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Guatemala

Reclaiming Territory and Reweaving Identity

A Custom School Program

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12 Days

Explore narratives of cultural identity and relationship to land, tracing important links between culture, ecology, and the interplay between social and natural worlds. Live with host families in a Kaqchikel Maya community, and work on community-based projects to preserve traditional systems of land management.

A Rich Legacy of Cultural Survival and Community Strength

Guatemala captivates with its blend of social protest, poetry, myth, and a deep love for its land and people. Travelers are drawn to its volcanoes, lakes, biodiversity, and complex culture, especially in the western highlands, home to over eighty percent indigenous Maya. Despite colonization, economic development, and political violence, a rich legacy of cultural survival and community strength endures.

This program focuses on cultural identity and land relationships, linking culture, ecology, and the interplay of social and natural worlds. Students live with families in San Antonio Palopó, a Kaqchikel Maya community, working on projects preserving traditional ecological and agricultural land management. Through immersion, workshops, speakers, and hands-on projects, students discover culturally distinct strategies for sustainable land relations. They also learn about ongoing cycles of conquest and exploitation, gaining a broader historical perspective on the Americas and the struggles to maintain non-dominant cultural ways of life and land relationships.

girl crushing clay with a rock and smiling

Highlights & Outcomes

Stay With Local Kaqchikel Families

Engage with Indigenous Maya communities through homestays with families in San Antonio Palopó.

Work on Food Justice Initiatives

Participate in sustainable farming and food justice projects with local farmers and cooperatives near Lake Atitlán.

Learn About Indigenous Rights

Explore the connections between land, identity, and justice through community-based initiatives.

Gain Global Competencies

Experience new cultures, explore different perspective, and build confidence by navigating unfamiliar environments.

group holding shovels talking
line drawing of Guatemala

Our Journey

Our journey begins at Guatemala’s bustling airport, followed by a two-hour private shuttle to Tecpan. Here, we’ll settle into cabins, orient ourselves to the program, and learn basic travel skills and local customs.

After two days, we depart for Lake Atitlán, where we’ll stay with local families in San Antonio Palopó. We’ll engage with artisans, farmers, and educators, experiencing daily life in a highland Maya town, learning about food systems, art, and cultural identity from local experts. Conversational Spanish lessons are optional.

Next, we move to San Lucas Toliman to connect with Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura (IMAP). We’ll learn about soil health, seed saving, Maya cosmovision, and ecosystem resilience, supporting agro-ecological initiatives through hands-on projects, and enjoying activities like swimming and fútbol.

Our final stop is Antigua, Guatemala, a historic colonial city. We’ll reflect on our adventure, share a bonfire, and consider how the journey will inform our return home, appreciating cultural and ecological diversity and carrying stories of diverse approaches to land, reciprocity, and resource management.

View Itinerary

Program Title

Sample Itinerary
The following itinerary is subject to change based on your goals and availability.

  • Day 1: Tecpan

    From the airport, travel via shuttle to Tecpan (~2 hrs). Settle into comfortable cabins and begin orientation. Opening celebration and welcome dinner.

  • Days 2-3: Tecpan

    Traditional Guatemalan breakfast & morning check in. Orientation activities and workshops. Hiking on the grounds and getting to know the farm. Lunch and dinner on the farm. Bonfire and opening ceremony. Breakfast, morning check in, framing the day. Visit Iximche Mayan archeological site. Picnic lunch and afternoon history lesson focusing on Maya civilization, conquest, colonization, Guatemalan armed conflict and contemporary issues. Homestay briefing.

  • Day 4: San Antonio Palopó

    Travel 2 hrs to San Antonio Palopó. Lunch at program house and introduction to community and homestays. Afternoon exploration and scavenger hunt in San Antonio. Students match with host families. Dinner and evening activities with families.

  • Days 5-7: San Antonio Palopó

    While in homestays, we gather together each morning for a check-in. Begin local project(s) focused on food systems and traditional agriculture, fishing, arts and cultural identity. Afternoon visits with culture and arts representatives exploring Mayan identity, language and worldview. Evenings with homestay families.

