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Published: January 2nd 2018
The arrival to Guatemala was pleasant despite two days traveling, three flights and only 3 hours of sleep.
I’ve always had a feeling of excitement being in Latin America as it feels like the beginning of an adventure.
I met Ben at the airport, and we ventured towards our first port of call, Antigua, a small charming city just outside of Guatemala City and much less dangerous.
We woke up at 7am, the following day and decided to visit a coffee plantation and ranch just two miles from Antigua. I had heard that Guatemala is well known for coffee and wanted to see how it was made, and to try it from the source.
We walked there through Antigua and a small suburban town just outside called 3 Ángeles. The ranch was just outside, Finca Filadelfia. It was a large ranch and tourist resort. We started the coffee tour at 9am, and learned about the history of coffee, founded in Ethiopia, the different varieties and how to cultivate it. I learned that coffee is a fruit and we cut it directly from the plant to taste - it was very sweet, similar to Guava. After this, the guide took
us to the manufacturing plant to show us the process of turning the fruit into the drink. There were four outer layers that were removed and dried, and then the beans roasted. At the end they provided us with an espresso of what they claimed is one of the highest grade coffees we would taste. It was very good, and the tour was great.
We walked back to Antigua, stopping off to try some street food. Fresh hand made tortillas from Maize filled with citrus and onions. It was delicious, and one of the things I really like about Central America. Upon returning to Antigua we walked around the small town and visited shops, including a chocolate shop, ate more and then returned to the hostel. We decided to book a bus journey the following day to visit Flores, so would wake up early at 6am for the long 10 hour travel to the north of Guatemala.
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