Another Title Adventure: Guatemala and Panama Here We Come!

 Since my Africa trip in July I've often found myself wondering, "What's at the top of my bucket list?" For years, seeing a leopard was on my list but that mission was finally accomplished after 13 trips to Africa. As I've begun a new career in the travel industry as a Guest Services Manager, my bucket list has shifted and my knowledge of booking last-minute trips has expanded significantly. Much to my surprise, it turns out that my mom and I are now one of those "last-minute bookings" with the company I work for. My mom decided that she wanted an adventure to celebrate her recent knee surgery, to make up for lost time due to the Covid lockdown, and get one step closer to reaching her goal of visiting 100 countries. She wanted to go somewhere close to home (i.e. no long Africa flights!) with fun things to do. I didn't want to take a lot of time off work so, in October, we were looking at planning a trip for Thanksgiving... yikes! After some initial back and forth of, "What about Sedona?" or "What about Seattle?", we decided on Central America. Initially, we were looking at going to Belize, Guatemala, and Panama, but with the flight schedule not being entirely back to normal post-Covid lockdown and with limited amount of time, flights to make those three countries work would've been impossible. So, we settled on Guatemala and Panama.

Pin points of where we'll be in Guatemala and Panama.

Naturally, we booked through the company I work at (my mom has used this company before, years ago, and I've never traveled with the company, so it's great from a work perspective for me to see the product firsthand). What did that mean for my job specifically? At the time of booking, my region of focus was custom and group Americas departures (I now focus on Africa, Middle East, and Europe group departures) and as the Guest Services Manager for the Americas at the time, I'd be managing our trip by collecting necessary paperwork, preparing the final itinerary, reconfirming the itinerary, and preparing all final documents.

My mom has always had a strong interest in visiting Guatemala, especially for the textiles. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to see Panama. As she usually does, my mom let me take the reins in our trip planning. Per usual, I did extensive research after hours and on the weekends to determine what we wanted to see, where we should eat, and how many days we should spend in each place (as well as researching all our flights). Knowing my mom's interests, I planned a trip I thought she'd love (and I hope she does love it, because when I showed her the final itinerary once confirmed, she had no changes to make to it!) 

Our next adventure takes us on a journey from colonial Antigua and the ancient ruins of Tikal to the Panama Canal and the Panamanian jungle. I've arranged walking tours, a coffee tour, a weaving demonstration, a sunrise hike, museum visits, a partial Panama Canal transit, and a visit to an indigenous village in Panama. With several 4:00 AM start times, this is not "vacation"-- this is a true Title adventure. We are jam-packing everything into an exciting 10 day itinerary, and I can't wait! With my new camera gear in tow, we're off in just a few days. Stay tuned...