  • Day 8: San Lucas Toliman

    Boat to San Lucas Toliman. Introduction to the Instituto Mesoamericana de Permacultura (IMAP). Hike to local coffee plantations, exploration of neoliberal reform, industrial food systems, and plantation farming. Picnic lunch. Afternoon exploration of ecological farming practices, integrated crop management and agroecology. Evening debrief and documentary film on food systems.

  • Day 9: San Lucas Toliman

    Return to IMAP permaculture and seed saving projects. Hands-on work with compost, soil, and water management. Afternoon chill time: fútbol and basketball.

  • Day 10: Antigua

    Say goodbye to IMAP and San Lucas and travel 2 hours to Antigua. Explore markets and do a little shopping. Optional meeting with De La Gente on fair trade coffee.

  • Day 11: Antigua

    Transference activities and expedition to student-led day-trip in the Antigua area. Final souvenir shopping, final dinner, and closing ceremony.

  • Day 12: Antigua Departure

    Breakfast and morning departure for the airport.

Custom School Programming

How We Do It

Each Custom School Program is tailored to meet your needs. Through a close, hands-on collaboration, we take the time to understand what matters most—and draw on decades of experience to create something unique, thoughtful, and authentic.

Together, we’ll design a program that’s cohesive, purposeful, and fully supported from start to finish—never a collection of tourist stops or disconnected activities. We’re ready when you are.

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Program Components

Our Program Components are the building blocks of your itinerary. During the customization process, these components can be dialed up or down to meet the goals and vision for the program. Each program component is thoughtfully planned to ensure that your students engage meaningfully and authentically connect with the places they visit.

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Social & Environmental Justice

Engage with fair trade coffee and weaving cooperatives, microfinance organizations, and other entities aimed at economic justice. Get hands on with environmental projects aimed at reforestation, agroecology, and sustainability. Learn about the tragic history of human-rights violations, and contemporary work at reconciliation.

Homestay

Jump in to play with siblings, practice your Spanish, help with chores, and get a sense for the rhythm of daily life while being hosted by the generous hospitality and warmth of a local homestay family. Students pair up to spend time in the mornings and evenings at home, while spending most of the day with their group engaged in activities.

Learning Service

Work alongside local community leaders and activists as they work to preserve traditional ancestral knowledge related to agriculture, Maya cosmovision, indigenous language, and herbal medicine.

Focus of Inquiry

Guatemala's 500 year legacy of conquest and resistance takes shape through hands-on engagement with current community-driven initiatives to maintain cultural life-ways and relationships to land and water.

Religious & Spiritual Traditions

Learn about Maya cosmovision and the sacred calendars through workshops and ceremoney with local ajkij, or daykeepers who guide you through Mayan ceremony and provide connections between traditional spiritual practice and current social movements.

Language Study

Spanish Language classes are available from expert language instructors who can provide personalized lessons and activities to students. Students may also learn words and simple phrases in Kaqchikel or Tz'utujil Maya Languages.

Rugged Travel

This program offers students the opportunity to use local public transportation such as "lanchas", passenger boats on Lake Atitlán, and ride in bedazzled School buses for local routes. Students may also ride in tuk tuks between short distances in town.

Trekking

On this program students may hike up into the mountains and fields around Lake Atitlán on day hikes to explore waterfalls, coffee fields, and milpas, and get to know the cloud forests that skirt the towering Toliman volcano.

Independent Study Project

Students may choose to explore ceramics, weaving, painting, herbal medicine, agriculture, Mayan calendars and cosmovision, Mayan language, or other hands on practices. They may also choose to explore myriad development topics, bilingual education, history, religious syncretism, and youth leadership as topics to discover.

Featured Instructors

Our instructors are more than guides—they’re mentors, educators, and trusted companions. Each member of our team is thoroughly vetted, background-checked, and trained in our unique pedagogy and risk management practices. With an average of over four years living abroad and fluency in local languages, our instructors serve as meaningful cross-cultural liaisons.

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