Final Semana

The past few days have been busy, busy, busy. On Thursday night, Andrea, Lisa and I went to salsa class, but I was paired with an older American guy who knew no salsa and kept running me into the wall. It was a very painful 40 minutes of dancing with the ¨abuelo" (grandfather) but Lisa finally helped me out and the last 20 minutes were salvaged with a decent partner. It made for a good memory and experience but not much help for my salsa skills. Friday was the last day of school (yay!) and we celebrated by cooking dinner in our hotel, Casa Dona Mercedes, for 3 other people from school, then dancing at a local discoteca, La Rhumba. Quite a few Guatemaltecos and gringos from salsa classes go there, so we had lots of company and a good time dancing.

Saturday a group of us from school took a tour to a coffee finca about an 1 1/2 from Xela, close to the Western coast, which is prime coffee growing land. Santa Anita is a cooperative coffee finca, meaning that it is owned and operated by 32 families, not one owner like many fincas. Coffee fincas are basically coffee plantations that are owned by the wealthy Guatemalans or fereign companies but worked by poor Mayans who are exploited and live in pretty horrible conditions. Coffee fincas and land rights were big issues during the civil war and continue to be a big issvery controvesial within the country now. Santa Anita was bought after the end of the civil war 12 years ago by the group of 32 families, who were ex gurilla fighters. About 120 people live on the finca and harvest the coffee and bananas. It is extremely labor intensive but not very profitable, and the finca is not able to pay back the government loan, which has an interest rate of 12%, plus penalty interest. Bananas sell for Q40, about $6, per 100 lbs! It also takes about 100 lbs of picked coffee bean in cherry form to make only 10 lbs of roasted coffee, which is how consumers purchase the beans.

Once we arrived, a guide from the finca took us on a hike around the land and explained the coffee harvesting and production process. It was pretty warm and humid, so we were all ready for lunch and shade after a few hours. After lunch, a man from the finca gave us a talk on the history of the finca and his involvement with the civil war. It was an extremely interesting and informative trip, especially for a mass coffee drinker like myself.

The group from school with a great chicken bus background, and a kid from the coffee finca collecting wood for the family.

In the evening, Stephen, Lisa and I went to a futbol game, the Xela Superchivos vs. a team from Guatemala City. I guess a superchiva is some kind of ram, not totally sure, but saee the pic below. There are riot police present at the soccer games, plus the opposing teams fans are kept in a seperate caged off area in the stadium to minimize the crazyness I guess. I yelled right along with people even though I wasn´t sure what I was saying. I asked the people in front of me for some help, and they happily assisted this gringo in shouting obsenities at the team from Guat. City. Although the Superchivas lost , the game was a great experience and a good chance to people watch.

Wednesday I leave Xela to head to Coban and visit the caves of Lanquin and water of Semuc Champey for a few days before meeting a friend for a week in Livingston and Rio Dulce area.