Currently browsing

Search results for: "coffee trees"

Coffee and Gravileas Trees Along with Bougainvillea Bushes

This photo is needed to clarify a confusion about the coffee trees and their height. Nathalie from Sydney DP asked if coffee trees grow very tall in La Antigua Guatemala, while referring to this photograph which showed coffee trees and their shadow makers the gravilea trees around Antigua, San Pedro Las Huertas to be precise. I posted a Close-up photo of coffee plantation before to show the coffee bushes (tree could be considered an exaggeration) and the shadow trees known here a gravileas. So, to answer Nathalie’s questions, coffee trees (ed. bushes) do not grow very high; they can be harvest by Guatemalan farm workers on foot.

Guatemalan Coffees Are Truly Green

Today, I continue learning about the Guatemalan coffees. In the past I have mention how I thought coffee plantations were beneficial for …

Gravilea Trees Wallpaper

As mentioned before the Gravilea trees are planted next to coffee bushes to provide the necessary shade for the coffee plants. Once …

Pruning the Gravileas Trees

There is nothing like rain water to make all the flora grow and in Guatemala we have a very copious rainy season …

Time to harvest the coffee in La Antigua Guatemala

So what makes La Antigua Guatemala the best coffee in the world? To get the best cup of coffee of the world, one must start with the right altitude; somewhere above 1,500 meters above the sea level; add lots of fertile volcanic soil; mix in plenty of rain (about six months); stable temperate weather (about 75˚ F / 25˚ C); once you have the above, make sure you plant the best possible Arabica coffee.

Coffee Harvest Time in Guatemala

Yesterday’s photo was a close-up of the coffee bush in the lower left corner of today’s photo. If you click on the image above you can the coffee bushes (the small trees) being harvested under the shadows of the Gravilea trees in San Pedro Las Huertas, La Antigua Guatemala. Around La Antigua Guatemala you can find coffee bushes everywhere, including as part of the hedges of La Compañí­a de Jesús ruins.

Collecting Renewable Wood Fuel

As requested by many of you here and on Facebook’s AntiguaDailyPhoto fan page, here’s a vista of the real life in the …

I wish you were here, honest!

Oh there’s nothing like Sunday morning stroll around San Juan del Obispo. The plaza right in front of the parish is such …

Weekend Wood Delivery by Rudy Girón

Wood Fuel Home Delivery

The first time I posted the use of wood as fuel here, I was against it. By the second time I shared …

Antigua Birding

Perhaps it is the fact that La Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by so many coffee plantations and fincas (farms) as well as …

Birds-Eye View of Nature

Antigua Canopy Tours isn’t just about the unique experience of gliding… it’s about gliding through a tropical rainforest or cloud forest canopy. …

Pick Your Poison

Just how daring are you? There are two zipline circuits offered by Antigua Canopy Tours. The first is Forest Express: six distinct …

Nispero Tree in the Garden

I’m amazed by the abundance and variety of fruit in Guatemala. My chapí­n friends lament the relatively poor selection here, and miss …

Guateflora: Cactus Pot

Believe it or not, the land around La Antigua Guatemala was a very ‘fertile’ arid zone before the introduction of the coffee bush as a crop in 1875. I know fertile and arid sound like two mutually exclusive words, but they were not in Guatemala before 18th century where the Nopal and Maguey cactuses were grown in plantations. I’ve even seen photographs of the nopal plantations around La Antigua Guatemala in the CIRMA Fototeca (The Photo Archives at The Center for Mesoamerican Research).

Chicalote (Prickly Poppy) Cocoon in La Antigua Guatemala

Last year, on the entry The Land of the Eternal Spring, I talked about the “undocumented alien” in our garden, the Flor de Pascua (poinsettias) which were not planted or maintained, yet it gave us those wonderful red flowers from October through March. Since then, we moved to another house in San Pedro Las Huertas, one of the neighborhoods of La Antigua Guatemala, which is next to a coffee plantation with lots of trees and birds (partners in crime). Well, I am happy to report yet another “undocumented alien” in our new garden by the name of Chicalote (Prickly Poppy or Argemone Mexicana), a sort desert weed (that’s right I said desert, remember La Antigua is located in a tropical country). Two days ago I presented you the chicalote’s flower in the entry Flora and Fauna working together. One thing many visitors to La Antigua Guatemala notice right away is the incredible number of exotic flowers and plants, many of which grow in the wild.

Load of Wood Fuel

Recently while reading the National Geographic en español, I learnt that not all instances of the use of wood as fuel are bad. According the article about barbecuing wood and charcoal do indeed pollute the atmosphere with smoke and ashes, but it is a recycled-type of energy when compared to other energy sources like gas or electricity.