Our 2 favorite foods. Well, Micah is feeling better now. We figured out it was the juice in a bag. Immediately after tasting it, we realized that something was not quite right. We ended up giving the 2 jugos por la bolsa to some hombres on the side of the road. So sad, because the boys were very excited about the experience. However, the juice was nasty and I am an "adventurous" eater!
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| Smiling now, but definately not later. |
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| A short-lived happiness. |
In the past 2 days, we explored the production of 2 of our favorite things: cacao (chocolate) and cafe (coffee), which are both native to this region.
El museo de chocolate (Chocolate Museum) is in downtown Antigua. They have the history behind the discovery of chocolate, and allow its participants to make chocolate from roasting the beans, grinding them into the paste (liquor) and molding them into some sort of shape. The inside of the museum smelled so good as chocolate was everywhere. We had some authentic hot chocolate made from freshly made chocolate and bought a few of the chocolate bars produced right there in the museum.
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| Roasting the chocolate beans. |
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| Bo Grinding los semillas de chocolate |
Next, went to La Finca Cafe Filadelfia in Antigua this afternoon. This is a coffee plantation just a few minutes outside of town. We took the 2-hour tour that outlined the coffee growing process from the grafting process (blending the roots of the
robusta with the fruiting of the
arabica all the way to the roasting process. It was very educational, albeit, a little bit boring for the kiddos. As a science teacher, I found it absolutely intriguing, haha!
The coffee plantation was not in active production, unfortunately, as the harvesting time is in November through February, so the machinery in the mill was quiet. The finca is also a tourist hotspot with hipline, mountain biking, mule riding, paint balling, and climbing. We saw the owner fly to the property in his helicopter. I guess he has 2 plantations and lives in Guatemala city...busy guy!
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| coffee plant in early stage. |
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| women grafting robusta with arabica |
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| Ripe coffee beans. |
Today, we are leaving Antigua to hike Volcon Pacaya, then off to Guatemala city. We've enjoyed our stay here tremendously. The highlight for the boys, though was using the bide (baday).
[Note]: Upload speed at hotel is extremely slow. So, I will add pictures later tonight in Guate.
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