Central America ALUMNUS BLOGS

Spring 2008 CAM Semester

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

panamanian adventure

alright. eileen and amelia reporting from team marshall.

we are now back in puerto viejo after the most incredible 2 days in panama. can't write much now but jon, clara, max, julia, eileen and marshall headed down to puerto viejo for free travel and then were joined by amelia as we headed down to bocas del toro in panama. the islands were incredibly beautiful and we all had one of the best days of our lives down there. we met all sorts of cool people, saw dolphins, snorkeled, had a beautiful boat ride, swam in pristine blue water and it just kept getting better.

that's all for now, but we are all wonderful (and getting tanner by the day!) now the whole group is reunited again and heading to san jose tomorrow to catch a flight early thursday morning for our last leg of the trip in roatan in honduras for scuba diving.

we can't wait!

we love and miss all of you!

love amelia, eileen and the rest of team marshall

 

 

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Group "Team Heather"

Greetings to those at home leading...lives that are not nearly as cool as ours! (hehe...kidding...sort of)

Abbie and Dannielle here, in Puerto Viejo Talamanca..(i think) Costa Rica! Thats all that´s important really. Its totally a Rastifarian beach town, with black and white sands and clear waters!

Today was our first full day here, which we rented bikes and went swimming!! Yay! "We"...aka Team Heather, which includes, Emily, Amelia (sort of, she left with Team Marshall to Panama today) Abbie and Dannielle, are having a wonderful time!

Taking a few days backwards... The turtle project was a sucess, we saw turtles!!! AND Mommy Abbie had her first baby turtle hatch and was released into the ocean on our watcH! It was all very exciting for all of us! Abbie named him Dominic, to which she comments "he was very cute". After a week of no sleep and many hours of midnight turtle sightings, we separated into two groups for FREE TRAVEL! Team Heather headed to Sarapiqui, the OTHER puerto viejo (Why they have two?...we don´t know). Heather used to live there, so we decided to travel somewhere that had some familiar grounds. Team Marshall headed straight to Puerto Viejo Talamanca, the one we are at now...but you will have to wait to hear from them about their own adventures!

As for us, in Sarapiqui, we went on a canopy tour (aka ZIP LINING!!!!!) AND white water rafting!! ALL IN THE SAME DAY! AHH EXCITEMENT.. *ahem* Abbie loves exclamation points and capitals.. It was very exicting, we saw a SLOTH! and vultures!! Yay wildlife.

That was our Friday! Then we decided to come to Puerto Viejo a day early! So, now we are here.... and its been really difficult NOT to spend all of our pennies here! Abbie and Dannielle...well lets just say our luggage will be a little heavier.. *wink*

Tomorrow we are going to explore a beach area that has potential to go snorkelling! (P.s. Abbie bought goggles already!! YAY GOGGLES).

*Sidenote: Dannielle and Eileen are in a friendly competition to see whose right big toenail will fall off first! Unfortunately, during the downhill parts of the trek that was weeks ago, did damage to our nails.. so they are heading..south? off?... into space? We aren´t really sure, but its really gross and feels funny when we go swimming. We will keep you posted about who wins.*

Moving on, On Tuesday, Team Heather will be spending the day in Cahuita! Not really sure what else we will be doing there, but we will let you know how it goes! Team Marshall will be returning from Panama on Tuesday as well, so we will be a whole group again with many stories to exchange as we swim, fly, jump, scuttle like a crab (*see Abbie*) and walk headfirst into our last week in Honduras *tears of excitement...and sadness.. and just for the sake of tears*

See you soon families!! We love you, talk of you often and miss you.. kind of...*tee hee*

Love Abbie and Dannielle xo

 

 

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Hola,

Just thought I´d put another photo up...this was during our time in Antigua, Guatemala ' some of us did a half day trip to Volcan Pacaya. Lava is so cool! We even got to roast marshmellows over lava! Hooray volcanos!

 

 

Friday, April 18, 2008

free internet

as usual, we are far too tardy with our blog posts, but we are just having such wonderful adventures, we cant possibly imagine spending time at a computer rather than out in the wonderful places of central america.

