This encounter captures everything I love about travel, storytelling, and connecting with people.
I wanted to tour some coffee farms in Guatemala, with it being such a coffee haven and all. I wound up on the volcanic hillside of San Miguel Escobar with Angel, a sixth generation coffee grower who’d been drinking the stuff since he was ten. (I’m Guatemalan, he joked with me. What height do I have to worry about?)
I learned a bit about coffee growing in Guatemala, a country whose farming population has endured decades of exploitative practices. But I learned even more about Angel.
He was my same age. And he was a twin dad. Sadly, his twins came early- at 23 weeks gestation. His son didn’t make it. To pay for his daughter’s treatment, he had to take a job working in a restaurant to be eligible for the social benefits.
Today, he sells his coffee to shops in the US, Canada, and Europe, and this helps him afford physical therapy for his daughter.
