Trip turns into struggle to get back to Canada
School group led by Kelowna teacher safe back home after Guatemalan adventure cut short by COVID-19
Of course, if he could do it again, he would do it differently. But when Kelowna teacher Mark McGrath and his wife, Karen, led students to Guatemala on March 12, they had no idea borders would be slammed shut and the group would be sent on a wild goose chase to get out.
“Oh yeah, if I knew then what I know now, we wouldn’t have made the trip in the first place,” said McGrath.
“It ended up being a dramatically different adventure than the one we set out on. The original plan was always that the 12 kids would journal the whole way. So, those journals are going to be worth a lifetime of stories from the COVID 2020 trip they’ll never forget.”
While the novel coronavirus was causing angst worldwide on March 12, there were no cases in Central America, so the group was cleared to go by Traditional Learning Academy, the Surreybased online school McGrath works for, and their hosts in Guatemala.
After the group arrived in Guatemala City and travelled by bus to the tiny village of Lahato in the mountains, the trip went as planned for a couple of days. The group helped build a homeless shelter and paint a school, and picked coffee beans and made and ate chicken tortillas with a local family.
On March 15, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei announced the country would go on COVID-19 shutdown immediately, meaning all flights in and out of the country stopped.
The school group was sent scrambling.
They first rode the group’s bus to Atatlan to stay in a hotel for a couple of days because villagers in Lahato were going into quarantine.
In touch with the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala City, the group was advised to stay put while trying to figure out flights to get back to Canada.
Fearing they would be quarantined in the hotel, the group was on the move again, this time to a hotel in Antigua, where they could use all the facilities, including a restaurant and pool.
However, new COVID rules meant the group was too big to gather in its bus, so small groups in Ubers made the transfer.
When movement started to be confined at the hotel in Antigua, the group decided to travel to Belize and try to get a flight out to Canada or the U.S. from there.
Luckily, Victoria travel agent Norman Schaefer from Far and Away Adventures was on the trip with his son, who studies with Traditional Learning Academy.
Schaefer frantically made arrangements for the Belize escape, but had to change tack quickly when that country’s borders also closed.
By this time, the Canadian Embassy and Guatemalan government arranged for permits for the group to travel in two vans and cross the border into Mexico to get flights back home.
“By then, Guatemala had instituted a 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew, so the drivers of our vans had to be back at home by 4 p.m. after driving us the five hours to the Mexican border,” said McGrath.
“That meant we had to leave in the dark at 4 a.m., wearing masks and gloves. We were stopped by military and police with machine-guns at two roadblocks to have our permits and temperatures checked. I wouldn’t say we were panicked, but we were anxious, for sure.”
At the El Carmen border crossing, it took three hours to clear customs as permits and temperatures were scrutinized again.
The group crossed into Tapachula, Mexico, on March 23.
“We were never sure we’d get into Mexico, so this was a huge relief,” said McGrath.
“The Canadian Embassy told us we were taking a risk, but the only other option at that point was waiting for a rescue flight from Guatemala to Montreal, which had no scheduled date.”
The rescue flight eventually did happen March 27, three days after the group made it back to Canada safe and sound.
As soon as the group crossed into Mexico, Schaefer frantically made arrangements for flights from Tapachula to Mexico City on March 23, and from Mexico City to San Francisco and then Vancouver and Kelowna on March 24.
“The plane from Mexico City to San Francisco at 5 a.m. was almost empty. It was eerie,” said McGrath.
“By the time we got to Vancouver, it had been 40 hours of flights and waiting.”
Smartphones with internet connections seemed to save the trip from spiralling into disarray.
Ever-changing travel plans were made via smartphone, and kids kept in contact with their concerned parents by text.
“Parents were very trusting, and the students were the most mature Grade 10s, 11s and 12s I’ve ever encountered,” said McGrath. “They really stepped up to the situation.”