Meet Your Daughter Somewhere New: Mother-daughter adventures in Guatemala
An adventure through Guatemala, where mothers and daughters discover there’s still plenty they don’t know about each other.
On your first morning in San Juan La Laguna, you’ll likely have little idea what’s going on. Someone will be talking to you in Spanish while a woman makes tortillas over an open flame, carrying on a conversation that seems to involve everyone in the room except you. A neighbour will wander in, the conversation will change, and whatever you thought was supposed to happen next will be interrupted. Your daughter might understand before you do, or she’ll stand beside you, equally confused, waiting for someone to explain why everyone is laughing.
What I’ve come to appreciate about hosting families at Culture Chalk is how much can happen when people don’t quite know what to do. Take Abuela Concepción’s kitchen, for example. You might be sitting beside your daughter, learning to make a bracelet while lunch cooks over the fire. You’re concentrating on your hands, unsure which thread goes where or why Abuela Concepción has just taken apart the last several minutes of your work. Your daughter is having her own difficulties, although she may be doing a better job of hiding them.
Then something clicks! You understand what Abuela Concepción has been showing you. A word you’ve heard several times makes sense, you catch a joke, and the threads begin to fall into place. The kitchen carries on around you, but you’re no longer quite so lost. I think there’s something in that experience that makes travelling with your daughter interesting.
The Person You Think You Know
You’ve known your daughter since day one. You comforted her when she was hurt and watched her become the person she is now. You remember the foods she refused to eat, the things that frightened her, and the stories she wanted before bed. You may even know the particular silence that means something is bothering her.
But familiarity can become its own limitation. Without meaning to, we put people into boxes: the shy one, the difficult one, the child who always needs help. We build a picture of someone and forget that she’s still changing. The little girl who needed help tying her shoes becomes someone with her own opinions, abilities, fears, and ambitions, and those changes don’t always arrive with an announcement.
Mothers change too, although their daughters don’t always get to see much of that. At home, Mom is busy being Mom, knowing where everything is and who is supposed to be where. There isn’t always much opportunity to discover what she’s like when she doesn’t know the answer, which is something Guatemala has a wonderful way of arranging.
Neither of You Knows What You’re Doing
One day you might be hiking up a mountain, discovering that your daughter has considerably more energy than you do. Or you’ll be waiting while she announces that she’s quite certain the trail should have ended twenty minutes ago. Another day you’ll be learning to weave, making tortillas, or struggling through a Spanish conversation with someone who is being remarkably patient.
There will be boats to catch, unfamiliar foods to try, and plans that don’t unfold as expected. The activity you were most excited about may be your daughter’s least favourite part of the day. You discover who gets frustrated first, who can laugh when things go wrong, and who turns out to be good at something neither of you has tried.
You may also discover that the person you’ve spent years encouraging and looking after is now the one encouraging you. The roles become a little more flexible when you’re two people trying to work something out together.
A Place That Doesn’t Arrange Itself Around You
Culture Chalk grew out of relationships with families here in San Juan La Laguna, and they’re still at the centre of what we do. When we visit a home to learn weaving or cooking, we’re entering a place where life is already happening. Children have homework, food needs preparing, and a grandmother might be teaching you while keeping half an eye on a pot over the fire.
There’s a tendency in tourism to arrange everything so neatly that visitors never have to wonder what’s happening. Someone explains the activity, provides the materials, takes a photograph, and sends you on your way. Good organization is important, and we spend plenty of time making sure our guests are comfortable and looked after. But I don’t want to organize all the life out of an experience.
Some of our best conversations have happened while waiting for something else. A neighbour begins telling a story and another person joins in with a completely different version. Before long, the original plan has become considerably less interesting than the conversation.
It takes time to become comfortable when you don’t understand every word. But you begin recognizing faces, remembering names, and greeting people who were strangers only a few days earlier.
Something similar can happen between mothers and daughters. At home, you know which subjects lead to arguments and which habits drive each other crazy. Sometimes you can predict the conversation before either person has opened her mouth. Then your daughter surprises you by being patient with someone who’s struggling, or you surprise her by agreeing to try something that scares you. You begin seeing each other without some of the assumptions you’ve been carrying for years.
Different Ages, Different Adventures
Our mother-daughter adventures in Guatemala welcome daughters at different stages of life because I don’t think there’s an age when mothers and daughters stop discovering things about one another.
A younger girl might remember making a friend or doing something brave with her mother beside her. A teenager might enjoy seeing her mother outside the routines of home, particularly when Mom needs help. An adult daughter might find room for conversations that are difficult to fit into lives filled with work, families, and responsibilities.
Not every pair will want the same things. Some are inseparable, while others love each other dearly but can barely agree on lunch. Some talk constantly; others are content to spend an afternoon together without saying much. There’s room for all of that.
The Stories You’ll Still Be Telling
Most families have stories that get told over and over: the disastrous attempt at cooking, the wrong turn that added an hour to the journey, or something ridiculous that nobody has been allowed to forget. Details become exaggerated, people disagree about what happened, and eventually the argument becomes part of the story.
Years from now, a photograph beside Lake Atitlán might remind you of the volcanoes. But it might also bring back a conversation on the boat, the woman who made you laugh, or Abuela Concepción patiently correcting your mistakes. You won’t necessarily know which moments will stay with you while they’re happening.
Our mother-daughter adventures bring families into the communities around Lake Atitlán to hike, cook, weave, learn, and spend time with people whose lives may look different from their own. We want you to see Guatemala and have the opportunity to see each other through the ordinary business of doing unfamiliar things together.
Perhaps, sitting in a kitchen with a half-finished bracelet, or walking back through the colourful streets of San Juan, you’ll realize that something has begun to make more sense. You came together, but you’ll each have met someone you thought you already knew.
Come meet your daughter somewhere new. Join us for a Culture Chalk mother-daughter adventure in Guatemala, and make a few stories of your own.
Meet Your Co-Host: Dr. Shawn Hondorp
This year's Mother-Daughter Guatemala Adventure is co-hosted by Dr. Shawn Hondorp, who will be traveling alongside her daughter, Claire, and her mother, Kathy. Three generations of women learning, exploring, and growing together. <3
Shawn is a psychologist, podcast host, and entrepreneur based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Much of her work focuses on helping women build deeper self-trust, move beyond self-doubt and people-pleasing, and create lives that feel authentic, meaningful, and fully alive.
For Shawn, this trip represents so much of what she values: curiosity, courage, connection, community, and the willingness to step outside what's familiar.
She's traveled extensively, including a recent trip to Lake Atitlán, and has always loved culturally immersive experiences. Similar to what is described above, some of her favorite travel memories come from the moments when things don't go according to plan. Those are often the moments when we learn the most, connect with others, and create stories we'll remember for years.
As a mother, Shawn wants Claire to experience different cultures, perspectives, and ways of living. But just as importantly, she wants to model what it looks like to be curious, brave, and willing to try something new, even when things feel uncomfortable or uncertain. She believes courage and self-trust aren't things we simply teach our children. They're things we practice alongside them.
Shawn is also passionate about women supporting women, across generations, cultures, and communities. She sees this experience as an opportunity to build meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships, learn from one another, and invest in the well-being of women and girls.
For Shawn, this trip isn't just about seeing a beautiful place. It's about creating space to connect more deeply with our daughters, discover new things about ourselves and each other, and practice living the values we hope to pass along to the next generation.
To check out Dr. Shawn's podcast, we had the privilege of speaking on it; click here!
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Written by Owen J. Dargatz
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