We arrived early Tuesday morning and began exploring the cobble stone streets of Antigua. A delicious breakfast first, then a we searched for a hostel for the night.
On the way to our there, we came across a small cafe called Guate Java. Javier, the manager was there and we started talking about what he was doing and how they were connecting with local farmers. Part of their business model is to find farmer’s producing great coffees and give them access to larger markets. They also have a great small batch roaster inside the cafe. I’d never had a Guatemalan naturally processed coffee before and their’s was delicious. They had one from Antigua that was really great.
While we walked around, Morghan met up with a family friend to ask her about sourcing textiles. Jorge took us to his son Wilfi’s property in San Antonio Aguas Calientes, a nearby village. The small plot of land was dotted with coffee trees, pacaya and jocote plants. The jocote is a small edible sweet fruit with a pit, the pacaya looks like a yucca plant.
On Thursday, we were off to Lake Atitlán. We arrive in Panajachel in the late morning and made our way to Crossroads Cafe where we met Michael, the owner and roaster. Michael is a rare and generous person, overflowing with excitement for the people he meets, his coffee and his family. We got to spend time with him before heading to our hostel and made plans to meet again a few days later for dinner and more conversation. He also introduced us to José Coffee in San Juan, a mid-range processor with a really cool facility on a hillside in San Pedro. We made plans to take a tour of the land of several small producers above San Juan by horseback the next morning.
Jose Coffee
We left early from Santa Cruz on Friday for San Pedro. Jose gave us a tour of his coffee shop and roaster, then we met up with Juan and his daughter Lea to continue our tour on horseback. We climbed for several hours exploring the coffee above San Juan, learning the commands in Spanish for the horses and the reign work they would best respond to.
Morghan, Chase, Rachel and our guide Lea’s father.
We negotiated an early morning trip from Santa Cruz to Santiago De Atitlan with a Launchero named Esteban and arrived at the docks around 8am. A guy named Obdi picked us up and Chase and I (Sean) jumped into the back of his pickup truck. We drove for a couple of hours through the countryside to the other side of one of the Volcanoes surrounding the lake.
Finca San Gerónimo
When we arrived, I had a weird sense that I had been there before. In 2008, I was volunteering at a ropes course at La Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City. The group participating was from Parma Queso (the Kraft Cheese of Guatemala, dominant in the formal grocery market nation wide). Mark, the owner, was really friendly and interesting to talk to. At the end of the day, he invited me to tour his dairy. A few days later, I drove to Guatemala City from Antigua and ended up at the airport. A few minutes later, we were in Mark’s single engine plane headed for his farm. I puked when he banked it at the ocean. In spite of that the whole experience was really cool. Shortly after, we landed on a grass landing strip, I cleaned myself up and we began walking around the dairy, had lunch and then flew back to the city…
Cupping time!
Fast forward 8 years later. Giorgio, the farmer at Finca San Jerónimo began our tour by talking about cheese. He showed us the experiments they were performing with raised drying beds and kept mentioning cheese. I looked back up the road and saw a familiar bridge across a stream. Finally, I asked him if he knew anyone named Mark. He looked really confused and asked how I knew Mark. Then I recounted the story, above. He looked at me and said “Mark is my father, and you are on the same farm…”
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