T-13 Days!

Archive India- SHIVA
Namaste and welcome to the Shiva blog! Carpe Diem staff training is in full swing here in sunny Portland and we couldn’t be more excited to meet the Shiva group in just a few short days.  We’re busy with itineraries and maps and guide books…oh and bikes and frisbees and tea shops, too…all so we can be prepared for an incredible semester.  Over the coming months this blog will be… Read More

Hey Maya students!

Archive Central America- MAYA
Hi Maya students! Greetings from Portland, Oregon! Nic and I are having a good time with all the staff during our training. We were running all over the city today on a scavenger hunt doing some bonding and learning of the city. We even ran into a music store to try to hone in on some skills before heading south in a couple of weeks. Nic has amazing skills so… Read More
Archive India- SHANTI
Namaste! 13 days!  In less than two weeks we will all be standing on Indian soil.  It might seem like a world away, and in many ways it is, but it’s moving closer all the time. Welcome to the blog.  While we are overseas this blog will be our link to family and friends at home.  It’s a place for them to follow our journey…just a small window into the… Read More

Ben Burns in the Peruvian Amazon with Camino Verde

Archive Latitudes Year
Take the twelve hour bus ride from Cusco to the small city of Puerto Maldonado, a semblance of concrete and shades of green — a town founded during the early 20th century Amazonian rubber boom, now in crescendo to industrialization and a rise in eco-tourism. Settled at the convergence of the Madre de Dios and Tambopata rivers, streets full of bustling motorcycles and loudspeakers selling bread and aguaje are the… Read More

Inspiring expansion

Archive Indigenous America
In 1992, at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 12 year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki delivered a passionate speech generative of the quality of moment when time seems to stand still, and cannot help but imagine a large booming voice ringing out with a command of, “LISTEN!”.  She spoke on behalf of a small group of children united in the struggle to defend our earth home.  Her message was a… Read More

Final “Official” Post

Archive South Pacific- WALKABOUT
  Well we’ve come to that point when the students wrap up their trip, they fly home, and the leaders regain a sense of what it’s like to exist without a troupe of amazing friends/students to hang with. ~Sigh~ The trip has ended and we’ve all sat back I’m sure to recall the last leg of the trip: What a fantastic way to end Australia. We flew from Adelaide to… Read More

Farewells and hellos

Archive South Pacific- HONGI
  In honor of the amazing, unforgettable past three months, I just wanted to share this picture of our beautiful family in our awesome MORP outfits that we got for each other 🙂 We sure are a good-looking group! We finished up our trip with delicious Indian food (per tradition), some good ol’ Essence and Hawk and Prey, and a few awesome reflections on the beach by candlelight. We also… Read More

Out of Africa

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
3 months of intentional travel and service-learning – check!  All of our students are currently in transit, on the way to their next adventures.  As leaders, it has been an absolute honor to learn with and from this extraordinary group of individuals.  To all of you at home, thank you so much for your support — the love of friends and family is invaluable while on the road.  We also… Read More

Every Adventure Must Come to an End

Archive South Pacific- HONGI
Hello all blog followers, First off, I would like to thank you for following our blog throughout the trip and for commenting and showing interest in our many adventures.  It has meant a lot to us 🙂 Now, on to the blog: Monday morning we woke up super early and headed out to Fitzroy Island!  We spent Monday diving and snorkeling in the GREAT BARRIER REEF! It was breath takingly… Read More

Final Blog Post EVER

Archive Central America- MAYA
We are all enjoying our last few hours on the beach together so of course no one wants to drag themselves to the computer to write a lot! But rest assured that we have been enjoying Roatan and all it has to offer. We are all now officially scuba certified, so a few of us took advantage by going on a night dive last night and/or a shipwreck dive this… Read More

Machu Picchu

Archive South America- INTI
Hello from Cuzco!! We have just arrived back to the Incan Capitol last night after an amazing (and completely exhausting) 5 day trek to Machu Picchu. It all started on Thursday night when our tour guide, the legendary Antonio walked in the door of our hostel to give us an overview for the next couple days and a warning to be ready at 6:00 am the next morning. So there … Read More

Bridge to Restoration

Archive Indigenous America
One of the more powerful days I experienced as a Carpe Diem educator was along our trek in Guatemala toward Lake Atitlan.  After a full day of hiking up and down and around gorgeous mountain landscapes and humble communities, we still had yet to arrive at our campsite.  Our group rustled through our packs to don our headlamps, and began a steep descent through lush tropical forest with weary legs… Read More

Scuba

Archive Central America- MAYA
It’s crazy that we are on our last adventure here in Roatan Honduras. The trip has been awesome and we have all learned so much. Now here we are in our final days getting scuba certified. We all love it so much thus far. We’ve already been on three dives and seen so much including three sea turtles! We also saw a green moray eel and many more fish and… Read More

Free Travel!

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Every semester towards the end of the trip all the Carpe students have 4 to 5 days of free travel that they themselves plan every aspect of, from accommodation to transportation to the activities. This semester we wanted to step outside the norm and were feeling very inspired by service so we decided to search for a service project that we could embark on instead of seeing a tourist attraction.… Read More

Chenrezig

Archive South Pacific- HONGI
What up family and friends!! It’s Zackariah here coming at you with this weeks blog update! First off I’d like to apologize for delaying in posting this weeks update, I take ownership for the delay. Now on to business. Last week we finished up our final day on the Groovy Grape Tour of the Outback. On Monday we went on an incredible morning hike threw the Kings Canyon. To start… Read More

The Outback

Archive South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Hello All, First off, I think the group will agree that Groovy Grape was definitely a memorable experience. Not just by the things we saw but also the people that we were with. Our tour guide, Leith, was quite the interesting character and full of energy! A couple mornings we were able to experience him with coffee… almost frightening how energetic he was. Anyways, we started off our journey in… Read More