RG Guatemala trip

[ChrisSchooley]

How was the trip? I want to see some Pics!

[PBeattie]

The trip was epic, 27 Coffee freaks from around the globe delving deep under the skin of the Guatemala coffee industry! Represented in the group was: Ireland, New Zealand, Korea, and good 'ol USA. Our Guatemala Guides Enrique and Amore were, on top of being total bad asses, extremely knowledgeable.

I can't think of one thing that we weren't exposed to on the trip, cuppings, small estates, big estates, co-ops, wet and dry mill of all sizes, micro-climates, soil types, varieties, every quality of coffee, and much more, all covered in a jam packed ten day tour.

We experience 6 of the 8 growing regions of Guatemala. And when we weren't touring we were having great discussions in the buses in regards to everything coffee. Btw modes of transportation used at various times on the trip: Bus, Plane, Boat, Foot, Motorcycle....all we needed were trains and skateboards to round it out.

Huge props are deserved by Anacafe, as well as the leadership of SCAA and Roasters Guild for pulling off the trip of a lifetime.

I've posted some of my pics from the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beattiep/

There are also more pics on the Roasters Guild new fan page on Facebook here: http://tinyurl.com/yk438g9

[ChrisSchooley]

Thanks for the link to the pics, Cowboy. Also, there is a new Roasters Guild facebook page set up which is a good way for other people on the trip to "tag" the RG in photos.

[Beth Dominick]

Hi, I finally had some time to upload a few photos from the trip.

Anacafe did a great job hosting us and I would like to thank them for the opportunity to visit a diverse array of farms and regions. The 27 travelers represented the Roasters Guild exceptionally well and it was great to be a part of the 7th trip organized by the Roasters Guild and host country. The staff of the SCAA and Anacafe worked tirelessly to organize and arrange this event. Hats off to all the people who brought this trip from the drawing board to our memories.

Stay tuned to see when and where #8 takes us! The beauty is that we have quite a few coffee organizations willing to arrange tours and host our groups, so you never know where we'll end up next time. This trip sold out quickly and I advise anyone interested in the next one, jump on it when it is announced.

http://picasaweb.google.com/organiccoffee/GuatemalaRoastersGuildTour2010?feat=directlink

[Thompson Owen]

This seems like one of those really forced conversations, but oh well, whatever, it's like a weird party where nobody really showed up. The Guat trip looks interesting. Thanks for sharing the photos - you guys covered a lot of ground. Nice to see you got to La Soledad. I hope you saw the awful pile of pulp going straight into the river on the way there - it's called Finca Chalabal Estrella. -Tom

[timd]

I haven't seen finca chalabal but it seems like this is not an isolated problem among farms. Even in enviro-kind, more-regulated Costa Rica I saw a stream running white and foamy, a sign of waaay too much phosphorus and nitrogen. The farmer had just showed me all of his controls he used to prevent runoff on his farm and was truly hurt by the fact that someone upstream was polluting a stream that bordered his farm.

Later I saw the source of the wastewater was from a co-op up stream...but hey, their coffee was fair trade so that makes it all good, right?