I met Ivett in the self-access centre and we became friends during the time we have been in Xalapa. Today she picked us up in her SUV and drove us through the Xalapa rain to the neighbouring town of Coatepec.
Coatepec is one of the main coffee centres in Mexico and the town and surrounding plantations actually smell of coffee! First we had a fabulous seafood lunch in one of the colonial buildings converted into a restaurant. Next (of course!) we went for coffee. Freshly picked, roasted, ground and brewed all on the premises. Amazing. Ivett told us that many families have their own coffee plants here. We bought some coffee-related souvenirs in the little shops. You can actually get coffee bean jewellery such as earrings and rosary beads! After our coffee, we drove to a town where Ivett's boyfriend Rodgrigo is from called something like Estanzuelo. He caught us up in his VW beetle and joined us in Ivett's car as we took a tour at dusk through the coffee plantations. Very atmospheric and very fragrant! As night fell, we arrived at this tiny semi-abandoned village nestled within the plantations. It was very spooky as there were hardly any lights. Ivett and Rodrigo wanted to show us actually coffee beans so we stopped at one of the houses which we thought was in the trade to see if they would show us some. A little old lady opened the door and looked at us as if we were mad. No, she wasn’t in the coffee trade. The sacks we had seen outside were bags of sand! We all laughed. She told us that she did have some coffee beans to show us nevertheless so brought some out for us. Sweet.
On the way back, we passed some wild cactus (nopales). Rodrigo jumped out and cut some because apparently it’s delicious (more about that later). We saw another kind of cactus (cruzetas) which was more difficult to cut, so Rodrigo knocked on the door of a random stranger and asked if he had a knife. The guy came out with a machete and kindly obliged. Only in Mexico!
The last stop was back in Estanzuelo and a trip to Rodrigo’s godfather who gave us a huge bag 0f freshly roasted and ground coffee from his own plantations. Wow. What a fun and interesting afternoon! I hope we see Ivett and Rodgrigo again one day.
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