Mayan Hands - Fair Trade Crafts - Fair Trade Gifts - Central American Crafts - Guatemalan Fair Trade - Fair Trade Baskets

Wednesday, March 14 – Fly to Guatemala or meet group in Guatemala City, sleep Hotel Ciudad Vieja www.hotelciudadvieja.com

We will pick you up at the airport (until 7:30pm; after that the hotel will pick you up)

Activities that day are light and designed for arrivals at different times. Sleep in Hotel Ciudad Vieja.

Museo Ixchel in the morning, an internationally award winning museum of traditional Mayan textiles; Barbara Knoke, curator of the current (and amazing) embroidery exhibit will give us a special talk on the history and styles of embroidery in Guatemala. www.museoixchel.org

UPAVIM is a women’s cooperative in Guatemala City that has overcome tremendous odds (and always faces more) to build a medical clinic that also does community outreach, a soy project, a bakery, and most of all a sewing/handwork project that supports a K-6 Montessori school, day care, scholarships, and tutoring programs. The women of UPAVIM sew many of the products of Mayan Hands. We’ll have lunch with them, and then get a tour of their program. www.upavim.org

Mapa Relieve, the Relief Map, is nearly unique in the world. (Someone told me there was one other.) And very cool! It is a large – almost half an acre – outdoor concrete scale model of Guatemala completed in 1905! www.mapaenrelieve.org

Antigua, the heart of Guatemala – Google it and you will find more information than you can read. With some suggestions, you’ll be free to wander. Because it is a Friday during Lent, there will be a pre-Holy Week procession that evening. The events of Holy Week, of which you will get a small sample, are the most important of the year in Antigua, in Guatemala, and in much of Latin America.

Saturday, March 17 – Ruins at Iximche, Chichicastenango Mayan Inn www.mayaninn.com.gt

We’ll begin our trip into the Highlands with a visit to Iximche, near Tecpan, the site of the first capital of Guatemala. The story includes the Kaqchikel Empire (1600s), Pedro Alvarado, and the friendship and destruction that surrounded them. http://www.ciudadesmayas.com/ciudades-mayas-en-guatemala/iximche-en-tecpan.html

We’ll end the day in Chichicastenango, famous for its market on Thursdays and Sundays. Said by many to be the biggest craft market in Central America (I think there is only one other contender for the title), there is more than you will be able to see all day tomorrow. Chichi is also one of the principal spiritual centers for the Mayan people, and we will have at least one event to learn more about that.

Sunday, March 18 – Market in Chichicastenango, to Panajachel Hotel Dos Mundos www.hoteldosmundos.com

You can wake up early and wander around seeing the market get set up. (Actually, I recommend you start the night before.) Watch the process, return for breakfast, then go get lost amongst textiles, pottery, wood carvings, silver work, and lots more, both old and new. There is the public/tourist market that boggles the mind, then the local market which is also pretty intriguing. The hotel is behind the smaller of the Santo Tomas churches, easy to find. The larger of the Santo Tomas churches is one of Guatemala’s most famous for its combination of Catholicism and Mayan religions.

Mid-afternoon we will drive on down to Panajachel on the shores of Lake Atitlán, our home base for the next five nights. Pana is also a big market town, but every day so much calmer. Like Antigua, you can Google Panajachel and read more than you can absorb.

Breakfast early, then to the docks to take a boat across the lake to Santiago Atitlán. In the morning we will visit the Mayan Hands group there. The group has both backstrap weavers and small footloom weavers, and both will show us how they prepare the yarns and then weave. As with all the groups, we will hear amazing stories of their lives.

We’ll have lunch at the Senior Center of Sharing the Dream. www.sharingthedream.org Our hosts there will tell us the history of the center as well as its current support of ancient people from the area who mostly have no families to take care of them.

After lunch, as time permits, we will wander the market area and/or visit the church where an Oklahoman priest made history during the war. We need to head back across the lake before the afternoon winds pick up, by 3:30. The rest of the day and evening will be yours.

In the morning we will go visit the MH group in Vasconcelos. They weave, make bracelets, and most uniquely, make the felt animals, nativities, and other products we so happily sell. Great group, and sometimes they even do some traditional dances for us.

We’ll head back down the hill toward Pana, but stop to wander the Sololá market along the way. Very different from the others, I know people (Gringas) who say it is their favorite of all.

In the afternoon we will visit the Mayan Hands House, our center of activities in the Highlands. The house is modest, but important things happen there to help many Mayan women earn a living. www.mayanhands.org

This day is unplanned, to do whatever you want. There will be plenty of options for those who want to actively play, and good places to do nothing for those who want to NOT play for a little while. The hotel has a pool and lawn chairs, and sitting on the edge of the lake isn’t too bad either.

The group in Morales is right next to the group in Vasconcelos, so the route may feel familiar. This is another of our “best” groups, who among other things weave the recycled plastic bag products. They’ll show you the processes they go through for that as well as sharing the history of the group.

When we return to Pana we will go visit the Maya Women’s Center of Oxlajuj B’atz’ (Thirteen Threads), the education project started by Mayan Hands and Maya Traditions eight years ago. Inspiring, OB now works with hundreds of women in two dozen communities, and a group of their field workers as well as office staff will share with us their significant accomplishments. www.oxlajujbatz.org

We’ll take a leisurely drive back toward the city, and after lunch en route will go meet the women of Xeabaj, our number one basket makers. For years these women embroidered beautiful tshirts for MH, then suddenly tshirt sales stopped dead. After trying an assortment of other products and techniques, the women learned to make the pine needle baskets that are now our best selling product. As a result, the average income of the women has gone from $18/month to $103/month, one of our best success stories.

You can take a taxi from the hotel to the airport, or go on to explore more of this great country.

***As with everything in Guatemala, surprises abound, and it is a sure thing that something in this will change, likely without notice. Come with your sense of humor intact. ***

Anyone interested in visiting the Mayan ruins of Tikal can fly up and back in one day with a 4 hour guided tour of the ruins, or in two days with more time there. We can arrange this for you if you would like. A one day trip, complete, costs around $300.

For a flyer that highlights our upcoming adventure please visit: http://mayanhands.org/wordpress/?page_id=335

Extra notes:

Price is for one person in a double room; add $150 for single rooms. We can take up to 10 people, no more.

To get a 10% discount, show that you have sold over $1000 worth of Mayan Hands products, or bring a friend and get the discount on the second person's registration.

Part of the service we provide is that you will get several letters by email before you come with current weather reports, packing recommendations, emergency contact information for your families, etc.

On a scale of 0 to 5, this averages out to be about a 3 star trip, with moments of 4 (good food, comfortable hotels) and moments of 2 (you will be meeting poverty in its reality).

Security is always a question that comes up, and will be addressed before you come and while you are here. For now I will just say we will take good care of you and you will be safe.

Any of your registration fee that we don't spend on expenses will go into the Mayan Hands donation fund, which is used to buy school supplies for the women's children, provide emergency help in times of disaster, new product development, special events for the women, etc. Thank you for your contribution.

If you want to converse with someone who has taken a Mayan Hands trip before, you can write to any or all of the following:

Registration information:

Interested parties should e-mail info@mayanhands.org to request a Registration Form or call 301-515-5911. You can download a registration form directly from our site by Clicking on the Link: Mayan Hands Tour Registration Form. A 50% down payment will hold your space. The balance is due by February 1, 2012. Please make checks payable to Mayan Hands. The check and registration form should be sent to: