Guatemala Volunteer Vacation
Guatemala Volunteer Vacations
Life-impacting service,
eye-opening exploration…
& just good plain fun.
Open to anyone! For students, seniors, families, friendship groups & anyone else interested in a grand learning about and making a difference in Guatemala.
We want to take you on a grand experience that will give you an opportunity to serve, to discover and generally really get to know another culture by living and volunteering right alongside in a safe and eye-opening journey.
12 Days from
$1550 US per person + airfare
The second person in the same family travels for $1350. Book into our group flights and save.
Ventures like this are worth the expense for the following reason:
They create a massive exclamation mark on much that has been taught at home, at school and in our church community. They take all the words and books … and create a visual and experiential feast such that travelers really “get it”… sometimes for the first time in their lives. Past teaching comes together in a very practical and full life-on experience.
For older and experienced travelers, this is an experience of travel and eye-opening beauty in which we are able to give back and bless others with whom we come into contact.
Trips like this are markers. They are “stakes hammered into the ground” upon which we connect various aspects of our past… and make decisions with regard to who we will be and what we will believe in the future. That’s why trips like this can be worth many times the expense. They are life-changing.
It’s important to note that this is more than just a volunteer work experience. It certainly incorporates volunteerism and hands-on practical service, but we will experience history, climb a live Volcano, discover what it is to survive as a family living and working in Guatemala city dump. We will experience life on a coffee plantation as well as a rubber plantation.
We’ll live simply… and then finish off in the lap of luxury as we take a few days at an all-inclusive setting in the highlands of Guatemala on the edge of one of the world’s most beautiful lakes.
We work with partner organizations that are looking forward to our coming to volunteer and celebrate with them in their work. Our first week centers just outside one of the most beautiful Old World cities of the world…Antigua Guatemala.
We experience 2000 years of Mayan history, 500 years of Spanish colonial rule, and some significant years of CIA intrusion. All of this makes for a safe and powerful experience. We have excellent Christian partners to host, transport, teach, and provide significant volunteer opportunities where we will be able to make meaningful contributions.
This trip is designed not only to serve but also to create experiences that will inspire & shape your life when you return. While one of our goals is certainly to enable you to do something important and useful, one of our chief goals will be to make sure we come away a little deeper, wider and stronger. Many of you will leave Guatemala with a deeper desire to make the world a better place.
Guatemala Volunteer Vacation Sample Itinerary
Day 1
Arrival, pick up at Guatemala City Airport and transport to San Juan Del Obispo where families will be waiting for us and will escort us to our homes in this town overlooking the city of Antigua (10 minutes away).
Day 2
Orientation to Guatemala and the villages of San Juan as well as Santa Maria where we will be doing our volunteer projects. We will begin to work and will spend most of the day in the village of Santa Maria. Either late afternoon today or on Saturday we will be spending time with a very knowledgeable Guatemalan guide who will answer questions and help us understand the country and its people from a variety of perspectives. Antigua has been designated a world heritage city. Beautiful, fascinating and ancient … now home to over 50 language schools. People come from all over the world to study Home School, Mission Trip.
Day 3
Workday in the village of Santa Maria. Santa Maria is a Mayan town further up the (dormant) volcano.
Day 4
Optional English/Spanish worship service in a small church in Antigua. In the afternoon, we will arrange for those who wish to experience a live volcano … to climb volcano Pacaya. (Oon foot or by horse) A safe but powerful and exhilarating experience. A life experience.
Day 5
Back to work!
Day 6
This day will be a set aside as a day trip into Guatemala City where we will spend some time with a mission that is serving families living in the Guatemala City dump. This will be a hugely inspirational and thought-provoking experience.
Day 7
We leave this morning for the coffee plantation… a trip that takes us from the Highlands of Antigua (approximately 1 mile high) down to the coast. The temperature will turn from warm and comfortable to hot and moist. We will follow the coast up towards Mexico and just before we get to the Mexico border we will turn to the right and head up a short ways to the town of Columba. (In the area called Costa Cooka) (so that’s Columba, Costa Cooka.) ( Say that real fast 3 times.) Note: we will stop at a rubber tree plantation for lunch and a rather remarkable tour. During the course of the last 10 years or so when coffee prices hit all-time lows, many farmers switched to rubber trees. It’s a fascinating process and we will look at the dynamics involved, both to the landowner and also to the people who live(d) on the land.
Antonio Mombiela whose family owns the coffee plantation has built a small retreat center on the property. We will be housed in this retreat center for two nights.
Day 8
Today we will tour the coffee plantation. We will see what it has taken for this family to survive economic hard times and how they have sought to protect the jobs and lifestyle of the 100-200 people who live in the small village on their property. We will take some time to discuss what we are seeing around us. If the small swimming pool has been tended, some will no doubt be amused by throwing their leadership teams into the water.
Later on that evening we will watch a movie together on the history of the coffee industry, a recent production which will help us make sense of what we are seeing all around us. It might just inform the way that we stop for a quick coffee at Starbucks when we return home.
Day 9
We leave in the morning for Lake Atitlan. We will drive uphill seemingly for ever and will arrive at the Hotel Del Lago where for the next two days we will live in an all-inclusive setting. Travelers can eat and lounge by the beautiful pools for much of the day. This should begin playing with the edges of our conscience as we consider all we have seen. We will no doubt be impacted by the kind of contrasts within which the people of Guatemala live. Extreme poverty and extreme wealth live side-by-side. We will take some time here in Lake Atitlan to discuss our thoughts and feelings around issues of lifestyle.
Day 10
Lake Atitlan. This is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world… bordered by three (non-active) volcanoes. This afternoon we’ll take a panoramic boat trip across the lake to the Mayan village of Santiago Atitlan. Travelers will have opportunity to choose gifts and souvenirs of their Guatemalan experience by walking the markets not only of Santiago but also of the area surrounding their hotel.
This is a safe area and travelers will have a great time wandering the markets, lounging by the pool’s and eating some great meals. We will continue to take time to debrief the experience to date.
Day 11
We really do not have to be back in the village of San Juan till later on in the day, so we will drag out our experience at this hotel for as long as is comfortable. We will likely leave at 2:00 p.m. for the two hour trip to Antigua. It will be good to have one more day to enjoy our Guatemalan hosts and to say goodbye.
Day 12
9:30 a.m.. After breakfast we’ll take our final photographs and then be picked up in San Juan and taken to the airport for the flight home.
* flight tax subject to change depending on airline fuel or other surcharges.