Guatemala Women
Leaders Immersion

The morning opens with meditation and group coaching — creating space to be fully present before we step into the field. After lunch, we travel to a nearby community to meet Indigenous women leaders who are strengthening their communities while preserving Mayan traditions and ancestral practices. These are women who lead without titles, without resources, and often without recognition — and whose clarity and conviction will redefine what you think leadership means. As the day draws to a close, we gather with an Indigenous Authority and spiritual leader, who will share the meaning and significance of nawales — the Mayan calendar’s spiritual guides — and prepare the group for tomorrow’s ceremony at the sacred lake.

This is a day you will carry with you for the rest of your life.

We travel to Laguna Chicabal — a sacred Maya lagoon nestled within the crater of a small, long-quiet volcano. From the park entrance, a 4×4 takes us to the summit, and then we descend on foot via a steep staircase of more than 500 steps to the lagoon below. The mist rises off the water. The silence is enormous.

A Maya spiritual guide leads a ceremony shaped by the intentions of our group — a practice of connection, gratitude, and release that has been held in this place for generations. You are not watching. You are participating. Afterward, there is time to walk quietly around the lagoon or begin the return at your own pace, letting the experience settle without rushing to interpret it. After lunch, we return to Xela for an afternoon of rest. The evening concludes with an exquisite dinner prepared by a local chef — a meal that feels like the land is feeding you one more time before you leave the highlands.

On our final morning in Xela, you have a choice. Some will visit a volcanic hot spring tucked deep in the mountains — a short but steep hike down to warm mineral pools surrounded by jungle and silence. Others will choose a slower morning: individual coaching with Stephanie, reflective journaling at the hotel, or walking to the woman-owned café for banana bread and a quiet hour with their own thoughts. Both paths are right. Both are part of the work.

After lunch, we depart for Antigua Guatemala — and the energy shifts. Where the highlands were vast and ancient, Antigua is intimate and layered: cobblestone streets flanked by colonial facades, volcanic peaks framing every vista, and a town that has been destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt with stubborn grace more times than anyone can count. Settle into the hacienda. Walk the streets as evening falls. Let a new rhythm find you.

Morning meditation and yoga open your body and mind for a day devoted to how leadership actually works — not in theory, but in practice. Following our group coaching session, you may join an optional walking tour of Antigua’s rich history, or choose quieter time for reflection and journaling at the hacienda or a nearby café.

At lunch, the group gathers at a local restaurant to learn the art of tortilla making — and to understand, through your own hands, how something that looks simple carries generations of skill, patience, and care. In the afternoon, we spend time with Indigenous women leaders who are working to strengthen collaboration among local organizations and reduce barriers to participation through collective action. Their model of leadership — relational, persistent, rooted in community rather than hierarchy — will challenge everything you thought you knew about influence. Dinner on an outdoor terrace, volcanoes in the distance, conversations that have no deadline.

On our final full day, following morning meditation and yoga, we visit a residential home and learn from the Executive Director and her team about their work supporting children who are survivors of sexual exploitation and trafficking. The realities are challenging. But what you will witness is not despair — it is care, dignity, and moments of startling joy held within heartbreaking circumstances. This is servant leadership at its most profound: the daily, unglamorous, courageous act of showing up for people the world would rather forget.

Afterward, we take time for facilitated reflection and processing — exploring how leadership, presence, and the ways we show up shape what others experience, particularly in difficult contexts. Following a group lunch, we visit a local coffee farm, where the afternoon unfolds among the gardens — walking, talking, learning how coffee moves from tree to cup, and continuing the conversations that have been building all week.

The evening begins with dinner at a beautifully restored former convent, and then we return to the hacienda for the closing ceremony. This is where the week’s threads are woven together. Where each woman speaks what has emerged. Where you articulate who you are becoming — not as a performance, but as a declaration. Under the Antigua sky, in a courtyard lit with candles, surrounded by women who have witnessed your journey, you will feel the ground shift beneath you. Not an earthquake. A foundation.

You wake on the morning of Día de los Muertos — the Day of the Dead — and Guatemala is already in motion. Marigolds are being laid on altars. Candles are being lit for the departed. Families are gathering to honor what has passed and celebrate what endures.

It is, without exaggeration, the perfect morning to leave.

Over a final breakfast together, the goodbyes come easily — because they are not really goodbyes. They are the beginning of a different kind of conversation, one that will continue in the months ahead through your post-immersion community. As you ride to the airport, the streets alive with color and remembrance, you carry with you something that Día de los Muertos understands better than any leadership book: that transformation requires both letting go and holding on. That the leader you are becoming was made possible by honoring the one you are leaving behind.

You will not be the same woman who arrived a week ago. And for the first time in a long time, that feels exactly right.

For those who wish to stay and experience Día de los Muertos celebrations in Antigua or Guatemala City, we can assist with extended lodging and logistics for an additional fee. It is an extraordinary experience and highly recommended.