Join us in our return to Guatemala for a personal, transformational look at Indigenous Foodways!
Spend a week in the Guatemalan Highlands partnering with a local Indigenous women's organization (AMA) to learn about Maya culture, agriculture and their food practices while supporting AMA’s community projects, which foster women’s empowerment and build community resilience.
What do we mean by Foodways?
Foodways are the cultural, social, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food. Foodways often refers to the intersection of food in culture, traditions, and history. This trip explores these intersections through the Maya worldview (cosmovision) which is founded on the principles of balance, wholeness, and spirituality. This service trip is part of HSP’s ongoing effort to support indigenous communities in Guatemala and Arizona achieve food sovereignty.
A transformation trip like no other!
On this trip, you will:
Visit an organic coffee cooperative on the shores of the volcano-studded Lake Atitlan, a national treasure
Visit remote Maya communities, rarely experienced by tourists to work with a local family and mason to build smokeless stoves, transforming the family’s health and living environment
Participate in a Maya ceremony led by a Maya priest to experience Maya spirituality
Visit AMA’s agricultural development projects in the rural communities
Spend a night in AMA’s community center, in the most remote and highest point of the Highlands, a unique experience, harvesting corn, taking a sunrise walk to a local viewpoint, and bathe in a medicinal Maya sweat bath
Receive lectures on Maya culture and philosophy by prominent Maya scholars
Learn about the ancient art of backstrap weaving and AMA’s fairtrade textile enterprise, Pixan
Take a cookery class
OPTIONAL: Fly to the north to visit the ancient civilization of Tikal, a World Heritage Site
Cost: $1300 + airfare
Price includes all in country accommodation, private transport, food, cultural activities, translation, and guide. This trip also offers the option to visit Tikal for an additional cost.
