This summer, Senderos will be taking a group of 10-20 people, led by David LaMotte and Sarah Robinson, to learn more about Guatemala and our work there. From July 20 to July 30, 2025. group participants will enjoy the rich culture and beautiful landscape and explore how best we can have a positive influence on the world around us, in partnership and community across lines that sometimes separate us. The trip will focus on cultural exposure and understanding. Our time together will have educational components, and opportunities to get to know and support some of our Guatemalan partners and their work.
The itinerary includes two nights in Guatemala City, three nights in Santiago, Atitlán, three nights in El Tejar, Chimaltenango, and two days in Antigua, Guatemala.
When:
For our 2025 trip, we will travel to Guatemala on Sunday, July 20, and we will return to our home on Wednesday, July 30.
If these dates don’t work for you this year, please sign up for our mailing list in order to keep up to date on future trips. You may also contact Sarah if you are interested in putting together your own trip, whether for your church, school, service organization, workplace, family, etc. Sarah is happy to help you make a trip to Guatemala into reality.
What to expect:
Here is the proposed itinerary for the trip.
Our previous experience indicates a high probability that you will fall in love with Guatemala and its people. Guatemala, like every country, is full of individuals, but on the whole, you can expect folks there to be warm, welcoming, and kind. Guatemalan people are the best part of Guatemala. Beauty takes many other forms, too, however. The former colonial capital city of Antigua features incredible Spanish architecture, the mountains and countryside are gorgeous, and Lago Atitlán has been called the most beautiful lake in the world.
Guatemalan food is delicious, and it is not too hard to accommodate most dietary styles (David is vegetarian, and loves it there). Guatemala is also a country with extreme poverty and a violent past, in which the United States has played a significant role. It continues to wrestle with thorny political, social, and economic issues. Learning about this history and present circumstances in Guatemala will be part of our time. To learn more about how Senderos began and the work we do in Guatemala, please click here.
The itinerary will be fairly dense, but we try to keep a reasonable pace. We will visit a primary school on Lake Atitlan, a music program in El Tejar, and a mentoring program for disadvantaged youth also in El Tejar.
These trips are unlike those you might find with other groups. It is neither designed to be a tourist trip, nor a work trip, per se. We believe that the work of transforming ourselves and the world around us is rooted in relationships, and understanding the many kinds of ‘normal’ that people experience in their daily lives. Many previous trip participants will tell you that their time in Guatemala was life-changing.
We will very likely have opportunities to work to support our partners in Guatemala. We have sometimes painted a building, or put on a party for children. Physical labor is not the focus of the trip, though. In general, Senderos tries to support local craftspeople and laborers who benefit by the work, and usually bring a higher skill level than we can provide, being careful that our need to feel helpful doesn’t outweigh the real material needs of our partners and friends.
Each night, we will have debriefing time, led by David, with an opportunity to process the day together, and ask any questions or raise any concerns folks may have. David will also bring along a travel guitar, and may share a song or two in the evenings.
Because of travel necessities, our itinerary will also include a couple of fairly early mornings. Unfortunately, due to the infrastructure of Guatemala, we cannot guarantee access to everyone with mobility issues, but are sensitive to these challenges, and will make an effort to include everyone to the degree that it is possible. Please let us know what your challenges might be when you apply for the trip.
Cost:
The trip fee includes all expenses in Guatemala, including meals, lodging, transportation, and some financial support for the work of Senderos, and the partner projects we will be visiting. Please note, the trip fee does not cover the cost of airfare, which will be arranged by each participant (we will offer guidance on booking tickets so that we arrive at roughly the same time).
The maximum per-person price for the trip will be $1,750 for a shared room (we can match you with a roommate if you’re not traveling with one) or $2,000 for a single room. We will need ten people to make the trip happen, and will let you know by April 1, or when we have ten people confirmed. The price could decrease if we have more than 15 trip participants sign up. Also, there is usually the possibility to offer some financial assistance. Please use the application below to explore that option.
Children age 11+ are welcome on the trip and are the same price as an adult. If you would like to travel with a child 10 or under, please contact us.
We will be staying in various accommodations, ranging from quite simple (a convent in Guatemala City) to homestays with families in El Tejar, to the more upscale Posada de Santiago.
Applying
To apply for the trip, please click here, and note that the form will take about 10 minutes to fill out.
Each individual adult should fill out an individual application, and indicate if you are traveling with another adult. For families with children, please indicate the number and ages of children on your application. After the group is established, we will connect with everyone via email and send more information.
Thank you for your interest in visiting Guatemala with us! Simply by coming on this trip, you are supporting our work there, as a portion of your registration will go to fund these projects. If you have further questions, please check out our FAQ, and if your question isn’t covered there, drop a note to Sarah. We are grateful for your interest and support, and we look forward to knowing you better!