Journal #5

Friday, August 11, 2006

We went on our first fieldtrip in Guatemala today. We went to Val-Halla Macadamia Nut Farm. We met at school at 2:00 p.m. Five of us were going; Blair from Texas, Sarah from New Jersey, Jorge, one of the teachers at CSA, Chad and me. As we walked down the street just steps out of school, Blair began talking to me. She asked where we were from and then we introduced ourselves to each other. She has been here a week also and I think she was feeling a little uneasy about not knowing anyone.

We talked as we walked to the bus terminal. There we got on what the Antiguans call a “Chicken Bus.” I asked why they are called that and they literally were used years ago to transport chickens and people. The people riding would bring their chickens with them and they would sit in their owners’ laps. There were also little cages the chickens could ride in under the seats, hence the name chicken bus. We found a seat on the bus after going through “Fat Man’s Squeeze” to get to our seats. The aisle was barely big enough for one of my legs to fit through. Anyway, we all talked as we rode. We drove about 20 minutes south of Antigua. The countryside was beautiful. There was a large mountainous area that was unlike anything I have ever seen. It had the look of a patchwork quilt. There were some areas of solid dirt, others had crops, and others had trees. Each section looked like it had been measured exactly and the boundaries drawn with a ruler. It was so neat.

We also drove by a coffee bean plantation. Sarah was telling us she went there yesterday and it was such a neat experience to here about the precise way they grow coffee here. The coffee from Antigua is amazing. It is so rich with flavor and has the best aroma I have ever experienced from coffee. I think Chad and I will visit the plantation in a couple of weeks when we can go on the Spanish tour.

We finally arrived at the farm. The driver dropped us on the street and the bus was on its way. There we were four Americans and a Guatemalan on the side of the road and we all looked at each other as to say, “What do we do now?” Luckily, the teacher from school had been there before and knew where to go. There was a small entrance on the opposite side of the road where we went in.

Immediately when we stepped past the gate there were Macadamia Nut trees everywhere. We walked probably 100 yards down a path that was covered with hard brown nut shells and sheltered us with bamboo. It was very cool there with the breeze blowing as we passed through the walkway. We came upon an area that was open yet still covered with shade from the trees.

A woman came and led us to a small building that we in America would consider to be a gift shop. There she served us salted Macadamias and chocolate covered Macadamias. They were wonderful. Then, another lady came and took us on a very brief, but very interesting tour. First she told us the Macadamia nut trees are grown completely organically. They use horse manure and the shells from the nuts to fertilize. They also have big troughs of red worms that they feed leftover food from the kitchen to make compost and then they are placed beneath the trees as fertilizer also. All the nuts are gathered by hand after they have fallen from the trees. This particular farm has 415 trees, consisting of 345 different species of Macadamia nuts. Who ever knew there were that many species of one type of nut. I never imagined.

The nuts are then put through a man made machine where their green outer skin is taken off, then laid in the sun for 20 days to dry out. This machine consists of a car tire with a frame of one of those old metal round fans around it. The frame has metal bars that run parallel to the tire about ¾ of the way around. At the top there is a basket-like area where the nuts are poured in onto the tread of the tire, the tire is manually turned making the nuts go between the tire and the frame and the outer skin is ripped off. They are then sorted according to their size and taken to Ciudad Viejo, the Old City, to have their shells broken away. This process is very difficult because the shells are extremely hard. The farm does not have a machine that can do it, so they have to take it to the city to have someone do it for them. Wow! What a process. It was really neat to see. Hopefully our pictures will work for this one so you can see what I have tried to explain.

The tour guide told us there were two things about this farm that were famous; the Macadamia nuts and they had the most beautiful bathroom in Guatemala. Well, we had to take a picture of the bathroom just to say we had been to the prettiest one in the country. It was very tropical with ferns and other greenery around. It even had a turquoise toilet. Never seen one of those before.

After we toured the bathroom, we were invited back to the “gift shop” for a Macadamia oil and lotion facial. I couldn’t get Chad to participate, but it was very relaxing. It was only about 2 minutes, but it was nice. The lady first cleaned may face with a cotton pad and water. Then she applied Macadamia nut oil to my face and neck, followed by Macadamia lotion, ending with a shoulder massage. She did all of this with me sitting in a plastic patio chair with a handmade head rest while she stood behind me. It was really a good experience and I was told it would make me look 10 years younger. Let me know what you think!

After the facials we enjoyed some Macadamia pancakes, with fresh Macadamia butter and Macadamia honey. They were really good pancakes. We had a little table up on a little hill where we got to sit and enjoy the breeze while we ate. After this our last stop was back in the gift shop to pay for our tour and to buy Macadamia nuts for the road. We purchased one 4 ounce bag of just salted nuts and another 4 ounce bag of white chocolate covered nuts. We got them for $3 each. We thought that was a pretty nice price according to how much we pay in the states. And these are directly from right there on the farm.

We had a wonderful experience. Hopefully the other fieldtrips we go on will be as interesting as this one. One thing I have noticed in the two Central American countries that I have visited is that people here will do anything to make a living. Most of them try so hard to do the best for themselves, but also go out of their way to treat others with respect and appreciation. It is amazing what being nice to someone can do by way of making an outsider/foreigner feel comfortable in a different environment. These people here in Antigua have adapted to making the tourists, students, guests feel that we are welcome and appreciated. God is blessing them by bringing us to them and they are blessing us by making us feel a little more at home.

Thank you all so much for keeping up on how we are doing. Your thoughts and prayers are such an encouragement to both of us and I cannot even begin to thank you enough. We love you all and appreciate all you mean to us.

Shelly