While we were in Antigua, we took a couple side trips to local farms. The first one we went to was the La Azotea Cultural Center. We started the tour learning about Mayan musical instruments, from pre-Columbian times to the present. It was very interesting. Next was the coffee farm tour. We saw where they grow, dry, roast, and package coffee.
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| Coffee growing, the Australian trees provide shade for the coffee plants. |
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The big concrete pad is where they dry the coffee beans, and the small building is where they roast the beans.
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| Coffee roasting, it smelt heavenly! |
Another day we took a trip to a macadamia nut farm. The farms goal is to help local Guatemalans create their own macadamia businesses. Most of the equipment used is low tech.
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| Macadamia drying |
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| Sorting the nuts by size. The nuts are rolled down, and they drop into the right compartment as the rails widen. |
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| The boys loved doing this. I think we could have left them there all day! |
The farm also has a restaurant and spa. We enjoyed the best panqueques (pancakes) ever. Macadamia nut pancakes, topped with honey, macadamia butter, and wild blueberries.
Afterwards, we walked 1 km into the neighboring town, San Miguel Duenas to catch our ride back to Antigua. It was a sleepy little town that was filled with greenhouses growing flowers.
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