The Story of My Deeply Meaningful Immersive Travel Experience to Guatemala
Guest post by Jeff Long
As far as I know, Mark Twain never visited Guatemala, but one of his travel quotes rings true about immersive travel:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
-Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad
Guatemalan hand-made figures
I have traveled with my family to Guatemala many times. In fact, we met our children there, became parents there, and have returned frequently as our children got older. Some of my favorite memories involve walking down cobblestone streets in Antigua, hand in hand with my kids, to and from Spanish language school, stopping for pastries and coffee after class. Traveling to Guatemala is the antidote for drab New England winters. The colors of Guatemala are so rich and vibrant that they overwhelm you. There is no better backdrop for a first cup of coffee! Every morning, birdsong gradually gives way to the low drum of traffic, conversation on the street, and the faint sound of marimbas and flutes.
In 2017, my family first visited the De La Gente office where we were given an enthusiastic overview of DLG’s mission to empower local coffee growers and producers, it was our first immersive travel experience with DLG. I remember thinking that this was something special. During our next trip, we took an afternoon coffee farm tour. We strolled to the fields at the volcano’s base, the ground occasionally rumbling beneath us. This was the first time I had ever seen an actual coffee tree. Since then, we have maintained a monthly DLG coffee subscription and begin every morning with a cup of freshly ground DLG coffee. As I write, I am finishing my third cup of De La Gente coffee—full-city roast from the Ija’tz cooperative in the Atitlán region—freshly ground about 20 minutes ago.
Coffee plantation in Antigua Guatemala
We hadn’t returned to Guatemala since the pandemic. So, when I received an email announcement about the DLG Immersion Trip and saw the itinerary, I jumped at the opportunity to go.
After an extremely early flight from Boston, my son and I were greeted at the airport by Luis and had a slow drive to Antigua through heavy Guatemala City traffic, past businesses, food stands, billboards, flanked by brightly painted chicken busses. We spent our first night in a beautiful, old hotel, our room next to a lush courtyard. We slept hard and awoke to birdsong and the call of albino peacocks preening on the roof. With coffee in hand, I made my way to a rooftop deck to call my wife, the birdsong growing ever louder as the sun came up and the volcano came into view. We had a traditional Guatemalan breakfast consisting of huevos revueltos (scrambled eggs with salsa), sausage, fresh cheese, plantains dipped in thick cream, refried black beans, a mound of melon, and of course, more coffee. After breakfast, we met the rest of our DLG team members and moved headquarters to Hotel Casa Antigua, conveniently located a couple blocks away from the Santa Catalina Arch.
Famous Santa Catalina Arch in Antigua Guatemala
Our team wandered around Parque Central, which was teeming with people preparing for one of many Easter processions. We positioned ourselves on the side of the road next to an immense alfombra, a carpet of brightly colored sawdust and flower petals. The crowd parted as a brass band rounded the corner followed by a steady procession of los cucuruchos or devotees clad in bright purple carrying processional floats and religious images over the alfombras. The Semana Santa (Holy Week) season is magical, seeming ancient and alive all at once. After lunch, we visited the museums attached to the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo and wandered the grounds watched by skeptical macaws. Later, we reconvened for a lively traditional dinner at a local restaurant where we exchanged life stories with our new DLG friends.
Carpet of brightly colored sawdust and flower petals
Procession during Semana Santa
On day two, we traveled to San Juan del Obispo to visit the Casa Museo Luis de Lión, the family home of Mayan poet and writer Luis de Lión who was “disappeared” during the civil war. The home serves as both a legacy to him and as place of hope. Lión’s poetry and imagery are beautifully captured on the walls with scenes of unraveling sweaters flying through space, oversized rabbits, cunning ants on leaf boats, tearstained fields, and seeds symbolizing resiliency. After a traditional lunch at the home of a local family, we had a coffee field tour with a DLG cooperative farmer. Standing between rows of coffee trees, we learned about the process of cultivating, harvesting, roasting, and distributing coffee and the challenges of adapting to climate change. We were invited to taste the coffee fruit or coffee berry straight off the tree, which is sweet and a little tannic but tastes nothing like my morning coffee. Our guide explained how the DLG business model helps to empower the growers and their families. I found this day to be the most meaningful day of the trip, installing images and ideas in my mind that I still think about months later.
