About the Program

Many participants travel to Guatemala to study Spanish at the Academia Antigüeña in Antigua, Guatemala and/or the Cooperativa School in San Pedro La Laguna on the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlán. You'll live with host families and enjoy a wide range of cultural activities including traditional cooking classes, salsa dance lessons, volcano hikes, and village visits. Trip extensions and excursions to other parts of Guatemala and neighboring countries will be possible as will additional weeks of study and volunteerism and alternate schools and locations.

This is independent travel study so you pick the dates; classes typically begin on Mondays. You'll study for 3 or 4 hours per day either morning or afternoon and can register for 1 to 4 weeks and receive 60 Clock Hours/PDUs or 6 quarter credits (equivalent of 4 semester credits) per week.


PLEASE NOTE: The Heritage Institute courses receive Continuing Education Quarter Credits awarded by Antioch University Seattle at the 400 and 500 levels. Call 800.445.1305 or log onto The Heritage Institute’s website policies page for more information.

www.hol.edu


For information about similar programs in other Latin American countries as well as credit for volunteer and cultural learning projects, click here or on the bottom link, below. Contact information is available on the Registration Form.
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To view the blog from our 2009 group trip to Guatemala, scroll to the Blog Archive (lower right) and click the 1st post you want to see (they're listed bottom to top chronologically, you may need to click the arrow by July to see the earliest ones). Click "Newer Post" at the bottom of each post to view the next one.

The group arrives!

Another long, interesting day:
I had a wonderful buffet breakfast at Fernando’s that included lots of fruit and typical accompaniments plus pancakes plus incredible eggs with Portobello mushrooms (PHOTO 1) then headed to the airport after dropping my bags at my host family’s home. My shuttle introduced me to the driver, gave me his cell phone number, and told me to borrow a phone from “the man with no legs” when the group was ready. The group showed (PHOTO 2), the driver arrived without need for the elusive disabled man, BUT….the van wasn’t big enough for all of us. 10 headed out to Antigua and homestays and the othe 4 of us grabbed a shuttle which took us to the school where - gratefully - Olga was there to hop in and direct the driver to our homes (PHOTO 3: Perry at his doorstep).

We met at the square at 2pm and, over the course of 4 hours, found the necessary purified water, TP, towels, phone cards, and meals (PHOTO 4: Mary Ann, Judy, Carla, Jeannie, Sharon, and Diana) to meet our needs, not in 1 group or necessarily in that order. We also took in the sights and sounds of Antigua (PHOTO 5: Maya mom and babe) until our tired feet took us home. HAPPY TRAILS!