Visit to Agua Caliente

Our 4th day of classes is done and we are going to visit a women's co-operative in a small town outside of Antigua called Agua Caliente. There are 6 women in the co-operative doing weaving and selling their own coffee.

They put on a presentation for us showing how they weave their blankets, tableclothes and placemats. They showed us how to make tortillas on the wood burning fire in their kitchen. My tortilla was only smooth on one edge. It was too thick and didn't taste very good but I didn't want to waste it so I ate it anyways.

We had a chance to crush the coffee beans and learned that the seeds are then hand picked, dried, roasted and ground. Quite a process. No wonder good coffee is expensive.

They put on a mock wedding with a couple of our fellow students. They explained that in the Mayan tradition a single girl (14-18 years old) would wear her braids down with colorful woven ribbon through them. Married women wear their hair up. The single girl would also wear a small shawl on her shoulder. Everywhere the girl went she would dress this way. If she didn't want to get married then she would have to stay at home. When a man wanted to marry a specific girl he would steal her shawl. Then he would present the shawl to the girl's father showing his intention to marry her. The girl had absolutely no say in the matter. If a girl was not married by 18 she was considered to old. The girl had one year to weave a shawl for her future mother-in-law. The girl would present it to her mother-in-law the day of the wedding. If the mother-in-law did not like it or her, the girl would have to make another one but the wedding continued. The mother-in-law would show her dislike by not wearing the shawl.

We were encouraged to buy items from these women in the co-operative as it was all hand made where items in town most likely were made by machine. We bought a pound of their coffee and placemats/napkins.

It was fun to learn about Mayan tradition from these women and they sure do work hard. It takes up to 30 days at 6 hours per day to make a blanket. Their weaving is exactly the same on both sides which makes it that much more unique.