Huehuetenango, and ruins rebuilt by the United Fruit Company

Since coming back to Guatemala in January, we haven't done a lot of traveling. This is in large part because taking the chicken bus in Guatemala can be a stressful experience (I think it's safe to say that Stacy finds it more stressful than I do), and since we're stretching a budget, paying for more expensive tourist transportation can add up pretty quickly. Also, Stacy and I aren't really on the same schedule. Sunday is really the only day off we have together, and one day isn't really enough to travel, at least not in a pleasant fashion.

But, I recently got the itch to see a bit more before we leave, and last week I decided that I had to see Huehuetenango, with or without Stacy. There are still a lot of things missing for the next time I come to Guatemala (Rio Dulce, el Quiche, Monterricco...), but Huehue seemed like a relatively easy trip. So last Friday morning I got up at 5:45, caught the 6:30 chicken bus to Cuatro Caminos, and spent the next 5 hours with my knees slammed against the back of a schoolbus seat.

Downtown Huehue.

I also had no real plan, besides the desire to see how coffee is different in Huehuetenango (my lack of planning may be a major reason for why Stacy doesn't like traveling in this country). Huehuetenango is well known in specialty coffee as one of the world's premier coffee growing regions, and is a much better-known region than Atitlan. I wanted to see a finca, but since I had no luck actually getting in touch with anyone before leaving San Pedro, I ended up just arriving in Huehue and walking into the regional office of the national coffee federation -Anacafe.

This didn't work out exactly like I wanted to, but still was a pretty cool experience. Huehuetenango isn't as much of a tourist mecca as Atitlan, so coffee growers aren't as accustomed to visitors. Also, it so happens that most of the main fincas are about 3 hours outside of the city, and since I arrived Friday, and left Saturday (kinda a blitzkrieg trip), that wasn't really an option.

Nonetheless, the Huehue staff at Anacafe were super helpful, and put me in touch with Jorge Villatoro Gomez, a partial owner of two premier fincas (Miravalle and Montecristo) and the owner of a and roasting company called Kaffa. Jorge took me out to his warehouse, we talked a bit about what separates the best coffee from the just pretty good coffee, and then we cupped two samples of new coffees at the Kaffa warehouse. I am an idiot, and only took two pictures of the whole experience, none with Jorge. Here's the cupping setup.

Moo.

Also, even though I didn't find the place until just before I left, I also stumbled into a great cafe called Cafe Museo. That's the Coffee Museum, which might be in my top 5 business names of all time.

Francisco and Margarita at the Museo.

Cafe Museo is not just a pretentious reference to decent coffee. The cafe also roasts its coffee in-house, and dedicates its wall space to info about the bean.

3 pound batches.

and posters

Besides coffee, I also saw some sites. One, the Mirador de los Cuchumatanes, was amazing. But that will have to wait for another entry, because this one is already getting too long.

The other site was, well, strange...Zacaleu is an old Mam Mayan fortress that lies outside of Huehue that fell to the Spanish conquistadores in 1524, I think. In 1949, the United Fruit Company decided to restore the ruins. I can only assume that this was a gesture meant to apologize for half a century of exploiting Guatemalan labor and destroying Mayan culture.

Problem is, United Fruit took upon their symbolic restoration with their typical respect for local customs and tradition. They rebuilt the pyramids with poured concrete.

United Fruit executive #1: "Maybe if we give something back to the Guatemalan people, the government will forget all of the terrible things we've done and won't expropriate our lands in the upcoming agrarian reform. I propose that we restore the Zacaleu ruins."

United Fruit exec. #2: "Excellent idea. Should I hire a team of archeologists to preserve the historical accuracy."

Exec. #1: "Good thought, but I think not. With modern construction techniques we can respect Mayan culture and bring Guatemala into the 21st century, all at the same time! Poured concrete, hooray!"

United Fruit also didn't really take the time to create accompanying info for the ruin site. So besides knowing that this pyramid is made of concrete, I have no idea what purpose it served.

Historically accurate steps.

United Fruit had nothing to do with these trees or the sky. And they were amazing.

Mayan ballcourt. Honestly, it was pretty cool to see this reconstructed.

Mayan ballgame, as depicted in the Zacaleu museum. Note the complete lack of captions/descriptive writing.

View from the top of the concrete pyramid. Don't quote me on this, but I can only assume that this bowl-shaped thing had something to do with human sacrifice.


Okay, also admittedly pretty cool.

One thing that United Fruit did do successfully was provide a great place for young Guatemalan couples to display their affection publicly, and for middle aged Guatemalan men to nap. I assume this has something to do with the cheap cost of entry for Guatemalan citizens (literally 1/10 of what I paid), but the ruins were literally teaming with teenagers making out and older men laying down. Not exactly what I was expecting, nor what I wanted to see, but pretty hilarious.

time for your closeup.

I'm going to try to write another post on the Cuchumatanes before we leave Guatemala, but for now, just wanted to close with a few pics from a student demonstration in central Huehuetenango.

Just to make things more badass, the lead singer from the Insane Clown Posse decided to show up and smoke a cigarrette. Totally rad.