A cup of Chiapas culture: in addition to its colorful history and an abundance of natural resources, this region of Mexico also produces a wide variety of eco-friendly coffee.

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MEXICAN WRITER ROSARIO CASTELLANOS describes the tropical forest of her native Chiapas as a mysterious paradise. Indeed, as the beautiful landscape of this Mexican "Coffee Route" state unfolds before us, paradise does seem an apt description. Chiapas is a place of green and sun, of rivers and starry skies; it is full of the mystery of nature, living and exuberant.

The Maya once inhabited a large part of the region. They knew about everything from hydraulic systems to the natural wealth of the jungle, and they built some of the area's most beautiful cities: Palenque, Bonampak, Yaxchilan, Izapa, Toning, Chinkultic, Lacaja, and Tenan Puente. When the Mayan civilization "collapsed," the sacred centers were abandoned and their splendor remained hidden in the jungle. Years later, the Spanish met fierce resistance from the indomitable descendents of the early Maya. Legend has it that the indigenous peoples of Chiapas threw themselves into the great river canyon rather than surrender.

The name Chiapas comes from Chiapan, which meals "waters below the mountain." In 1528 the conquistadors used the name "Chiapas" in the founding of two primary cities: Chiapa de los Indios (known today as Chiapa de Corzo) and Chiapa de los Espanoles (now San Cristobal de las Casas). The town of San Marcos de Tuxtla, founded in the late sixteenth century, is now called Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the state. On September 14, 1824, after the wars of independence, the people of Chiapas announced their freedom from the Spanish crown and formally became a part of Mexico.

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Located in southeastern Mexico, Chiapas borders the country of Guatemala and the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Tabasco. It is a region with great geographic diversity. From the air, we can see the ocean, the lovely Pacific coast, mango orchards, and the blue-green mountains of the Sierra Madre. With an area of just over 29,000 square miles, Chiapas is Mexico's eighth largest state. It is also one of the largest producers of coffee, mango, banana, and cacao in the country.

As our plane descends, the imposing Tacana volcano appears. Tacana means "house of fire" in the indigenous language. This lava-capped peak, 13,425 feet high, is the highest point in Chiapas and has recently become a protected area with the status of "biosphere reserve." In accordance with an 1882 treaty, the dividing line between Mexico and Guatemala goes right over the summit of the Tacana volcano.

In the Tapachula airport, a soldier with a ski-mask over his face is a reminder of the days of Subcomandante Marcos, but he is actually a member of the national security force. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) that rose up in Chiapas in the 1990s signed peace accords with the government in 1996, and things have been quiet since then. The music of the marimba, a traditional instrument in the region, takes our minds away from the years of guerrilla war and announces that Tapachula is preparing for its annual festival, complete with parades, music, regional products, bullfights, and delicious food.

The so called "Coffee Route" starts to take shape about an hour from Tapachula on a mountainous road in the Soconusco area. After we have gone up in elevation nearly 5,000 feet, we begin to see coffee fields surrounded and protected by tall trees.

Coffee, originally from southeast Asia and eastern Africa, was taken to Europe and then later to America where it prospered. Chiapas itself has more than 400 coffee farms and communal coffee cooperatives that grow nearly 568,000 acres of coffee, generating thousands of jobs as well as income for the state. In 1846, Jeronimo Manchinelli brought 1,500 coffee seedlings from Guatemala and planted them on his farm, La Chacara. He was followed by another early coffee grower, Carlos Gris, who planted more coffee trees on his farm, Majagual. The colonization of land for coffee began in earnest under the administration of Porfirio Diaz, and many Europeans arrived and settled in the area, bringing new technologies with them. By 1892, there were 22 coffee farms in the region, among them Nueva Alemania, Hamburgo, Chiripa, Irlanda, Argovia, San Francisco, and Linda Vista.

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"I love this place. I was born on the Hamburgo farm, and I grew up with coffee," says supervisor Jose Luis Masariego. "The coffee seeds are planted in seedbeds and in three months they are ready to be transplanted," he explains. "They are moved from the shade to the sun, and in about three years, they will produce coffee beans. Coffee takes time and care. Everybody here knows the process, because coffee is part of our life. We feel proud of this amazing productive land."

When we get to the top, we are met with a spectacular view of adjacent mountains, lines of coffee trees, the blue sky, and, off in the distance, the sea. We have arrived at the Finca Hamburgo, where manager Berta Briones explains: "This farm was founded in 1888 by the Edelmann family from Germany. They are still here five generations later, managing the place and following the old traditions."

Several buildings are clustered on different parts of the farm. They include a restaurant with several reception rooms, a library, and three cabins with different kinds of lodging options, all very comfortable. As you go down the hill, you see the owners' main house and a museum showing photos of how coffee-growing began and the machines that were used back then. Then you get to the area of the beneficio where the coffee is processed with modern machinery, and off to the sides, the workers' houses, their dining rooms, and several terraces for drying coffee.

