Concrete is gray. That is one of the first things you notice when you arrive in Guatemala. Cinderblock is everywhere. Houses go up in concrete blocks, walls are built in concrete blocks, retaining walls are concrete blocks, and plenty of buildings seem to spend years in the strange unfinished state where you can still see exactly what they are made of. If you arrived by plane, drove out of Guatemala City and headed toward the rural communities around Lake Atitlán, you could b

We walked the city with our host family, played futból with their kids, and shared a pot of afternoon coffee while sharing stories, asking questions about each other’s lives and fumbling through broken second (or sometimes third) language barriers.

We have been spreading our roots here. Seeds of friendship have fallen on fertile Guatemalan ground! The last few years have been a grand experiment of self-examination and questioning lifestyles in general, and we have much food for thought. Let me set the stage: A standard home in rural Guatemala consists of tin or stone walls, a wood-burning stove of some sort, a foam mattress or two on the ground, and a table, some pots. The floor is either bare concrete or plain dirt, an

It’s a topic we’ve seen come up regularly on family travel groups, Worldschooling forums, etc. Facebook Mamas pleading for words of support after buying one-way tickets with their families away from home after selling everything with no easy way back! Here are some helpful tips we’ve put together to ensure travel is rewarding for every member of the family and that you don’t end up crawling back home, hating travel for the rest of your existence. Define your WHY. Every family