General Information
Health Concerns
Volunteering at the Wild Animal Rescue Center in Petén
Volunteering at Parque Hawaii
Environmental education internships
Research and Internships
Volunteer Handbook (PDF)
Volunteer registration form
Antigua
Most volunteers who come to Guatemala first go to Antigua, a beautiful colonial city 45 minutes from Guatemala City with all the tourist amenities. Mini-vans from the airport will take you there for @ $10. Antigua is a nice place to get acclimated and stage your trips to other parts of the country. There are a lot of options for lodging of all price ranges. Check with your guidebook.
Lodging in Guatemala
If your flight arrives in Guatemala City at night, you might consider staying at the Dos Lunas B & B near the airport for $12. Includes airport pickup. Contact Lorena at: info@hoteldoslunas.com, doslunas@itelgua.com or lorena@intelnet.net.gt or 2334-5264.
Security
We have had no serious security problems at either of our project sites and we would like to keep it that way! The few security problems our volunteers have experienced have been as a result of their own carelessness. Check with your local embassy or travel agency about the security situation in Guatemala. The US State Department travel advisory at http://travel.state.gov/guatemala.html also offers helpful tips, but tends to overexaggerate problems in Guatemala.
Common sense goes a long way in avoiding serious problems in Guatemala and other countries. Here are some suggestions for safer travel:
Staying in contact with friends and family
Please make arrangements to contact your friends and family at home on a regular basis. It’s a waste of our staff’s time to have to deal with “emergency” calls from concerned parents and relatives. The telephone at the Rescue Center is 5787-0961 ???. Dr. Martinez’s cell phone number is 5208-0968. There are internet cafes in Flores, 10 minutes away. If your friends or relatives want to keep in touch with you by regular mail, they can send letters or packages to the ARCAS library (Biblioteca ARCAS, Barrio La Ermita, San Benito, Petén, Guatemala), but we don’t recommend sending items of value. Please don’t send letters or care packages to our Miami PO Box as this service is very expensive and we will have to charge you for it.
It´s a good idea to bring your cell phone from home if it has roaming, or rent or buy a cheap one when you get to Guatemala.
Climate
Guatemala has been referred to as the land of eternal spring. However, for Petén and Pacific coastal plain, this can be misleading. It can often be quite hot and humid, equivalent to steamy summers’ day in temperate zones, though the jungle surrounding the Rescue Center tends to keep things tolerable and at night, it can often even be quite cool. Here is a quick summary of the weather conditions;
Rainiest months: July to December
Coldest months: December to February (everything’s relative)
Hottest months: April to June
The humidity is high most of the year with the exception of the cooler months. In the hotter months, be prepared with lots of insect repellent, tropical antihistamines and lightweight, quick drying clothing. In Dec-Feb, it can be cooler at night and we recommend that you bring a very light sleeping bag. blanket or sweater.
Health Concerns
There is malaria and dengue fever in the both Petén and Hawaii but with usual precautions such as repellent and mosquito nets you shouldn’t expect to catch either and most travelers don’t bring prophylactic medicine. Rabies exists (but rarely, we’ve never had a case at the Rescue Center.) in Guatemala, and likewise, many travelers choose not to go to the expense and trouble of getting vaccinated. In any case, conditions change and we are not qualified to give advice on these subjects so we recommend that you check with your doctor or go to an international health clinic before coming to Guatemala. At a minimum, you should bring antibiotic cream, bandaids, sunburn cream, aspirin and repellent. The volunteer dormitories are screened in, but many volunteers bring their own mosquito nets as an added precaution. There is a hospital and several private clinics in the Flores-Santa Elena-San Benito area. In Hawaii, there is a local clinic, but the closest hospital is roughly 2 hours away in Esquintla.
For phone numbers or e-mails of former volunteers in your area of the world to whom you can talk to about their experiences at ARCAS, please write us.
Here is more specific information each ARCAS volunteer program:
Volunteering at the Rescue Center in Petén