Feeling famous on a Finca
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
50
141
Trip End
Ongoing
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Juayua,
El Salvador
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
We headed back to the Majada coffee facility this morning to join the Beltran family on a private outing to their coffee finca (farm). As you may remember when we visited the museum on Monday, Lucia Beltran invited us to spend the day with her and her family.
We arrived at the museum and had the obligatory cup of coffee and waited a bit for Lucia to get some things wrapped up at work. While having coffee we met some other people going with us to the finca. However,b they were not tourists but are a TV crew from Channel 12 in San Salvador. We are not sure what they are doing here but Iīm sure we will find out. After about an hour we head to Luciaīs house, but not without and iced coffee to go, to pick up her sister-in-law and some picnic items. She gave us a tour of their beautiful, family photos and we got to play with their really cute chihuahua named Shakira.
When we got back to the museum her brother Alvin was there and we all headed off to the family finca. We also picked up two police officers who rode with the camera crew. This didnīt make us nervous at all. After winding down a dirt road for 30 minutes we arrive at a large gate with the name Finca Tecquezal on it. As we drive through the lush landscape we realize that this piece of property is huge. Alvin tells us that they own all the land between the two rivers and it has been in their family for over 70 years. All the while Alvin is explaining how they grow the coffee and some of the trees and plants on the farm.
Bar-b-que Lunch
In case I didnīt mention no one speaks English and we are doing our best to communicate in our broken Spanish. Somehow this process works and everybody understands each other. Amazing. Around a bend we stop and look at a 70 meter tall waterfall in the distance. This is where we are headed first. It takes us 30 minutes through very bumpy roads to get to the trailhead and then another 15 minutes of walking to get to the waterfall. It is well worth it. The waterfall is massive and the little lagoon is absolutely beautiful. We learn that we are the first tourists to ever see this waterfall. They have never taken foreigners here before. We feel quite privileged to be apart of this little adventure. After we take a bunch of pictures the Channel 12 people ask us to sit by the waters edge so they can film us and take some still photos. We feel like stupid models just sitting there waiting for someone to tell us to move. Don't hate us because we are beautiful. It turns out that the reporter is from a show called Around El Salvador and they are going to use this piece to promote tourism. Also the Beltran family is thinking of opening their property up to tours and are interested to see what we think of it and they want to use some of the photos for their advertisements. We are going to be famous in El Salvador sort of like Hasselhoff in Germany. We hike back out of the valley and drive another 30 minutes, I told you their property was large, to the next trailhead. We grab all of the stuff and hike to another set of beautiful waterfalls where they setup a grill and start to cook lunch.
Barbque Lunch
Alvin takes us around the falls and we take photos while enjoying the view. The landscape in incredibly lush and green as far as we can see. Once of the crew hops in the natural pool and gets under the falls and Kay soon follows. I however do not want to go in as I did not wear my bathing suit. The day has been a bit overcast and the water is a little cold. Yes Iīm a big baby. After some coaxing I decide to go in wearing my pants but quickly realize this is a bad idea. So in the water I go in my nice bright blue exofficio travel briefs. Thats right folks I said briefs. Luckily for me they look like a speedo but it is still embarrassing. I quickly get waist deep in the water and stay that way. The falls are quite cool but feel incredible on my back and I quickly forget that Iīm wearing only underwear. Well maybe not forget but it is nice.Now comes the fun part. The reporter grabs a microphone and the camera crew and asks Kay to swim over to her so she can interview her for the TV show. I meanwhile hangout in the cool falls in my underwear. Great I'm going to be on their national TV wearing bright blue briefs. Any modeling agents can contact my manager. Thanks. The reporter starts to ask Kay questions and she keeps shaking here head. It appears Kay has forgotten almost all of the Spanish she has learned and can only answer in English. The reporter tells her to say what she wants and I believe it comes out like a cheesy Pocono commercial. To quote "Please come visit El Salvador the people are great" Yup Cheesy. Mercifully they stop filming us and we get out of the water and enjoy an excellent steak and chorizo lunch...with coffee. I love coffee but 4 cups in 4 hours is a bit much for me and my heart is racing. The reporter does a final solo shot in front of the falls and then we hike back to the trucks.
On the way out they drive us by the family dairy farm where we get to see how they milk cows. If you get to see this you will never drink milk again. It is not a pretty sight. Just look at the crap covered ground and think about where there utters are. Enough said. They also had some goats and one massive bull that must be very tired because there are 93 female cows on the farm and only him. From there we headed out of the finca and on the way pass the largest tree I have ever seen. It easily covered and acre of land with its branches. Really amazing.
At the end of the day we said our goodbyes and the Beltran family invited us to come by their home anytime we were in town. We promised to send them the photos we took and then hitched a ride with the TV crew back to our hotel.
It was an incredible day filled with first experiences for us that we will never forget it. We canīt thank the Beltran family enough for their incredible hospitality.