Coffee producer from Antigua Region holding a coffee sack of 69 kg
On day three, we were divided into teams and taken to the Antigua Market for a scavenger hunt where we shopped for ingredients for a cooking class later in the afternoon. We wandered from vendor to vendor through this immense market, negotiating in embarrassingly limited Spanish, slowly filling our bags with items on our shopping list, and searching for must-have souvenirs. After a long lunch at a family home, we started to prepare pepián de pollo, a traditional chicken stew with roasted seeds and peppers, and fried plantains slathered in rich mole. Each of us worked in shifts to carefully roast each ingredient on an open stove. It was hot work, so a couple of us sorted coffee beans instead—a rhythmic, meditative task that in retrospect is best left to experts. As the sun set and the neighborhood lights came on, we took our seats at a long table outside and ate family style.
Produce vendor in Antigua Market
The next morning, we had a quick breakfast of pancakes, papaya, and pineapple and packed into a shuttle for a long ride to Panajachel, a town on the northeast shore of Lake Atitlán, which is surrounded by volcanoes. After checking into our hotel, we were encouraged to experience the town on our own. My son and I wandered down to the docks to look at the boats, drifting in and out of corner stores and souvenir kiosks. Along the way, we crossed paths with a couple of our new friends, and the four of us had an impromptu lunch at a pizza place. Later, one of our DLG guides served as translator to help my son get a much-needed haircut. My son and I then took a tuk-tuk, a three-wheeled motorcycle taxi, to nearby Santa Catarina Polopo where we had dinner with a friend who owns a B&B there.
On day five, our team walked to the ferry docks where we took a boat ride across the lake to San Juan la Laguna, a brilliantly colored village with Mayan craft shops, indigenous art collectives, souvenir shops, and numerous cafes. We meandered up a chalked roadway beneath strings of hovering umbrellas for a weaving tour at Asociación Kemo, a women-run cooperative featuring hand woven, naturally-dyed textiles—scarves, blouses, belts, tablecloths, and more. Several of us clumsily tried to spin cotton on spools and to weave using looms, and I found perfect gifts for my wife and daughter. Next, our guide took us to quaint coffee shop where we sipped iced lattes in a second-floor loft.
Lunch was at Alma De Colores, a casual dining restaurant that provides training and employment for people with disabilities. After a breezy ride back across the lake to Panajachel, we all enjoyed a little downtime before reconvening at Restaurante HuMaya, a Guatemalan fusion restaurant housed in Casa Cakchiquel, a villa that also houses a museum with photos, letters, and items from Che Guevera, a prior resident. The cuisine is deconstructed take on traditional Guatemalan fare and comes tied in banana leaves like parcels. It was fantastic!
Although we slept well, I woke too early at sunrise, so I hit the streets with my camera just as the streets began filling up with kids in school uniforms, delivery trucks, and scooters. Morning light in Guatemala is warm, trickles in at angles, and transforms even the most mundane scenes. Some of my favorite travel shots are from this stroll. As the shops started to open, I found a little café that proudly featured a placard with a steaming coffee cup. After breakfast, our group returned by shuttle to Antigua. As the road meandered away from Panajachel up the mountain road, brilliant flashes of the lake and volcanoes flickered through breaks in the trees. Returning to Hotel Casa Antigua, we were placed in a new room that overlooked a lush courtyard and took a short but much-needed nap with the sound of trickling water floating up from the fountain below.
Lake Atitlán view
My son and I had a leisurely lunch near Parque Central and then meandered to Nim Pot, a vast indoor market near the arch that contains textiles, figures, mascaras or masks, figures, t-shirts, and huipiles or traditional woven tunics. Mid-afternoon, we met our DLG team at a chocolate museum, Ek Chuah, a chocolate museum named for the Mayan god of cacao, where we had an enthusiastic, hands-on class about the history of chocolate. We got to taste traditional Mayan (a tea made sugar, chili, and water) and European hot chocolate (hot milk and sugar) and to make our own chocolate creations. Our final meal was at Restaurante Del Arco where I ordered the degustaciones (tasting) plate—a sample of many traditional Guatemalan dishes. After dinner, several of us hung out at a rooftop bar at Antigua Brewing Company, enjoying the lights of Antigua in the cool evening air. I had a locally brewed chocolate stout—a final toast to Ek Chuah and an amazing week.
Ripe coffee cherries
Often, I find that curated tours feel like visiting a zoo where I wander from exhibit to exhibit, feeling entertained but disconnected. This was entirely different. The DLG staff created a meaningful immersive travel experience well beyond a few mental postcards. I found the DLG staff to be engaging, passionate storytellers; however, a week barely begins to tell the story of this colorful, complicated country. I would enthusiastically recommend this experience to anyone looking for a unique, deeply meaningful travel experience.