Lovely La Antigua...
After a long and very draining day yesterday, today we headed off to the beautiful ancient city of Antigua about an hour and a half from Guatemala City. We had what is now our usual very early start and we had our breakfast and headed for the bus. We first went to an amazing viewpoint over Antigua, with the amazing backdrop of a huge volcano, you would swear we where standing in a post card.
For the day we had a tour guide from the State Tourism board of Guatemala who gave us very good local knowledge of the area and the history surrounding Antigua. We learned how religion is very important to the local people and how Antigua is a site of pilgrimage for many central American people. The city itself is very beautiful and full of vibrant and beautiful colours, with a really interesting culture that was different from Guatemala city. We then went to a Jade stone museum and store and learned all about the history surrounding the Jade stone, we also found out what our Mayan symbol was which we thought was very cool.
After a long tour we were craving lunch, all the groups met back together and we had lunch in a typical Antigua restaurant. The food was fantastic and just as we were finishing our main course, we were treated to some brilliant entertainment. Dancers dressed traditional Antigua outfits, put on a dancing spectacle performing the Guatemalan form of Marimba dancing. Some of our team members joined in, it was great to experience another interesting aspect of the Antigua culture.
Our team, Roger and our ambassador Ty met up with chef Brayan from the UNIS college who has been cooking us all tasty meals all week during the competition. Brayan has an unbelievable knowledge of coffee and its local processes, so he very kindly brought us to a local coffee shop in Antigua to give us an insight into the vast different forms of coffee that exist in central America. We arrived at a coffee shop know as 'Fat Cat' and Brayan gave us a personal lesson in everything we needed to know in the different types, processes and tastes of coffee in Guatemala. We tried 3 different types of coffee and all had some very unique tastes. All of the coffees tasted very fresh and didn't leave that sour taste you get from coffee at home, Brayan mentioned that this is the benefit of drinking coffee in Guatemala the beans are of very high quality. But one coffee stood out among the rest, it was known as Acatenango and has to be grown at 1500 metres above altitude. WOW this coffee tasted like nothing we have ever tasted before, first of all you were hit by a nice smooth coffee taste and then as the coffee moved through your mouth all of a sudden you were hit with fruity flavours, it truly was an amazing experience and we cant thank Brayan enough for sharing with us his extensive knowledge on all things coffee, we officially are now 'Coffee Connoisseurs'.
We then heard the breaking news of a tragic road accident on the road back to Guatemala City, involving trucks and several cars resulting in several losses of life. We had to detour around the mountains as the road had to be closed. What was meant to be a 40 minute return trip took 2 and a half hours. We then had a bite to eat at the hotel, going over some last minute ideas and tactics for the big day tomorrow. We cant wait for tomorrow to come!
Adios Fam!