Guest Post from Paddy

Looks like it’s been a while, time to wipe the dust off this blog!

I’ve never written a blog entry before, but when Max mentioned me contributing I figured I was up to the challenge. I’m here at El Jocotel in Guatemala, volunteering on Max’s farm, helping out with the little stuff while he handles 36 chickens, seven large buckets of kombücha, workshops, the guests in his airbnb cabin, a large (new) garden, and two cats.

• For those new here, Max has a beautiful little farm in Tzununá on Lake Atitlan, up on the mountainside.
• For those who already know what’s up, there’s some new exciting stuff happening on the farm. A new garden up top is growing cucumbers, rosemary, thyme, pak choi, sunflowers, radishes, potatoes, and a hell of a lot more that I’ve forgotten. It’s beautiful too, and I’ve included some photos of it below. I believe the number of chickens has increased dramatically too, supplying a steady stream of eggs every day.
• For those new to me and my existence, I’m Paddy, a 22-year-old travelling, volunteering here through Wwoof (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms; wwoof.net); I’m doing a 10 month trip across (down) the Americas on a fairly tight budget, using organisations like Wwoof to help me afford to live out here, cutting my food and accommodation costs while I work and learn cool stuff.

I started off my trip in Canada with no experience in farming, but I’m now 4 months, 3 countries and 8 farms in, and have learnt more than I could ever say; and not just about farming. I’ve seen volcano sunrises; been homeless; been sent to the wrong city; read 12 books; been forced to take a shit alone on the peak of a mountain at dawn; learnt to salsa dance; been violently ill; out-tequila’d a large family of Mexicans; been not-robbed at fake-firework-point; paid a bribe to cross a border; dislocated my shoulder 4 times; made several new best friends; hitchhiked across the Yucatan peninsula; and fallen in love with countries, cities and people in (almost) equal measures.

I’m working with Max for two weeks, and I love it. I’ve both fixed and broken things, helped him look after the chickens and cats, done a delivery or two, and learnt to roast coffee along the way, all of which has been really fun and relaxed kind of work. The sunrises are indeed something special, and there’s a couple of great viewing spots around the property to enjoy them from. Free entertainment every morning.

I arrived late on the friday night, parting with the awesome people I met on my journey down from Mexico, but only after being made to overpay 10Q ($1.30) for the transport and a bad experience at an ATM which might cost me $40 unless my bank steps in. Fingers crossed eh?

Max is awesome (and no he didn’t co-erce me into writing that); we met down at the nearby Hotel Bamboo, he handed me a beer, told me to rest and prepare myself for the remainder of the trek up to his place (short, but it was dark and I was carrying a 25kg backpack). He showed me to my (huge + very comfortable) tent, and told me the sunrises make the early starts worth it.

The next day he gave me the grand tour, introducing me to the cats and chickens and telling them to make sure I’m well fed, and showed me a short list of all the stuff he’s been meaning to do but hasn’t had the time to get round to, primarily fixing the front gate, and disentangling the fence on the chicken coop from the large fallen tree it had a fight with.

Over the next few days I set to work on those and a few other things, keeping after myself while Max busied himself with workshops, kombücha and animal feeding. I met a bunch of people who were doing the workshop (shoutout to Daphne, Jonny, Joel and Ori) that Max gives on contouring and water, a little bit of which I caught, and found really interesting.

I bought some coffee beans in town, proceeded to drink my own body weight in coffee, and Max mentioned he knew the roaster whose coffee I was drinking (Tim, who runs Shangri-La Coffee in San Marco) and put me in touch with him, and somehow I ended up hanging out with Tim for two awe-inspiring hours while he roasted 7 batches of coffee in one of the most beautiful bits of machinery I’ve ever seen, teaching me all about bean temperature and heating curves, and explaining different roast characteristics. Fun fact: While roasting takes about 10-12 minutes, the difference between a medium roast and a dark roast is just 15 seconds. Watching Tim work was amazing; one eye on his timer, scribbling notes, monitoring the temperature (“Good! Good! 8.5 degrees per minute. Perfect!), answering my questions, then flame down, checking a bean sample, ear against the machine, flame back up, chimney closed (“I needed more heat; if I’d left it the temperature wouldn’t have risen past 210C, it needs to reach 215C”) and then before I even knew what was happening, flung the door open, filling the room with the glorious smell of the world’s freshest coffee beans. That was a hell of a morning.

Max himself seems to like me, entrusting the farm in my hands for 3-4 days while he’s away in Antigua, which is both flattering and daunting. On that note, I have some chickens to maintain, so I’m gonna sign off here and let the blog inevitably re-gather dust in Max’s capable hands. Anyone interested in getting in touch or feels the bizarre compulsion to keep up with my travels and/or photography, I’m on instagram @paddycmaher (instagram.com/paddycmaher), which I keep updated whenever I have internet.