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Published: April 24th 2014
April 17th
(I wrote this before I found out about Opie, so figured it needed to be posted to my dear followers)
Yay! Our bike riding excursion to the coffee plantation and the smaller villages was today! Yipee - exercise in the hot blistering sun at 3,500 feet elevation! woot-woot! And once again I booked this! We had breakfast, then walked up to meet OldTown Outfitters and walked a few blocks to get our bikes. Larry’s bike wheel was semi flat and asked to have it filled. The guy couldn’t fill it (kept pssstttttt slowly) and said Gee I have to get you a new bike as your tire is flat. (you think?) Renting bikes in any developing nation is always entertaining; this was not the worst or the best vehicle, however it would do. I kept the seat really low incase of sudden stops I could touch the ground quickly; made for less power pedaling, but little did I know that would be far more important.
There was another couple with us and away we went with our guide. Let me say that riding a bike, mountain or otherwise on cobblestone streets, well, shall we say; sucks?
OMG painful and blinding and uuggguugguugggg bounce.bounce.bounce.bounce.giggle.bitetongue.bounce.
uuuggggggghhhhhhhhhhh
Wow - let’s just say I don’t ever, ever think I will do that again. Ever. Fortunately it wasn’t too long; perhaps only 5 minutes before we got out of there, but my word it was not pleasant. Add in there are no traffic rules (if there are I’ve yet to figure them out - you do see the odd stop sign, but not really sure they are a rule vs. a recommendation, just like a Ned stop for those of you who have had the pleasure of driving with me!) it was unnerving.
This was only the second time I’d been outside on a bike since my accident from my triathlon (yes a very long time) and my nerves were a bit shot too. I never really got over hitting the pavement at high rates of speed sadly, and despite my dear friend Joel encouraging me to get back outside, I manage to come up with excuses on a regular basis.
Enough about me. wait, this is ALL about me:-) Our guide asked us, since we had purchased the shorter ride, we could extend it, no
problem if we would like. So we all agreed. Pedaled for a while along the countryside, had a vehicle whiz by me I swear 2 inches, it whooshed past me and I actually screamed. Classy lady I am, classy! The sights were great, and once we started exploring some of the smaller villages it was really cool. Our first stop was the Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm; where we had a quick 20 minute presentation on the growing and harvesting of them. I indulged in a free 3 minute facial with macadamia oil; and did my skin ever feel good. Our guide was telling us that Lacombe as well as Nivea put 30-40% oil in their products, which made me laugh as i treat myself about once a year to Lacombe facial wrinkle cream; for a silly amount of money I usually get inside of duty free. Why buy the cream when I can get the pure oil? So I picked up a small bottle of it, and will use that at night until it runs out. Smells good too!
Continued on, some flat, some hills, but still doing OK. On route we came across some carpets being created for
Semana Santa. Now sure how much time I have spent on that, but Antigua is *the* place to be to celebrate Easter; and they do it for a 10 day period. Holy week is a long week, and everyone covers their windows in purple (!) dressings, people create the most magnificent carpets out of flowers and grass, and natural flora, or sawdust naturally died with different things. Depending on the money the family has is how elaborate their carpet is. The idea is to do that to celebrate Semana Santa, and then have the processions that happen all week long walk over it. It’s a very proud moment for each street, each community, business, personal etc. Regardless of if the individual is religious it is a huge tradition as well, and I for one was super excited to see some finally!
What I didn’t realize is that the chichi plant (which we were warned about on our Pacaya Volcano hike) is all over the place, not just in the jungle/hills. So as I was walking past a carpet, being careful not to step on their achievement, I grazed my arm along the shrubbery and instantly was in very intense
pain. It felt like a zillion needles soaked in the most painful stuff was stabbing my arm and elbow over and over and over again. I yalped, yelled for Larry and he saw the look on my face and ran over. I’m not one for being a sissy but this was VERY painful and so sudden. Larry grabbed my camera and called for the guide, and one of the Guatemalan ladies making the carpet saw what happened and explained it to the bike guide. She went inside and came out with a lime; ripped it in half and started rubbing it on my arm. Oh man, I was floored just how uncomfortable that was; and I hope to never experience it again. It faded after about a half hour to a dull roar; like a really sharp sunburn is what it felt like for about 18 hours then it faded completely. Lesson learned. We had joked about using this instead of toilet paper if you didn’t know - but I can’t even imagine that horror. Yikes!!!!!
