Guatemala is a great place to visit. Easy flights from the US. There are two chabad houses. One is at San Pedro on Lake Atitlan. Israeli backpacker chabad with a restaurant and shabbat meals and services. Very inexpensive. The other chabad is in Guatemala City and they have meals and sophisticated bakery. Quite expensive. It looks like they deliver meals around Guatemala if necessary. There are two brands of milk that are sold everywhere that are kosher. Dos Pinos and Lala. Not much else kosher. The chabad is very close to the airport so theoretically you could stop there first and get stocked up . There also might be a kosher market but I couldnt locate it.
The weather, sites and people are great. Didnt feel unsafe or feel that people were trying to rip us off. Besides lake Atitlan which is very nice we also visited Antigua and Tikal. All are excellant and worth visiting. Independent travel is easy especially if someone is able to speak some Spanish. If not then work through someone and book in advance. Your hotel can also organize all your tours and transportation the day before. There are many tour companies catering to the backpacker crowd and up. So lots of choices. Guatemala is probably where Costa Rica was 15 years ago.
