Concepción de Ataco

Relaxing Ataco is the perfect place to slow down after hectic Santa Ana. Ataco is small, cute and a safe place to walk at night.

We buy some cashew nuts which Alfredo loves! A nice young woman from Guatemala sells us these Guatemalan nuts – we’re looking forward to Guatemala. ;) Since she’s 12 years old she has been selling nuts. Today she’s 21 years old. She's selling only in El Salvador and every three months she’s going back home to Guatemala. That means she’s living a lonely street life… Yes guys, we all already won the lottery! We have a great chat and laugh together…

The supermarkets are full with funny piñatas - papier-mâché puppets, filled with small toys or candy, or both, and then broken as part of a ceremony or celebration. Noëmi loves them :-) Is this the beginning of a new birthday dream...?

Christmas is in the air - in a small eatery.

Lovely plants in front of our hostel room.

We are on a great coffee tour. Here you see the factory site. Imagine, all machines are from the 1930s and still working very fine!

With the following pictures we try to give you some coffee insights.

A great guide explains us all about coffee – from the moment the coffee cherries are picked untill you drink it.

In front you see the pools where they put the cherries to process them later. With water pressure they are put in the next machine where the fruits will be peeled. In the background you see the coffee beans being dried.

 

 

The beans dry up to 16 days on the floor. A very elementary step in the procedure to get the perfect coffee beans. 

 Every 20 minute the beans have to be removed during daytime…

 

The beans still got like a shell so it doesn't matter if you step on them. 

 

The warehouse, where the beans will rest at least 30 days…

 

Now the beans get the penultimate final cut before they are being sold and/or roasted.They loose the shell and are beeing classified.

 

The last step: qualitiy check. The selection and evaluation of the beans - women's work.

 

Most enterprises as Illy Coffee by the beans and roast them by themselves. Here you see the “in-house roaster machine”.

The coffee grinder with the final in-house products.

 

And of course, the degustation with the traditional preparation. Taste is everything :-)