We went through another town, and then our guide said; OK, just one more hill. Use your low gear and just come on
up. one ‘small’ hill? HA! I *may* be out of shape at the moment, and I may have been at a higher elevation but that was NOT a ‘small’ hill. And it went on for apron 2km. Up and up and up and up and up and up. I was feeling like someone had taken the wind out of my sails; simply no energy at all. So I got off the bike and just walked instead. I wasn’t that far behind the people who were cycling so didn’t feel too bad. After that it was fairly flat again, and then we got to stop at the small Coffee Plantation!!!!
This was a family run business, literally a couple from Maine who came and fell in love with the country. They purchased the 1.5 acre farm and leaned how to farm coffee from the locals. Their daughter took us around the farm, she came here at 16 as a student exchange and never left! Has 2 kids now - and both of them were quite the characters!
This was simply one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have every laid eyes on. They have a local gardener
who is extremely OCD and very, very proud of his work and the flowers and plants and layout were stunning. I felt like we were on 3 acres; not 1.5 and was instantly in love with the land, even excluding that they grow coffee:-) They’ve owned it for 6 years and are looking to sell; and trust me it crossed my mind. EX-pat living in Guatemala growing coffee for a living……… However it’s far too small to be lucrative but man oh man what an incredible garden!
Best part came when the coffee was introduced to our pallets and have to say it was; a.m.a.zing! Normally I prefer a dark roast, but their ‘regular’ roast was incredible. Rich flavour, so wonderful i couldn’t get over it. So I had a second cup! We hung out there for a while - they also have rooms they rent and there was a couple who was checking out that day so we all sat there like a family reunion hanging out on the front porch, dogs and all. I was in heaven and did not want to leave!
Biked back; hit the cobblestones closer to the city again and even my
eyes were hurting. Hard to focus when everything is going uuugggguuuuggugugugugugugugu AH! And then one of the processions had started, so traffic was rerouted, streets were closed and we had a long way around and traffic was hectic and frustrating and I almost got hit in an intersection once - it was enough to take my breath away. Fortunately even cars can’t go fast; but it still scared the crap out of me!
Made it back to the shop; ditched the bikes and went to the square for lunch. Both of us were very thirsty, very hungry and I was feeling just ‘empty’. Not sure if it was lack of food (hadn’t eaten much the last couple of days) or just being worn out but I was dragging my feet, literally. Felt a bit better after lunch; Ned: Hi can I have a vegetarian salad please (they only had 2 salads on the menu and both had meat) and he said OK. So I got the spinach and feta and ham salad without the feta and ham. Gee, thanks for the bowl of spinach. sigh. Larry had ordered brochette so I took 2 of the pieces, scooped off the
tomatoes and avocado and put that on my spinach - there was a salad at least!
We decided an afternoon in our courtyard with vodka, limes and ice sounded like a lovely idea; so we went shopping; got all the necessary items, and back to the hotel. Had a long overdue shower, then joined Randy and Janice and the 4 of us swapped stories from the day; had drinks, chips and just relaxed!!
I had left a message for Justin saying we were hoping to see the church lit up with candles (Elizabeth Bell had told us about it the day before), so could we meet early and go. He left us meeting time of 6 (perfect) and we all wandered to the church together. Couldn’t get it (Guatemalans and on time is/are an oxymoron) as they were not ready (we were there at 6:30 church was supposed to be open at 6), so we went for dinner first. Delicious Italian restaurant; wonderful meal, awesome company and it was such a great night!
Wandered back to the church; to discover that there were like 2 candles; and they had lit up a statue of Jesus on the
cross in the old section with power and that was it. HUGE letdown actually; we had all shown up with our cameras, Randy had brought his big tripod (and trust me walking around Guatemala during Holy week with anything is a challenge, let alone a large tripod) and we all were quite sad. SO we sauntered our way back to the hotel; all tipsy on Vodka (had purchased a bottle at dinner that we shared - cheap - and Stoly is cheaper then Smirnoff here - awesome!) and warn out from individual yet wonderful days. Antigua is a great place to visit and see; whether you are being lazy, adventurous, shopping, making chocolate, taking cooking classes, learning Spanish - or all of the above. I would happily come back here and I would highly recommend it to anyone to visit!
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