Hello from Antigua!

Hello from Antigua! After an early morning of traveling we have safely made it to Guatemala and are happy to report we are already well on our way on a wonderful adventure! Once we arrived in Guatemala we exchanged our American dollars for Guatemalan Quetzals at an exchange rate of approximately $1 dollar for 7Quetzals. An hour taxi ride brought us from Guatemala City into Antigua where we settled in at our very nice accommodations. We had a quick bite to eat in the Antigua Central Square and then were off to our first excursion, a coffee farm tour. We hiked up a hillside and learned all about the coffee trees and were given the opportunity to pick our own coffee beans.

Later, at the home of the farmer we practiced hand-shucking the beans and operating a bicycle-powered shucking machine. Next came toasting the beans over a wood burning stove in the home and grinding beans on an old fashioned grindstone, all of which we got to try ourselves.

At the end of it all we enjoyed a cup of delicious Guatemalan coffee! Delicious! We dined this evening at a neat rooftop restaurant and celebrated Derrick’s birthday complete with cervezas! Tomorrow we begin working at the local hospital, Las Obras. Check back for more tales from our Guatemalan adventure tomorrow!