This trip is for anyone looking for more than just a touring experience.  It's a blend of meaningful service, travel and education. (check the learning outcomes below) It's for youth groups or school groups looking for an eye opening & bonding  missional experience. For men's or women's groups, for families just wanting to be helpful, while building unity and shared experience.

Some possible learning outcomes:

1. Contrasts...

• Rich ... Poor
• Spanish speaking cultures ... English speaking cultures
• Central American values ... North American values
• Catholic cultures ... Protestant cultures
• Village life ...as compared to city life
• Mayan (thousands of years old)...Spanish (500 years in Central America) ...
• Walled cultures ...vs open yards and homes (inner courtyard versus front veranda)

2. Spiritual values often learned from host families:

• Gratefulness
• Thankfulness
• Generosity
• Family love and commitment
• Beauty in simplicity
• Dependence upon God for the daily stuff

3. Some possible memorable experiences:

• Wonderful living experience with host families in a cool village on the side of a volcano.
• Visiting people groups in vastly different living situations!!
• Living on a coffee plantation... and getting a sense of its life and rhythms.
• Gorgeous settings & ageless beauty in old-world hotels.
• Antiqua. Spain crashes into Central America. Arches, fountains, cobblestone, Internet cafés. Awesome.
• The incredible experiences of building friendships with God's good people in active service.

4. Make it your own trip.  We will work with you to design the entire experience to meet your group goals.

• We will schedule in time for relationship & team building.
• We will bring in speakers and teachers.
• We will make time for you to impact and develop your group.
• We will design the work experience just for you. How many hours per day? Level of difficulty etc.
• Finally we will design the travel portion to open your eyes and hearts to the extraordinary world around us.

 

We offer you the fruits of our considerable travel experience in these past many years:

1. Contacts with great missional and volunteer organizations.
2. Contacts with individuals in business, mission and government who will help us gain a deeper understanding of the region and it's history.
3. We have discovered some of those "out of the way" hidden spots and experiences that are either a treat for the senses or an eye opener as we experience the country together.
4. We offer this as a guided experience... with hosts for the most part in reasonably good humor.
5. Our transportation providers are thoroughly safety conscious not only in their driving, but also in their knowledge of regional safety and day-to-day affairs of the country.

So call ... and let's plan something 1 (250) 412-2321

_____________________________________________________________________________ While it is our intention to make this a very helpful and practical service experience, it will be our pleasure to make this tour a huge learning experience for you and your group.   500 years of Spanish influence mixed with 2000 years of Mayan history form an incredible backdrop! We can arrange some evening discussions and learning experiences over coffee.  We'll bring in some interesting people for you to meet and enter into the country's history and politics.   We'll experience some eye-opening side trips ... and all in all, we will likely wonder who has received the most when we are done our service portion of the trip.  It will no doubt be "fodder" for discussion throughout the rest of theexperience.  We will arange an opportunity to climb Volcano Pacaya, a live volcano that presents an exhilarating experience.    The goal of these tours is to give you an experience that will be practical & helpful, "comfortable" (at times very comfortable), full of beauty and informative.  We want this to be a significant learning experience.    We'll design a schedule with you so as to leave you time to wander, meet interesting people, read, shop, drink great coffee and pursue a few of your own interests.  Our job is to bring you back both invigorated and relaxed! So come, let's do something wonderful together. We will never be quite the same again. __________________________________________________________________________________ Free (and of course optional) lessons & tutorials in photography. Wally Schmidt has been a professional photographer for over 30 years.  In the past few years, the digital revolution has been sweeping through the photographic experience and it will be Wally's job to help you photograph beautifully in the new mediums.  It does not take expensive equipment.  It's about "the Art of seeing". "It's not what kind of camera you have in front of you but rather what you are thinking behind the lens that really makes the difference in creating really beautiful pictures.  Often one can find wonderful photographs lurking in the viewfinder of very simple cameras.  How can we consistently capture those images?  This will be our task together." Click the thumbnails below to see photographs taken by previous tour travelers: Bird of Paradise Das Boat Das Wife Morning Light Evening Pelicans Furniture Delivery   ___________________________________________________________________________________