South of Antigua on the road to Ciudad Viejo (Old City), which was the capital of Guatemala. Notice that every hill is cultivated in its entirety.
Guatemala has an election September 11 and their are election posters everywhere.
By this point I am painfully aware how little time I have left in Guatemala and want desperately to learn as much as possible. Once again, I am convinced that learning is the key. This is how kids do it and how we should do it, too. Hugo comes up with a plan for more people to talk to. We will go see a friend of his that has a Macadamia farm. |
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South of Antigua on the road to Ciudad Viejo (Old City), which was the capital of Guatemala. Notice that every hill is cultivated in its entirety. |
Guatemala has an election September 11 and their are election posters everywhere. |
Macadamia hulls being used as fertilizer. |
Macadamias still on the tree. |
This outer hull come of naturally, revealing the harder inside shell, called a conch. |
To open this inner shell I needed a rock and a lot of force. This nut hasn't been dried, so the meat is pasty. Since I am alergic to macadamias I didn't try it, though I did touch it. |
There are three dogs here at the farm. The Border Collie on the left has one eye missing. Another is missing a leg. So, these are rescued from the streets. |
The famous Macadamia Farm bathroom. |
On the back side of the farm, there is construction beginning for new houses. |
Should look familiar to people of the Northwest: thimble berries (wild raspberries). I didn't realize they could grow in this climate. |
The gentleman in the cowboy hat was giving Hugo and I a tour when two Brits and a South African show up. They don't know any Spanish, so I get to practice translating. |
How they dry the nuts. |
How they separate the nuts by size. There are multiple pipes that get wider as they go down the aparatus. |
A locally constructed nut huller. Here they teach locals how to cultivate, harvest, and process the nuts. They want local farmers to be able to construct all of the machinery themselves. |
The huller being used. |
They also process Macadamia nuts into skin products. |
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After dinner I met up with the Brits (Stephanie and Duncan) to show them around town at bit. We met at the fountain at the central park and I took them for Jamaica, of course. After showing them a few other places around town we set up a get together Saturday afternoon. Then I helped them set up a trip to Pacaya (one of the volcanoes) by calling Yoli. |
