Huehueteco's Laborious Hands

At the beginning of our journey through Huehuetenango I mentioned that through my readings about it, I was very impressed. Now that  during these past two weeks , you and I have learned about its geography, geology, water resources, sustainable and responsible coffee plantations, traditions, culture, poetry, people, just like the couple from Colotenango in the photo above... Let me tell you,  I am truly amazed of how much more Huehuetenango has for us to explore, and how much more it has to show us, including a paleontological site. We definitely have to come back!

The diversity of Huehuetenango is reflected not just in the landscape, or the weather conditions, or the agricultural activities; the diversity of Huehuetenango is reflected as well in the handcrafts produced by the Huehuetecos' laborious hands.

Being a place populated by deep-rooted Maya descendants, the articles they produce are mainly utilitarian and unlike so many other places throughout Guatemala where handcrafts are massively produced, the handcrafts production in Huehuetenango, although diverse, is limited and maybe because of that, the quality is extraordinary and the designs are unique and beautiful.

Huehuetecos are specialists in glazed pottery, saddlery, stone carving, basketry, candle making. They also produce fine acoustic guitars and beautiful imagery. There are some silver and copper mines, which provide the raw material to produce jewelry and embossed, among others.

As for the textiles, a subject of my particular interest, the production of some pieces is even more limited because they make them almost exclusively for their personal use and some pieces are truly works of art.

Well my friends, I think this is it for Huehuetenango. Before starting this trip, my biggest concern was that I wasn't going to be able to guide you through this stunning territory but, we survived! Until next week, when we are going to visit San Marcos, which will be our last Department in Guatemala's Highlands and the end of the second chapter of our journey.

In the Land of High Mountains: Cenote El Cimarron

A "cenote" is a natural well and El Cimarron is simply beyond any description! To start, it is a natural formation that unlike the surrounding mountainous landscape that makes you look up, it makes you look down. And when I say down, is because of its depth, tantamount to a 40 stories building, or maybe more...

In the photo above we can appreciate that at the very bottom of El Cimarron, there is a small yet exuberant forest where the trees reach around 30 meters in height. Actually, El Cimarron has a diameter of 170 meters and a depth between 150 and 160 meters.

Naturally enigmatic, a cenote is a fresh water well created by erosion in limestone terrains, with underground, convergent rivers, and open caves from where the sunlight is captured into the interior. The name "cenote" comes from the Maya word "dzonot", which translates as abyss.

There are others natural wells known as "siguan", which are created because of a combination of rain and an underground river, by dissolution of the limestone combined with carbonates and sulfates. The "siguanes" that I know, are located in Las Verapaces, a region that we will visit further.

As far as I know, there are not such things as programmed explorations to El Cimarron, and according to expert mountaineers, an excellent physical condition and training is required to descend and then ascend back. What I can tell you, paraphrasing those who have explored El Cimarron, after the physical effort, the sweating, and the adrenalin pumping, the emotion of being down there and the overwhelming and profound quietness that surrounds this wonder of nature, one can truly state that an almost spiritual and surreal  feeling takes over, if only for a few minutes, man communes with nature. All and all, this is an indescribable one in a lifetime experience!

A Visit to Santa Ana Huista's Heart: El Resumidero

The sweet traditional marimba sounds, the church bells tolling, the aromas of home cooking recados and corn tortillas, will be our welcome present when arriving to Santa Ana Huista, a place that was highly recommended yesterday, while enjoying our coffee tour.

This municipality is located a bit more than 350 kilometers from Guatemala City and about 100 kilometers from the capital of the department, Huehuetenango.

Santa Ana Huista is surrounded by exuberant nature and amazingly, there is no need to travel far away to explore the very heart of this peaceful town: El Resumidero. 

I don't know how to translate this name; however, what I can tell you, at least to give you an idea of the meaning is that "sumidero" translates as a place where something is pushed down, the prefix "re" translates as repetitive or more than once; thus, in this case, "resumidero" is the place where the Huista River is pushed down, again, and again through a huge cave where the river literally disappears underground to reappears 4 kilometers further.

The reappearance of the river, as impressive as the disappearance, can be observed close to the cave El Limon (The Lime), located shortly after the village Cuatro Caminos. 

Not far from there, the Huista River converges with the fast-flowing Selegua River, the largest water source in Huehuetenango whose whole basin occupies almost 21% of this department territory and has played an important role in the development of the coffee industry in the region.

This border town is surrounded by extensive forests, where despite of certain degree of deforestation which has threatened several species, many Hormigo trees still can be found there. These are the trees whose wood is used for making the finest marimbas.

