Today was an especially anxious day for me. I was about to get my long-hoped for chance to see a real coffee farm, with some Deaf workers present. I couldn’t keep myself in suspense any longer, and got up at 5:45 AM, waking up the rest of the crew in the process of realizing my dream. They were all like, too early! We got in the car and, aided by Marco, drove on to Huehuetenango, which was about a two hour drive from our departing point. It was hard going for us, trying to drive through the crowded streets. People just kept walking by our car, making the drive slow down to a crawl. Finally we came across a parking lot, and made headway for the indoor market, which was across the street.

There were a lot of people going through the two doors non-stop, which led me to stand by the entrance for 5 minutes, and to me it felt like a thousand people had just walked by in an instant. It was fun to see different people going by such as the Mayan females carrying the baskets on their heads, without hands. There were so many vendors selling chicken and meat, I couldn’t believe. It looked delicious, too. I ran into a Deaf guy who had been running his vending space in the market for the last forty years, while also selling shoes for the other owner who was leasing his space. It was surreal seeing him discuss how he sat on the same chair for years and years meeting different people every day. He was a truly lucky man, having the chance to earn two incomes in one sitting. The average Guatemalan income goes for about 2,000 quetzals, which equals $265USD per month. Interestingly enough, he said that he hadn’t met any foreigners until today, despite being in the same spot for the last forty years! He mentioned that he knew another Deaf guy, from Chiantla, who’d be willing to guide us to meet Rolando, the Deaf coffee worker.

We followed him on his motorcycle through the maze of Huehuetenango, to meet Rolando. It turned out at the start that he wasn’t there, so his sister used her pager to text him to show up. He showed up within 10 minutes and said that an hour’s worth of driving would take us to the coffee farm, so we quickly embarked on the drive in our cars. The drive was really bumpy, and the winds made the car rattle a little bit. And so despite having driven for just over an hour, Rolando said it would be a little further before we arrived at the farm. While on the drive, I took the opportunity to see the mountain range from the car. It was a gorgeous sight!

Then he said to stop, and then turn left just before the bridge. I was thrilled to see the directions being handed down, because I wanted to get out of the car, but it turned out to be false hope. We actually still had to go up the mountainside. An unpaved and dirty road lay ahead of us, and we had to navigate the treacherous route using the 4×4 gear. It was certainly a nerve-wracking ride up, because the road was rather steep just being above the river at the bottom. Coming off the road, we finally arrived at a small town, going by the name of La Libertad. Rolando’s sister and grandmother were there, and they had asked a man to take us down to the coffee farm because the main path to the farm was more dangerous than the one we had just come off. Once again, we went down an incredibly steep road to the farm. Getting out, I felt goosebumps on my body as I walked toward one of the coffee trees. I was finally at the coffee farm.

Rolando explained that the coffee beans are supposed to be harvested in a few weeks, during December and January.  That’s usually when the rainy season occurs, helping the harvest. The view of the mountains from here was awesome!  I asked him about the other side of the mountain, and whether coffee could be grown there or not. He said that side couldn’t handle coffee production, since the beans needed good sunlight, perfect soil, and excellent overall conditions. Rolando gave me some tidbits about his family and the farm, noting how long the family had the farm, and how big it was. The farm covers almost 2,000 acres, and had to hire a man to oversee the acres by himself. The hired hand makes sure that nobody steals the coffee beans during growing season. Rolando himself uses his horse to watch over the 85 coffee bean pickers during harvesting season, and the beans the pickers get usually goes overseas to major companies, companies such as Starbucks. So the next time you go to Starbucks and see a bag of coffee beans from Huehue, make sure to remember that Rolando’s family produced the beans!

He gave me a bag of green coffee beans to take home and roast for myself. It was the best gift I’ve had in a long time while on the road, since I’m a big coffee fan. I definitely had a greater appreciation for the coffee production process, because it’s certainly a tough job to do! Since there aren’t any railroads in the region to ship the beans out, they have to use trucks to ferry them down, and they have to go on dangerous roads to do that. Coming up here on these roads was worth it for me and my crew because I got to see the coffee farm, and learned a whole new wealth of information. We hit the road again, back to Xela, and arrived at 9 PM. Sandra provided us a great dinner to cap the night off before the next day’s worth of adventures began. Buenos Noche!

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