Finally I have returned home from our business trip to fruit farms of Mexico and Guatemala. It was a long but successful trip (minus the loss of bags for 12 hours in between Mexico City and Leon!).
Guatemala was by far my favourite country of the two. It is so chilled out, civilised and up and coming compared to Mexico. Mexico was a great step into Central American culture but myself and Dr T both loved Guatemala more.

Guatemala

We had a great Friday night out in Guatemala City with our suppliers. Good food, many fabulous cocktails, salsa and bachata music. It couldn’t have been much better. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Guatemala and wow, were their beds the most comfortable I have ever stayed in!!! Great gym and pool too. Saturday morning, rooftop pool, a few lengths in the sunshine – a great way to get rid of a hangover!

Then we headed up to Antigua, the original capital of Guatemala back in Mayan days and now a very touristy, hippy kinda place but it was closest to our farms. We got picked up by our chauffeur in a bullet proof massive Hummer – it was amazing! We loved it – slightly concerning that it was required to be bullet proof but we felt safe and the entire family we went to see had security guards. It was the first time I have walked round a blackberry field with a security guard 10 paces behind me at all times!
We managed to stay in two amazing boutique hotels in Antigua which were great. We could get used to that kind of lifestyle! Great showers, ipod speakers, 40” TV’s, comfy beds. It was lovely and we were treated well.

Streets of Antigua, Guatemala

Myself and Dr T also managed to sample as many Marguerita’s as we could in our 9 day trip, plus some Tequila Sunrise’s, Vodka Collins, hmm what else???? Oh yes the most amazing chocolate fondant dessert ever – I wish I had got a photo of that. It was so good that we had it two nights in a row!

Now this all sounds very much hard work huh? It was really – we had 3 hours journeys there and back most days to farms, a lot of walking around in mud, a lot of discussions on varieties, packaging etc that are a requirement of these trips but we did managed to party hard when it was required. We had a great tour guide to take us around Guatemalan villages on the Day of the Dead and that was a real eye opener.
Sadly the amount of sunshine was not great on our whole trip but we did get a chance to sunbathe just for one morning. Oh well – we were there to work after all!!

Antigua, Guatemala

My passport has now been put to rest until a fabulous holiday in December with a certain special someone.
I need to spend some time in the UK for a while!