These forests are also home to a great fauna variety, among others, ocelots, foxes, skunks, coyotes, coati-mundi, raccoons, deers, serpents, and dozens of birds.

Recommended Book:

A Coffee Tour in The Highlands

I just love coffee! I like it medium roasted, freshly ground and freshly brewed or pressed, and absolutely black. What can I say? It is my first thing every morning and it has been that way probably forever. So, how could I resist to take us through a coffee tour in Huehuetenango? From the information I compiled about this region, I learned that Huehuetenango produces some of the finest coffees in Guatemala and that is what today's trip is going to be about.

On our way, at an altitude around 11,000 feet, which is too high for coffee cultivation, we are going to see some of the most typical scenes in The Highlands, sheeps and shepherds.

As you may have already noticed, Guatemala is as diverse in its landscape as it is in its culture and people. In this case, what captured my attention was this enormous rock on one side of the road from Huehue to Barillas, where we are going to make a stop at one of the Asobagri Co-op member-farms, Nueva Esperanza (new hope). The farms are organized around the small towns-villages, and each small group of farmers has his own plot of land but aids the others in cultivation and processing.

At this time of the year the coffee cherry is still green, but fairly well-developed in size. There are still blossoms on the branch, and as you can see this healthy cluster indicates good things for the next crop. But the cherry is on the branch so long (4-6 months) and so many things can go wrong! Drought, frost, hail... 

Here is a healthy tree of the traditional Arabica Bourbon Typica. It is not as handsome as newer varietals in terms of leaf color, etcetera, and is less productive in terms of coffee cherries per tree.

But you can see that a healthy tree in healthy organic soil can be very productive nonetheless!

The entire village of Nueva Esperanza is based around several generations of the same family, all coffee farmers and members of the fair trade co-op. With the outside aid of co-op representatives and the help of others in the village, they share organic farming information, improve their process, and they collectively mill the ripe cherry into parchment and dry it on their own patios.

Because coffee prices have been so poor (even though the co-op is organic and fair trade) some farmers also raise Cardamom, mostly for export to the middle east where it fetches high and stable prices. Cardamom is ground with coffee in making Ibrik or Turkish coffee.

The next farm that we are going to visit is El Injerto, a beautiful, large, traditional coffee farm in the town La Libertad. It is a third generation Finca, managed by the grandson of the original settler, who is a trained agronomist and makes every decision about the coffee farming and milling based on methodical testing, and with the benefit of newer coffee technology.

He uses his own wet-milling process that separates ferments and aqua-pulps (the mucilage) from the parchment coffee, patio dries and/or mechanically dries based on weather conditions, and has a complete dry-mill and bagging operation. The farm demands a lot from workers, but pays 50% more during harvest for each Quintal (Imperial hundredweight) of cherry picked!

For what I read, the multiple awards winner El Injerto is the most pristine and orderly coffee farm one can ever see. Every step of the process is perfected and in addition to that, they are serious about the use of vermiculture (worms) to improve composting of the coffee cherry fruit layer (skin and mucilage) after the coffee seed is removed.

Today's last stop will be at the farm Huixoc, which is an old family farm with an Hacienda, founded in 1911, some 20 years after El Injerto but still quite early for this region of Huehuetenango.

Huixoc, along with El Injerto, El Injertal, and other Asobagri coffees, has received awards for having one of the best Guatemalan coffees. Huixoc is located on a west-facing hillside adjacent to El Injertal, and like El Injerto has all its own milling and drying facilities on the premises.

It's hard to look at images of such a lush and diverse farmland and not to think that this is also a great bird and animal habitat. These farms are surrounded by pristine and uncultivated forests and the farmers who cultivate them, are more than ecologically sensitive because after all, they have been farming the same soil for 120 years, and want to continue to do so for many more generations to come. I think these farmers offer all of us  an ecological lesson, and inspire us to take better care of our Motherland!

Through the Northern Towns of Huehuetenango

Today, we are going to travel through the eyes of Norma Monroy, a young Guatemalan civil engineer passionate about soil mechanics, which is a largely studied subject in Guatemala due to the geological and topographical characteristics of the terrain. From time to time, her job requires her to travel around Guatemala, and as she says, this is one of the things she enjoys the most. 

Lucky us, Norma also enjoys photography and for today's post, she is happy to share with all of us some of the images she captured while traveling through Barillas, San Mateo Ixtatan, Nenton, and Jacaltenango.

The Barillas municipality is the hometown of one of our companions' mother, so I do hope he and his family, specially his mother, will enjoy this journey.

