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Guatemala · 9 days · high school groups
Roots and Resilience in the Highlands
A field learning expedition through colonial Antigua and the volcanic lake basin of Atitlán.
Duration
9 days / 8 nights
Group
8 to 20 students, plus leaders
Locations
Antigua · Tzununá · San Juan La Laguna · Santiago Atitlán
Dates
Flexible, built around your travel window
Driving question
How do Mayan cultural traditions, land, and ecological knowledge shape sustainable communities in the Guatemalan highlands?
Every field experience, community visit, and reflection session investigates that question from a different angle. Students plant reeds along the lakeshore, work a milpa field, learn a ball game, and cook a meal. Morning and evening check-ins with trip leaders and nightly journaling connect each experience back to the driving question.
In-country field educators lead every site visit and reflection session.
Lenses of inquiry
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Itinerary at a glance
Eight Nights, Three Home Bases, One Question
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Safety and student support
Safety Makes Everything
Else Possible
Every Somos program runs on protocols developed and refined across 10+ years of Guatemala operations.
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About Somos Impact Travel
Relationships Built Over a Decade, Opened to School Groups
Somos Impact Travel creates partnership-based learning expeditions across Central America, combining field-based rigor with authentic community access for schools, universities, and organizations that take educational outcomes seriously.
The communities and field sites on this itinerary, Quixaya, the Wellkind nurseries, and the weaving cooperative and homestay families of San Juan La Laguna, are not available through conventional tour operators. Our NGO partners and community leaders are the teachers and the protagonists of every program, never the supporting cast.
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What people are saying
Guatemala in Students’ Own Words
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The itinerary
Day by Day
Impact partners
Local Leaders are the Teachers Here
Wellkind Guatemala
A grassroots environmental NGO working on reforestation, watershed restoration, and sustainable agriculture in indigenous communities around Lake Atitlán. Wellkind has planted over 200,000 trees since its founding in 2019, targets 50,000 trees per year, and maintains partnerships with 15+ indigenous communities, with tree survival rates above 80% through community ownership models.
Students work alongside indigenous field staff in the tree nursery and along the shoreline planting tul reeds, hear reforestation methodology directly from the people running it, and leave with a concrete understanding of what community-led conservation looks like in practice.
Quixaya
A 400-acre regenerative agriculture project run by 1,200 Kaqchikel Maya community members near Santiago Atitlán, accessible thanks to Wellkind's partnership with Somos. The community farms the milpa system, corn, beans, and squash grown together, on terraced volcanic slopes that have supported this region for generations.
Students spend a full day in Quixaya's fields, eat a meal grown and prepared by the community, and ask questions in Spanish directly to the farmers who run the project.
Academic and experiential outcomes
What Students Carry Home
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Pricing and logistics
Program Rates
Budget target
$3,950
per student, international airfare to and from Guatemala City included.
Custom pricing is developed based on final group size, specific inclusions, and airfare options. Adult leaders typically travel at a reduced rate or complimentary depending on group composition. A detailed cost breakdown is provided on program confirmation.
Included
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Not Included
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For Schools and Coordinators
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Deposit of $500 per guest reserves a place, is non-refundable, and is honored for life against any future Somos program. 50% of the balance is due 120 days before departure, with the remainder due 60 days before departure. Cancellations more than 90 days before departure receive a full refund excluding the deposit; the 90-day mark is the refund cutoff. Full terms are on the terms and conditions page.
Packing list
What to Bring
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Frequently asked questions
Questions We Hear Most
For Teachers and Administrators
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For Parents and Students
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Take the first step on your journey today.
This itinerary is a starting point. We will align every element with your curriculum goals, travel dates, and approach to experiential learning.