As I write, I am enjoying a morning cup of smooth, strong Guatemalan tea that I brought back from Los Andes tea estate where I was two weeks ago. The Hazard family, owners of the estate, had invited me to visit and, after a trade fair in Chicago, I was able to fly down for a few days with Pearl Dexter, US publisher of Tea - A Magazine. (Pearl will be publishing the full story of our visit - with some of the great photos she took while there - in the upcoming edition of the magazine.) .

After a short drive from the airport in Guatemala City, we spent a day absorbing the colour and atmosphere of old Antigua, an earlier capital city that was abandoned because of volcanic eruptions and then left to fall apart. Now regenerated and beautifully restored, it is full of stylishly elegant boutiques, restaurants and hotels - a perfect tourist location. The climate is delicious - comfortably tropical but not overwhelming - and the warmth of the sun on my white winter skin was uplifting and invigorating.

But we couldn’t linger too long amongst the city’s Spanish-style churches and cobbled streets and by mid-afternoon, we were on our way up into the range of volcanic mountains that lie down the south western curve of the country close to the Pacific coast. Volcan Atitlán towers to a height of more than 3,500 meters above the Hazard’s family home (photo below). It sits clear against the sky in the early morning but by 9.30 each day has gathered a swirling mass of grey-white clouds that threaten the rain that is so badly needed by this end of March but does not fall until well into April.

So here we were at the heart of the Hazard’s land - since 2001 a Private Nature Reserve and selected in 2003 as a pilot project by The Nature Conservancy - where 60% of the estate is original forest and the rest of the land is planted with quinine trees, coffee bushes, macadamia nut trees, tea bushes and eucalyptus trees that provide firewood for the families who live and work on the reserve. The ethically certified coffee is sold to Starbucks, the quinine bark is shipped to Germany for processing, the macadamia nuts are sold locally and into the international market and the organic tea is sold locally or shipped abroad for blending and for sale as a single source tea in the US and the UK.

Our days at Los Andes were an adventure of wandering through shady banana groves, scrambling up dusty paths that connected roadways to tracts of tea, climbing the stony track leading past noisy waterfalls and tumbling streams to the hydro-electric plant that provides all the power required by the farm and its residents. We rode the bumpy roads in the back of a pick-up truck to visit parts of the estate too remote to reach on foot and made detailed tours of the tea factory. We sat by the pool in the Hazard’s garden in the cool of the morning when the dew still glistened on the lawn, took tea in the drawing room and chatted over dinner, gradually gaining an understanding of the way in which James Hazard and his family are working to create a system of sustainable agriculture, to use the natural resources and to work with nature to achieve the long term preservation of the environment. The photo below shows James Hazard, on the right his daughter Olga and Pearl Dexter outside the Los Andes tea factory.

One very important aspect of the work on the farm is the provision of medical care and education. The provision of state education in the more remote areas of Guatemala is minimal and since 1987, the little Los Andes school has taught the majority of the children born to families who live here. The three classrooms - where children of different ages share the facilities at different times of the day - stand close to the community football ground, basketball pitch, community shop, clinic and tea factory. Olga Hazard is in charge of the school and social programme and with her, Pearl and I met the teachers, the children - ranging from 2 to 15 - and the nurse that runs the clinic and health education programme. The atmosphere everywhere on the estate is gentle, loving, supportive and respectful. There is a respect for the people, for the land and for nature and we felt the sense of quiet happiness and joy. Everyone smiles all the time!

Now back home, sipping my Guatemalan tea, I recall the clear, bright air, the stunningly beautiful landscape, the bright plumage of the birds that nest at Los Andes, the families working in the tea fields, gathering the fresh leaves that have been turned into my breakfast tea. Like so many tea locations around the world, Los Andes is spectacularly beautiful - with mountains and valleys, clear spring water rivers and wooded slopes, laughing children and families supported by the plantation. Although we were there as part of our work, our few days were more of a restful holiday and I am so grateful for the welcome we were given by James, Olga and the rest of the Hazard family and for the opportunity to spend time surrounded by such kindness.

If you have never been to Guatemala, have a look at the Los Andes website (http://www.andescloudforest.org/ ) and go there to watch rare birds, learn about tea and gain an insight into how natural resources can benefit the community and how the community at Loa Andes has learned to respect those resources and work together for a sustainable future.

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