As for the information I found, this whole region contains not just important but also beautiful water sources, such as rivers, lagoons, and waterfalls, among others: Maxbal lagoon, Magdalena lagoon and waterfalls, Turtle Lagoon, Yolnabaj (also known as Brava) lagoon, Yulaxac waterfalls, Ixcan river. After the images that I have seen, I am sure that all of these pristine places will make any trip a beyond worthy adventure.

A large extension of this territory is classified as subtropical wet forest with maximum elevations at 1,500m above sea level, which makes it perfect for specialized cultures, such as cardamom, coffee, and vanilla, among others. 

Another extension of the territory is classified as mountainous wet forest / cloud forest, with maximum elevations at 2,500m above sea level, where we can find luscious vegetation, extensive conifers forests, and birds, lots of birds, some of them, extraordinary and rare species, including the elusive Resplendent Quetzal, even depicted in this beautiful huipil from San Mateo Ixtatan.

A Visit to Todos Santos Cuchumatan

I remember an article published by National Geographic several years ago about the horse race  that takes place in Todos Santos every year in November 1 to commemorate the Day of All Saints; all saints is the literal translation for "todos santos". Since then, I have been intrigued about this famous race and what it represents. 
My logical source of information, I thought, is the National Geographic Website, but to my surprise, I didn't find anything related to the race. So probably, my "several years" reference, actually means "many years"... Anyway, I spent some time trying to pick and choose pieces of information interesting enough to share with all of you.  

The "Skach Koyl" (as locals call the race) is much more than just a horse race, it is a festival that involves marimba music, traditional dances, food, and lots of liquor. 
The night before the race "All Hollows Eve" Todo Santos is alive with Marimbas, parties and drinking.  The race is a continuous point to point and back again, lasting hours as a test of bravery and endurance; however, riders having a drink  every time they get from one point to another is a requisite. After the first hour most of the riders are drunk and getting drunker, so it is not unusual for riders to fall off horses.
After what I have read and the videos that I watched, I think that this tradition might  be appealing to people interested in cultural anthropology or sociology, for whom  a visit to Todos Santos for the festival might just be a must.

To be honest, I couldn't find a purpose and the true meaning behind this tradition.

Personally, I will choose some other date to visit this town where, as far as I can see, traditional clothing -my weakness, is very much in use and unusually, the male costume is as eye-catching as the attire women wear.

Let's Start Exploring Huehue!

At this point I am sure that you already figured that Huehue is the short name that we Guatemalans use instead of Huehuetenango. I wonder now, is this a custom in other countries? For some reason we have short names, or diminutives, or nicknames, or even all of those for almost everything! Anyway, the purpose of this trip is to explore Huehue and here I am, rambling...

The logic tells me that our starting point should be Huehue (1 in the map), the Department's Capital; however, additional to Zaculeu, I couldn't find special information about it, apparently because as of today, Huehue is transformed into a big metropolitan city, with nice hotels, great restaurants, and well appointed shopping centers. In any case, it is good to know that we will have a very good "operations center" to move around comfortably.

And our first move outside Huehue, is Aguacatan, identified with the number 27 in the map. Along this municipality we are going to find two main linguistic groups: Awakateko and Chalchiteko. The reason is because two territories that used to be two different Maya descendants settlements, were officially transformed into one of Huehuetenango's municipalities in 1891.

From a tourist perspective, Aguacatan has to be included as a destination while touring around Huehue because there are several archaeological sites: Chalchitan, Chichoche, Chuchun, Huitxun, Pichiquil, Pueblo Viejo, and Xoltxun. Additionally, several water sources are located here, all of them surrounded by landscapes so beautiful that will make our visit truly worthy.

Our next stop will be Chiantla, 2 in the map, a place where the predominant language is Spanish. How is that being so close to the Awakatekos and Chalchitekos, locals in Chiantla speak Spanish? Obviously, this among other features, is what makes Guatemala so diverse and rich in culture.

Chiantla is a pilgrimage center, especially in February when they celebrate a festivity honoring Our Lady of Candelaria, whose beautiful statue is dressed in fine silver filigree. The virgin' statue and the church as well, date back to the XVI Century.

The last stop today, will be Malacatancito (3 in the map), which is the diminutive of Santa Ana Malacatan, the original name of this municipality. Shortly after the colonial times, locals decided to make official the current name because the original one used to be confused with Santa Ana Huista (in Huehuetenango) and with Malacatan (in San Marcos).

Coffee aficionados will delight with  Huehuetenango's beans, as the region  produces extraordinary coffee and has become a strong participant in markets specializing in organic and fair trade labels.