Harvest time in San Lucas

     Most of the people in San Lucas depend directly or indirectly on the coffee harvest. Almost all the land close to the town is planted with coffee bushes.

     The harvest season starts in Guatemala at the end of October, but because of the altitude here, the major part of the harvest takes place in December. Most poor families take part in the coffee harvest. In the plantations they can gain $3.50 for every hundred pounds of coffee beans that they pick.

     Children help their families, and often the whole family will go picking coffee. The babies are looked after by one of the younger girls. Boys and girls from six or seven years old help the family. The harvest is hard work, but a happy joint family effort