The current owners of the Finca Hamburgo have also purchased the adjacent farm, Chiripa, and dedicated 50 acres of it to an ecological reserve where they have created a botanic garden and a recreation area. On the road to Chiripa, Carlos Moreno, the historian and public relations person for the farm, tells us about the bumpy history of land ownership here. We learn that the farm was confiscated during World War II and had to be repurchased by some of its owners after the war. In Chiripa, our Tzotzil guide Don Lucas shows us the diversity of trees in the forest: trees that bear precious wood like mahogany, cedar, primavera, and the sacred tree of the Maya, the ceiba, whose canopy is the dwelling place of the gods and whose bulging trunk is a symbol of fertility.

Don Lucas speaks the Tzotzil language and loves nature. He shows us where the bridge was built over the Cuilco River, which loops whimsically amidst the rocks and the jungle. He tells us that indigenous people live all over Chiapas but that he likes it in Soconusco and that this is where he plans to stay.

There are, indeed, many indigenous groups throughout the state of Chiapas: Lacandones, Tzotziles, Tzeltales, Tojolabales, Choles, Mames, Cachiqueles, Tuxes, and Zoques, among others, many of whom have descended from the Maya. Indigenous people are primarily farmers and artisans. Women weave amazing multicolor textiles and clothing with eye-catching flower designs. Some men are potters or wood carvers. Others have special abilities to find amber, an unusual fossilized resin, which they combine with silver to create jewelry and other diverse works of art.

When we return to the Finca Hamburgo, we are offered a taste of the delicious coffee of the region. The farms of Soconusco produce basically three types of coffee: the high value Arabigo, the Marago "Bourbon" variety which has larger beans, and "Robusta" coffee which is stronger and is often mixed as a complement to other grains to provide a little more body to the cup.

The next day a trip is organized to the Finca Argovia, and we travel on a dirt road through the ever-present tropical beauty of the mountains. The Soconusco region is one of the biggest coffee growing areas in Mexico; this is significant since Mexico is the fifth largest exporter of coffee in the world after Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia. The best soils are from these slopes, rich in humus, with average altitudes of 2,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level and with abundant rain. The Covadonga area is the rainiest in the country, with nearly 20 inches of rainfall a year. It's an especially good region for an especially tasty coffee.

The Finca Argovia, buried deep in the jungle, is cared for by its owner, agricultural engineer Bruno Giesemann, an expert in coffee and ecology. Giesemann tells us that the farm was founded in 1880 by a couple from the Swiss canton of Aargau, from which the name Argovia derives.

In the late nineteenth century, the farm was acquired by Adolf Giesemann, a gamekeeper for the Kaiser in Germany and a great lover of nature. He built the main frame of the hacienda building in 1905. That original wood structure remains, as do many of the original trees planted around the building. When the farm was confiscated during the Mexican revolution, part of the family went to Guatemala and another part went to E1 Salvador, where they were among the first to begin coffee plantations there.

Adolf Giesemann's present day descendants are continuing his work and have turned Argovia into one of the finest organic-ecological farms in the country. As we tour the coffee processing facilities, Bruno Giesemann explains to us that coffee is a tropical bush between 8 and 30 feet high, belonging to the rubiaceae family. It has a white flower and the berry is harvested between October and February, after which it goes through an elaborate process to prepare it for consumption.

Everything starts with the tapisca, the harvesting of the berries, both red and green. The berries are separated and the red ones go through a depulping machine and then to fermentation in troughs or tanks, a process that can last from 24 to 36 hours. It is important for workers to know about the various stages of fermentation since this is the moment when the flavor of the coffee is determined.

After fermentation, the coffee beans are laid out on large patios for a preliminary drying before they are sent to big ovens called guardiolas where they can finish drying uniformly. The thresher takes away the skin, or outside casing, of the coffee bean and the polishing machine removes the final inner film over the bean. Then the coffee awaits packing in bags made out of jute or henequen fiber that won't contaminate the flavor of the beans. Some of the bags are stored, but not for long; 60 percent will go towards export and 40 percent for domestic consumption. In 1988 Mexico exported 6.5 million bags.

Currently, much of the work is done with electronic equipment. Water and residual waste are recycled to prevent contamination and to make the best use of these resources. Bruno Giesemaun provides us with an interesting reflection on the famous plant. "Coffee is a social beverage," he says, "a drink that involves communication. You drink it with friends, when you're with your family, and sometimes when you're alone with your thoughts. We need to hold onto that sense of it and value its flavor, its aroma, acidity, and body, because coffee is more than a drink; it's a ritual.

