Why Guatemala?

I want to start off this post by thanking everyone who has donated towards my trip (if you would like to contribute, please check out the GoFundMe personal link I have listed on the right side of this blog post). No matter how little or much you donated, every little bit helps!

Now, if you’ve known me for awhile (and have had to put up with my obsession with the bleu, blanc, et rouge), you might be thinking, “Why Guatemala? They don’t speak French there!” Honestly, Guatemala wasn’t where I was thinking of going at first…

I first learned about the concept of volunteering abroad back in college just after I had gotten back from France and was looking of ways to travel again. I always thought it would be cool to volunteer in Morocco (yes, they do speak a little French there). When I was looking for organizations this past summer, I stumbled on IVHQ, or International Volunteer Headquarters, which offered programs with reasonable prices. After playing with my work schedule, I committed to a program with IVHQ… originally teaching kids how to play sports in Ghana. Before this point, I decided that I wanted to go to some place unlike I had ever been before and somewhere that I wouldn’t really think I would ever make a vacation destination out of. I was able to take off work for two weeks, which didn’t seem like it would do a trans-Atlantic flight to Africa justice. I started looking at IVHQ’s other programs and was drawn to the teaching English program in Guatemala, looking in to logistics of it, and then booked my flights to Guatemala City. As I started doing more and more research about the country, I started getting more and more excited.

Guatemala, a nation of 14 million people, shares its borders with four countries: Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. The country is sandwiched between the Gulf of Honduras and the Pacific Ocean, and its territorial claims are just about the size of Tennessee’s (this is one tiny country). It is filled with tropical jungles, mountains, and volcanoes. As far as tourism goes, there are a lot of cool places to see in the region, but Guatemala’s tourism industry is as developed as it could be. Some of the must-sees include Tikal, one of the most famous Mayan ruins sites, Lake Atitlan, the deepest lake in Central America, as well as Antigua, the city I will be staying in. Antigua is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it has many buildings inspired by Spanish architecture and has many churches in the European style. So yeah… reading more and more about Guatemala definitely hooked me on the idea of it. Plus, how many people do you know who have been to Guatemala?

Look for one more pre-departure post!