People

Guambianos

Jacobo Villegas

The word Popayán comes from an Indian dialect. It means:

Po: Two

Pa: Straw

Yan: Village

Two villages with straw roofs. However there is no straw roofs in town any more although there is plenty of them in the city neighborhood.

January 13, 1537 Spanish conqueror Sebastian de Belalcázar founded Popayán. It was a very important town during the colony because its location between Lima, Quito and Cartagena. Even after the discovery of the Pacific Ocean Popayán was a transfer point of gold and riches going to Cartagena on its way to Spain. As a result Popayán is one of the most traditional Colombian towns and very rich in Colonial architecture although in 1983 an earthquake destroyed part of the city. There are several colonial bridges, museums and churches in the town.

Natives populated the town before the conquest. Next to the city there is still a huge mound built by the Indians similar to a pyramid and actually covered by grass. Legend says the inner structure holds richness and gold. Conquistadores settled next to the Indians taking advantage of their good heartiness and cheap labor. Catholicism was offered and taken by the Indians in exchange for their gold and work.

Coffee:

Altitude: Coffee grows at altitudes ranging between 1,350 and 1,820 Mts. Over sea level. Most plantations are in the Popayán rolling hills in what is called The Popayán Meseta.

Crop: Most of the coffee is collected between April and July however the fly, October through December also yields about 20% of the year crop.

Production: About 6,250,000 kilos of parchment in the whole Cauca State (capital Popayán). This translates to about 62,500 bags of excelso. The mills in Popayán also get coffee from neighbor State Huila when the coffee is scarce in Popayán. The Huila coffee is a acceptable substitute for Popayán and some Huilas are even as good or superior as Popayáns. There is about 60,000 hectares modern plantations in the State of Cauca, the balance, 20,000 hectares, is traditional and típica coffee. Most of the coffee farms are quite small; as a result the coffee is fermented using one tank and traditional methods including sun driers. FNC claims 88,000 families are linked to coffee production in the State.

Cup: A little acid and mildly sweet, good aroma and excellent flavor. An extremely well balanced and fine Colombian Coffee. Of course, not all Popayans are born the same, and is difficult to sort them at source. One of the reasons may be the types of trees. Growers claim that one third of the coffee planted is variedad Colombia, one third caturra and one third típica. Our own efforts for finding the típica beans have been quite frustrating.

Climate: Average temperature is 18 degrees centigrade. Minimum variation is about 12 to 13 degrees and maximum between 20 and 21 degrees. For a tropical climate the variation between day and night is extreme and calls for very could nights.

Soils: Volcanic soils, a little acid and not too step helping agriculture easing crop collection.