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"Without a doubt it is a natural stimulant, without chemicals. And while the coffee plant takes space that once belonged to the primary forest, it does so in a way that is consistent with conservation, maintaining the balance of nature and allowing the biological cycle of the local flora and fauna to continue. Migratory birds wouldn't be coming here if it weren't for these coffee fields. There wouldn't be such a variety of insects, animals, and birds. The last inventory here was able to classify 157 different birds. It's an entire wild kingdom under this green roof.

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"One coffee plant lives between seven and eight years. It has a white flower that should not be cut. The soil influences production. At the same time, the climate and the angle of the sun have an influence on the temperature and the metabolism of the plant. This is an important point in coffee processing since heat makes the coffee ripen more quickly and affects its quality.

"A change in any detail--the quality of the bean, how finely or coarsely it is ground, how long it is roasted etc.--changes your cup of coffee," Oiesemann concludes. "Every coffee bean has been worked on by maw hands. There is a great deal of dedication and careful attention, many details so that our cup of coffee will be just what we want in terms of its aroma and flavor."

When the coffee crisis hit a few years ago, many coffee farms sought to diversify their products. Some became inns with sports activities, hiking, bird-watching, biking trails, and excursions. Argovia added some of those things, but also began a large tree nursery, where 125 species of coffee plants, fruit trees, and ornamental flowers are grown.

This region's natural diversity charmed the conquistadors from the first days of the discovery of the Americas. Since that time, numerous scientific expeditions have been commissioned, and naturalists have written volumes about what they found.

Gonzalo Fernandez tie Oviedo was one of the first to describe the native flora, and Pedro Martir de Augleria was among several others who sent news of new plant species hack to Europe. The plants themselves were also taken to Europe and eventually spread all over the continent. In 1651, a collection of ten books called Historia natural de nueva Espana (Natural History of New Spain) by Francisco Hernandez was published by order of King Phillip II. The volumes included information about medicinal, edible, and ornamental plants like the ones we see today in the jungle of Chiapas.

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During the nineteenth century, many expeditions occurred, among them that of German scientist Alexander Von Humboldt who travelled through Chiapas learning about bio-diversity, developing botanic geography, and laying the groundwork for the study of American plants.

But there is still much to be discovered, learned, and developed, according to Maria Eugenia Escobar, an ethno-biologist who is leading one of the farm's joint programs with Mexican universities. Escobar explains that there are different ecosystems in Mexico and that Chiapas is a particularly privileged area. The farm plays a significant role in maintaining the natural ecosystem of the highland forest and the surrounding lowlands and in supporting an ongoing reforestation program. It keeps the local ecology in mind by recycling water, using gravity-fed irrigation, controlling pesticides, and finding ways to use waste products. The farm aims to keep the vegetation flourishing and add to the natural advantages of the place by facilitating conditions for plants that can assimilate to the environment. The Rainforest Alliance, a US-based environmental protection organization has given the farm special recognition for this work.

The areas planted with large brightly colored anthuriums are especially eye-catching. An anthurium is a plant with aerial roots. It isn't actually a flower so it doesn't give off an aroma, but it is incredibly beautiful. The inflorescence--or blooming--of these members of the Araceae family is very peculiar. It has a fleshy vertical center, a kind of stick with a large number of unisex flowers on it, surrounded by a colorful bract that looks like a giant petal. These flowers are exported as decorative plants because of their spectacular beauty.

The nursery ends at a meteorological station that controls humidity, temperature, and climate to prevent any atmospheric imbalance. Nearby, there is a packing plant for lovely ornamental flowers.

The route passes through Puerto Chiapas, a port with modern infrastructure for shipping exports and receiving international cruises, and then our journey ends in Laguna Pozuelos. We have come down to sea level in just an hour and a half. Laguna Pozuelos is a residential area with beach houses. It is also the departure point for anyone who wants to see the largest mangrove reserve of the region. Here, we can see ducks, pelicans, and herons in flight. Following the channels, we arrive at the vast and wild coast of Chiapas, where the Pacific Ocean sends us waves of goodbye.

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Seeing such natural splendor, I can understand why Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra would have wanted to travel to the Americas and why he asked the King of Spain to appoint him the governor of Soconuseo. Surely there are surprising, aromatic novels being woven silently among the branches of the Chiapan jungle.

The coffee route of Chiapas offers beautiful scenery, archeology, and history. It teaches you about the effort of its hardworking pioneers, their ecological sense, and their love of the land. Traveling through these lands you can breathe in the green, hear the music of birds and marimbas, and sense the harmony of human beings with nature. It is a poetry of life-poetry with the aroma of coffee.

Adriana Bianco, a professor of philosophy and literature, is a regular contributor to Americas.