 

so. it`s been a while. we are currently in costa rica, but let`s backtrack for a little bit.

quick recap: the trek was awesome. we all emerged relatively unscathed, just some blisters and a few bumps, bruises and cuts. the final walk up to see the sun rise over lago atitlan was TOTALLY worth it and a wonderful way to end the trek. we then spent a nice week of meditation and yoga in san marcos at hotel la paz. nice and relaxing and a few adventures along the way. next we spent a day in antigua (where we probably should have updated the blog, but oh well...) and THEN we flew (very early, as usual) to NICARAGUA!!! we were very excited. we drove to laguna de apoyo and stayed at a beautiful hostel place called the monkey hut. we relaxed and played in the lake and in tubes, and had a wonderful few days there. julia, danielle and eileen even made some phenemonal banana and peanut m&m pancakes for breakfast.

then we got to spend a few hours in the lovely town of grenada where we had a fabulous meal as usual and found some gelato!! (much to eileen`s excitement...)

THEN

we headed out toward san juan del sur, or near there for a project. we stayed at a developing hostel called kokoro which is on the beach of playa maderas. incredible.

we made two solar powered ovens out of cob (which is a substance made of water, hay, dirt and sand) planted some lemongrass and did other fun things around tyler`s ranch. we also watched amazing sunsets over the pacific and even got in some surfing (at least marshall and heather did). we took a boat tour and we have a few boogie boarding experts in our midst.

when we left tyler`s we crossed the border by land into costa rica. and now here we are in san jose. it is all very exciting.

 

we leave early tomorrow morning for the turtle project where we will be patroling the beach through the night and hopefully seeing lots of turtles and turtles hatching. We’ll be at a very remote spot just north of batan on the eastern coast of costa rica for those of you who’d like to look at a map.

after that we’ll be doing free travel. we have decided to split up into two groups, one will travel down south to the beautiful caribbean beaches near kauita and puerto viejo while the rest will head inland for a wild adventure of ziplining and white water rafting. neither of us can go wrong. well meet up again in kauita for a few days and then head out to honduras for our final week. *tear*

missing you all and hopefully later we can get some more pictures up. and maybe a blog entry sooner next time, we’ll cross our fingers.

love,

eileen and danielle

 

 

Sunday, March 30, 2008

farewell quetzaltenango

Just a couple photos from the market at Chichicastenango...

We spent the night in chichi on Sat night and Sunday morning went shopping at the market. So many things to buy!! We all had successful shopping and are ready to start our trek to Lago Atitlan mañana. We'll be out walking until Wednesday, wish us luck!

 

 

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Cloud forest community work photos

The work site Day 1, before we started clearing land.

Hard at work, clearing the land with pick axes and hoes.

Walking to the store.

On the left, one of the two houses the group lived in.

Progress made during our stay!

 

 

Sunday, March 16, 2008

xela

Hola!!

this is blogmaster eileen writing from a fantastic internet cafe in quetzaltenango (or xela...pronounced shay luh). we finally made it. and oh what a few weeks it's been.

we're now officially in our homestays where we will be for the next two weeks. it was a slightly nervewracking affair for all, but now that we're in our homes, we're great. max john and i live very close to eachother in zone 3 of xela, which is quite fantastic as max and i live on either side of a chocobanano store which also sells helado (ice cream) and other delicious treats. life couldn't be better. food is very important to us all...can you tell??

 

last week was an incredible time for all of us. we stayed in a tiny remote village near coban in the cloud forest with no electricity and no running water. it was freezing at night but we got to do some satisfying construction work during the day which tired us out. it felt awesome because the village had wanted to construct a community center for a long time but never had the funds and we were finally able to make that possible for them with our donation and our manpower. the village was about 80 people full of a few families that lived quite a distance from eachother. i think being there made us all very appreciative and aware of how nice we live in the united states. the only mode of transportation in this village was our own two feet, so we definitely got lots of great exercise.

well, i think that about wraps it up for now in a quick update. i honestly couldn't be happier and i think everyone is on the same page as me. we are all very excited to be in a city and we're ready to tackle spanish school again.

 

 

Thursday, March 6, 2008

group photo at Tikal!

