Just three years into his first term in the Senate, Paul has talked openly about running for president in 2016, giving speeches at GOP party conventions in Texas, Iowa and Idaho, attending a reunion of top supporters of 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and sitting alongside influential conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch at the Kentucky Derby.

But Paul is planning a summer trip that appears more focused on his past than on his future, one that bypasses Iowa, New Hampshire and the other key nomination states.

When Congress adjourns for a five-week recess in August, Paul plans to join a medical mission to Guatemala, where he will team up with eye surgeons, nurses and technicians from the University of Utah to visit Salamá, a small manufacturing and commercial center nestled between two mountain ranges 3,000 feet above sea level, north of Guatemala City.