On January 28. 2023 on a cruise we stopped at Guatemala. We toured the Filadelfia Family Coffee Plantation and the city of Antigua.
The entrance to the Filadelphia Family Coffee Plantation.
They first gave us a fabulous meal of grilled food.
We started the tour with coffee plants which take 8 months to get to transplant size.
Joanne picking coffee beans. She found them very hard to pull off even though when cherry red they are ripe.
The beans are all picked by hand. The pickers get .75 a pound. The beans are weighed with the husk on. They lose half their weight when the husk is removed.
The machine that removes the husk.
After removing the husk they are soaked in water.
Next they are filtered to remove debris.
Moving to the drying piles.
They are then air dried in the sun down to 10% moisture. It can take days and the birds are not a problem.
The roasting is the process that makes the coffee what it is. Experts determine by taste exactly when to shut off the heat.
The plantation bags come in small bags for sale locally and in the plantation restaurant.
Most roasted beans are bagged for commercial sale. The plantation produces 1,600 tons of coffee a year.
Joanne buys 3 pounds of coffee from 3 different elevations.
The families insignia.
Antigua had many vendors on the street.
The famous arch of Antigua. It has survived countless earthquakes.
This church has survived many earthquakes. Almost 100% of the Guatemalans are Catholic.
The city center is a large park. There were dozens of vendors.
Most of their wares were made by the vendor.
The center with the fountain and many pigeons.
We didn't ask to see the middle hat.
The Volcano del Fuego (volcano of fire) started erupting as we went back.
The volcano in the morning when we went by on the way to Antigua. Note huge rock slide on the side.