 

our lovely CAM group at the Mayan ruins of Tikal:-)

from left to right:

Heather, Emily, John, Clara, Danielle, Abby, Amelia, Eileen, Marshall, Julia, and Max

 

Monday, March 3, 2008

mangos + sandias = paradise

hola padres amigos y otras personas que nos gustan!

well, apparently we haven’t quite been too good about updates, but that is only because we are having an amazing time (to say the least). we are currently blogging from san andres, peten guatemala! we have been here for a week in this beautiful small but very steep and hilly (san francisco has nothing on san andres!) town. spanish school is going well, none of our tutors speak english, so it is a daily challenge we are rising to. san andres is a BEAUTIFUL town on the bluest lake, which is the second largest in guatemala. our days are filled with sun and swimming, except for when it rains, which is often. but no complaints from us, we’re happy as fish in a lake.

our group chemistry is muy bueno. we get along unbelievably well and the laughter has not stopped since the sfo airport. every day we all eat about 4 frozen and chocolate covered bananas which cost 1 quetzal which is about 14 cents. we. love. them. chocobananos. !!!!

before san andres, we were in the lovely village of ixobel, which is a 15 minute tuk-tuk ride outside of poptun. our time there was filled with digging a large hole, lagooning, painting, eating fabulous meals, and playing go fish with the local rascals. after that we spent a day walking around a beautiful touristy town called flores, which is on the other side of the lake from san andres. flores is very colorful and looks almost european. we went out to lunch and ended up out at sea, as we didnt know our meal would be floating away (this sentence doesn’t make sense, but it was a delicious lunch upon a raft).

this past weekend, we had an incredible experience at tikal. we woke up at 3 in the morning in order to get there (why so early, we´re not really sure...). but it was great. the ruins are incredible, and we enjoyed our time climbing to the highest points and looking out over the amazing selva (jungle).

we are looking forward to a day off from school on wednesday. we are planning a camping trip at another set of ruins and we cant wait to sleep under the stars and cook our own meals together for a night. which brings us to an important event that some of us experienced last friday. we had the opportunity to witness the butchering of a cow (we apologize for the bluntness) but we definitely all have a better appreciation for beef and will be eating the $3 tenderloin on our camping trip.

we can´t wait for the rest of our adventures. we promise we will TRY to write as soon as we can. but we think of you all often and miss you and love you

love, dannielle, amelia and eileen

 

 

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

bring it!

hey so guatemala has been great so far. everybody is doing well in the homestays and the families are great too. and the food! so good, you’d have to try it to believe it... luckily for me i have three more months of trying new dishes throughout central america.

today we continued work on a big hole. more fun than it sounds, especially since we were able to take a couple breaks in which the kids turned all the girls hair into a piece of art... consisting of flowers, flowers, and more flowers. i regretfully had to lay mine aside when i went to remove the TONS of dirt (not really tons, but we got really dirty) and now they are decorating my homestay room, quite nicely i might add.

im really looking forward to the spanish classes, since thats one of the core events of this trip, but also i just want to be able to speak better with the kids i see and the people i meet. you have no idea what its like when the faces of these little kids light up cause were talking in their language! but even so, theyre just as excited to play, which they do, vigorously, and for long periods of time.

 

tickle fights are common.

all in all things are great and I’m really looking forward to meeting more people and learning more things. but in the meantime i just plan to enjoy the next 3 months.

clarita (aka clara bowe)

 

 

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

All Aboard (and accounted for)

It's been a great evening for most, and thankfully everyone is through security and headed to the plane, soon-to-be southbound for Guatemala City! There were a few hiccups from last-minute flight changes and/or lost baggage, however EVERYONE made it with all of their luggage to the arms of the group thanks to some good quarterbacking by the leaders and a special shout to Eileen and Abigail. The Carpe Diem CAM group is on its way!

 

 

Thursday, February 7, 2008

!!!! ONE WEEK to GO!!!!

HOLA from Portland!

We are getting psyched to head off to Central America and meet all of you. This week we are getting our last details together and are excited to make phone calls to ya'll later this week. We hope that you have everything together, and if you have any last minute questions, please call the office, or we will do our best to answer them when we call you. We will see you in San Fran on the 12th and make sure you have your passport with you and not in your checked luggage. May sound dumb, but it happens. Enjoy your last weekend in the states, and we'll see ya soon.

Lots of Love,

Heather and Marshall