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Sample Travel Seminar Itinerary
Guatemala
The following represents a sample itinerary
of a Center for Global Education travel seminar to Guatemala.
Each trip’s actual itinerary will vary based on program focus,
length, timing and local events. However, this does represent
the types of encounters you will experience, as well as the pace
of the program
Day 1
Arrive at Guatemala City airport. Meet Center
for Global Education staff and transfer to guest house
4:30pm Welcome by local staff,
introductions and overview of program
5:30 Dinner at the guest house
7:00 Orientation to health and safety
issues. Introduction to the current realities in Guatemala
Day 2
7:30am Breakfast
9:30 Meet with government representatives
to discuss the implementation of the 1996 Peace Accords
11:00 Visit to Arch-Diocesan Office of
Human Rights to learn about the history of human rights
violations in Guatemala and the continuing struggle against
impunity.
1:00pm Lunch at the guest house
2:00 Appointment with human rights
organization for families of the disappeared to hear about their
efforts at uncovering mass grave sites and searching for the
identities of the disappeared.
4:00 Overview of the history of
Guatemala
6:30 Supper
Day 3
7:00am Breakfast
9:00 Visit a urban poor neighborhood to
meet with community members to discuss current challenges facing
their community and observe local development projects.
12:30pm Lunch
2:00 Briefing at the U.S. Embassy
focusing on U.S.-Guatemalan relations in the post-war period
4:00 Visit a Labor Union Organization
Office of Guatemala to hear about local organizing efforts in
relation to the influx of foreign owned assembly plants, (maquiladoras).
Discussion with former maquila workers about their working
conditions.
6:00 Supper
7:00 Group reflection/debreifing of the
first several days in the Guatemala.
Day 4
7:30am Breakfast
9:00 Meet with representatives of the
FDNG political party or the URNG political party (political
parties on the left) to hear their perspectives the increasing
role of indigenous communities in the political arena
10:30 Meeting with representatives of FRG
(political party on the right)
12:30pm Lunch
2:00 Visit to the Museum of Archeology to
learn more about Guatemalan’s Mayan majority.
6:00 Supper
8:00 Optional visit to the “La Bodeguita”
club for popular culture music
Day 5
7:00am Breakfast
8:00 Leave for Mayan ruins of Iximché in
Tecpán
10:30 Participate in a Mayan religious
ceremony performed by a Mayan priest
1:00pm Picnic lunch at the site
3:30 Arrival in Chichicastenango
4:00 Visit a local artisan cooperative to
have an opportunity to purchase local products
6:30 Supper
7:30 Group reflection; processing what
has been learned.
Day 6
7:15am Breakfast
8:00 Leave to visit a small indigenous
village. Hear the stories of
community members and discuss with leaders how the civil war
affected live in the village.
12:00n Lunch in the village with
community members
2:30pm Visit MINUGUA (the United Nations
Mission in Guatemala) in Santa Cruz del Quiché. Discuss the
degree to which the Peace Accords are working to establish an
effective judicial system.
5:00 Meet with the Maryknoll Sisters and
hear about the Historic Memory Project in Quiche which seeks to
uncover the truth of surrounding the violence of the war in
order to work toward healing and reconcilation.
7:00 Supper
Day 7
7:30am Breakfast
8:30 Free time to attend a local church
and experience the simultaneous liturgies of the Catholic Mass
and the Mayan religious ceremonies and explore the market of
Chichicastenango
12:00n Lunch
1:45pm Leave for Guatemala City
5:00 Final group reflection at the guest
house
7:00 Supper
Day 8
8:40am Depart to the U.S.
Translation is provided where needed from Spanish, Cakchiquel
and Quiché to English.
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