Coffee Farm and Music Museum

It's Saturday. We had a slow start today, but spent the morning at the coffee farm La Azotea, which also has a museum with Guatemalan musical instruments (pre- and post-colonial) and costumes. The farm is a short - and local - bus ride from Antigua. This was the first time for most of us to ride the local buses. If you ever wondered what happened to your "big yellow," wonder no more! It went to Guatemala to serve as local transportation, after receiving a bright(er) paint job.

Now, the rainy season, is when the coffee begins to grow, and when the farm does a thorough cleaning. The coffee is harvested close to Christmas, and sits outside to dry in the early part of the year. Then it is roasted and packaged, ready to be sold. We were able to see a demonstration of the various stages of coffee production, to taste different beans, and to have a cup of the home brew.

We also toured the music and costume museum - fascinating! The instruments are well displayed, as are the costumes, hung on mannequins made of corn husks. Some of us left the farm with gifts to take home - and a few things for ourselves.

The first picture is a shot of mannequins playing the national instrument, the marimba. The second shows both a blossom, which will become a coffee bean, and tiny coffee beans.

By the way, some of you will enjoy this quote from the farm's owner of a generation ago: "Coffee should be black as night, strong as passion, sweet as love and hot as hell."