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Chapel, Finca Dos Marias, San Marcos, Guatemala. Click Image to View Larger
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Traveling Fast and Light in Central America: Four Days, Two Countries, and One Camera Bag.
In February, 2008, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters hired me to cover one of their "source"
trips, an opportunity for company employees to visit their suppliers from the
coffee-producing regions of the world. GMCR prides itself on maintaining Fair Trade
relationships with its suppliers, and strives to implement and maintain socio-economic
improvements, such as medical facilities and schools, in the suppliers' communities. These
source trips allow company employees and executives a firsthand look at how Fair Trade
directly affects the growers lives.
Departing Burlington, Vermont early one Wednesday morning, and returning late the following
Saturday night, the trip was a whirlwind tour of three very different Central American
coffee growers: Unión Regional de Pequeños Productores de Café (Huatusco) in Veracruz, Mexico; Finca Dos Marias, a
family-owned plantation in the San Marcos region of Guatemala; Asociación Chajulense Coffee
Cooperative in El Quiché, Guatemala.
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Organic coffee seedling, Huatusco, Veracruz, Mexico. Click Image to View Larger
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The Huatusco Coffee Cooperative is a two-hour bus ride into
the mountains west of Ciudad de Veracruz on the Gulf Coast. Just 20 miles from Pico de
Orizaba, North America's highest volanic peak, the region abounds with sugar cane fields and
coffee plantations. The cooperative formed in 1992 when local farmers became disgruntled
with various government and developmental agency attempts to improve their situation; they
took it upon themselves to seek new and better markets for their coffee while simultaneously
committing themselves to organic farming practices.
The work is paying off. The Huatusco cooperative now supplies markets in the US and Europe and
has used its success to build one of the best hospitals in the state of Veracruz. The farmers
are proud of their organization, and rightfully so.
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Weighing the harvest, Finca Dos Marias, San Marcos, Guatemala. Click Image to View Larger
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From Veracruz, we flew to Ciudad de Guatemala where we boarded helicopters for the flight
out to Finca Dos Marias, situated in the "Ring of Fire" near the Pacific coast of Guatemala.
By car, the trip would have taken us several hours over unreliable roads; the choppers
shortened our travel time to just under an hour, affording us time (and light!) to tour the
Finca's coffee processing facilty and school.
Our hostess for this segment of the trip was Mireya Jones, granddaughter of Dr. Francisco
Asturias and the second of the two Marias for which the Finca is named. Mireya is an
eclectic spirit; following her for a week would be a worthy photographic story unto itself.
Her passion for the Finca and the people who depend on it shine vividly, and the results of
their labors are evident in both the quality of their product and the social and educational programs
managed by the Finca.
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Volcán Santo Tomás, San Marcos, Guatemala. Click Image to View Larger
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After a sunrise cup of fresh Finca Dos Marias coffee, we boarded the choppers for the short flight
to the Chajulense Coffee Cooperative in El Quiché, a trip that took us near some of the larger (and active) volcanoes
of San Marcos. Surrounded by mountains, Chajul is a remote settlement largely cut off from the rest of the world. Its
people are culturally Mayan and speak Ixil, not Spanish. Their mode of dress is traditional and characteristic; hand-woven,
saturated colors are the norm, as is wariness of outsiders.
Not that I blame them. On the contrary, if I were in their shoes, I'd turn away from strangers
poking a long-focus lens in my face. The conditions of their environment have created a cultural
bubble for the Ixil Maya people. Their appearance and customs make them unique, and
it's this quality that makes them attractive to camera-toting tourists. Over time, the hordes
of tourists have made anyone with a camera unattractive to the Ixil Maya.
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Ixil Maya child, El Quiché, Guatemala. Click Image to View Larger
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How do you break down this barrier if you don't speak the language and have limited time?
A nice smile, a Polaroid camera, and bag full of instant film will work wonders.
Using a Polaroid in one hand and my Nikon DSLR in the other, it was a game of, "One for
you, one for me." The children outside on the streets clamored for free photographs of
themselves, and the women working inside the coffee cooperative quickly warmed to having
their photographs taken.
The trip was an exercise in traveling light and shooting fast; our schedule was full and
included transport by jet, bus, helicopter, and jeep. Carrying a lot of gear only slows me down
on these assignments, so I pared my kit down to a single DSLR body, a wide zoom, a
"fast 50", a telephoto zoom, a fisheye, a small hotshoe strobe with plenty of replacement
batteries, and a bevy of compact flash cards. I had a stash of studio lighting and backup
gear in a rolling Pelican case, but I never needed it.
I'd like to thank Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for the opportunity to accompany them on
this journey, Sustainable
Harvest for their help in orchestrating the Mexican segment of the trip, Mireya Jones of
Jones Coffee/Finca Dos Marias
for her uncompromising hospitality, and finally the people of the Chajulense Cooperative in
El Quiché for their patience and friendliness at the sight of a stranger with a
bagful of cameras. I sincerely hope to work with them all again in the future.
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