  I feel so welcome here.  What a great family!

Breakfast volcano – Finca Filadelfia

Patio – Finca Filadelfia

Traveling to Palmira

MANY MORE PICTURES AT

www.flickr.com/photos/bullruncoffee/sets/72157623440318831/

Author: Dan