Guatemala Travel and Etiquette

{Posted with permission from Richard Stollberg, Marcy McKay and Bea Evans}

**Please note: The Guide has been updated with corrections 3/16/2004. It is also advisable to visit http://travel.state.gov before making the trip.**

Following a recent thread on the Biglist (around January) regarding
etiquette while traveling, some of us Listeras and Listeros got together
and created a booklet "Guatemala Travel and Etiquette: A Guide for Adoptive
Parents." It covers:
- What to Know Before You Go
- Planning Your Trip to Guatemala
- What to Pack
- Etiquette
- The Transition
- Entertaining Children
- The Passport and Visa
- The Embassy Appointment
- Departing Guatemala

The pdf version is now available online on the Guatadopt web site at:
http://www.guatadopt.com/documents/travelguide.pdf

We invite you to use and disseminate this guide! You may download,
photocopy, and distribute it without our written permission, but we ask
that you include the title and acknowledgements pages when you do. Our
goal in writing this guide is to promote informed and prepared travel, and
cultural sensitivity, so PLEASE forward this URL to your agency, to your
parent support groups, and to anyone you know who will be traveling.

If you have comments on the Guide, you are welcome to submit them through:
http://www.guatadopt.com/CSMailto/forms/GuideComments.htm

The Authors wish to thank both the Latin America Parents Association of New
York (LAPA-NY) for permission to use their "Guidelines for
Behavior While Visiting Another Culture," and Adoption Associates Inc.,
(http://www.adoptassoc.com, Jennison, MI, 616-667-0677) for permission to
use material from "Adoption Travel for Smarties." This popular and
extensive guide covers China and Russia as well as Guatemala, and is
available for order through AAI.

We thank Stevan Whitehead and Lisa Smith for offering suggestions and
allowing us to publicize the guide on this list, as well as list members
who have offered travel and etiquette suggestions "along the way." Thanks
also to our reviewers, Jane Nahirny, Anita Rodriguez, Leticia Jaime, and
Marjorie Koplowitz.

Finally, we owe a SPECIAL debt of gratitude to Kelly Caldwell, owner of
Guatemala Adoption Information and News (Guatadopt), for very graciously
allowing us make her site the guide's "home." She far exceeded our
expectations by welcoming the guide with open arms and working with us on
technical issues. She makes the difficult look simple.

The Authors
Marcy McKay
Bea Evans
Richard Stollberg