Beautiful Mayan Culture - Acatenango, Guatemala
We got a chance to visit a Cup of Excellence (COE) farm on our travels in Guatemala (Feb 2014). Chalabal Estrella is a 1500-1900m 200ha farm in the volcanic region of Acatenango. The farm has been passed down through four generations and is now run by Dr Alfredo Amenabar. The old farm was 600ha and has been split between Alfredo's cousins. Chalabal Estrella has a natural reserve on it with a large water supply, Alfredo's mother donated 50% of the water to the town of Acatenango meaning this is a very important coffee farm in Acatenango. More to come on this - in video form!
For now, this post was to highlight the farm workers. Each year at harvest time, a small village community of Mayan people come down from their homes high in the mountains for a month at a time to pick the coffee cherries. From the photos, you can see this is a full family affair. The men strip the plants, men and sons carry them up the hills and the woman and children sort the cherries. The main photo shows a mother working with 3-4 month old child strapped to her back. These people all seem so happy. They speak a language specific to their village, one of the dozens of Mayan dielects (not Spanish). Their clothes are all hand woven my the women in the village - how stunning they look hundreds of meters up in the middle of a coffee plantation.
It was amazing being in their presence and there was a mutual respect of friendship and kindness, even though it may have been a rare occasion for them to see a DSLR camera and people from New Zealand. One of the photos shows Sammy (Steve's fiancé) laughing with one of the younger girls. A cool moment and such incredible memories.
More to come on this farm soon, including video conversations with Alfredo and many different shots of this stunning Guatemalan high altitude COE farm...!