Home of the Golden Temple

Archive India- SHIVA
Hi Everyone, Tiana here, ready to give you all the 411 on our time in Amritsar; which wasn’t much… and note that most of our time spent in Amritsar was mostly free wandering on our own, but I will do my best to include everyone. Lets’ see… We were there for a total of 3 days and were lucky enough to find a decent hotel right around the corner from… Read More

Walk to “Lake Manyara”

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello again! Yesterday was an intense one. We set out at 8:15 am for a walking safari to Lake Manyara. We can see the lake from our boma, and a bunch of us were excited to finally walk out to it. We were led out by one of the leaders of our boma, “Emseea” (I’m not sure how to spell it…) He showed us different plants and natural medicines, including… Read More

Maasai =D

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
We’ve finally begun our 10 days with a Maasai tribe in Esilalei, Tanzania! I’m sorry it’s been awhile since the last blog, but things have been pretty rustic lately. After leaving Kigali, we landed in Arusha, Tanzania full of excitement. Especially me and Becca, who were jumping out of our plane seats when we saw the familiar airport. We stayed one night at an incredible hotel, complete with a swimming… Read More
Archive Central America- MAYA
The clock is ticking and grupo maya is not wasting anytime. This radical group of motivated young adults have just made yet another transition. It is no secret that many of us left our hearts in san juan del sur either in the waves, the welcoming community, or parque maderas (a center for art, ecology, sustainability and natural medicine) itself. Its mary and hannah reporting here from our shnazy hostel… Read More

Sydney

Archive South Pacific- WALKABOUT
G’day Mates!     Unfortunately after spending a wonderful time at the Maori, it came to say goodbyes.  With tears and laughter, we departed Otoko Pa by taking a four hour bus ride to Wellington.  Once we arrived to Wellington, we as a group decided that we were going to save money and stay the night at the train station to catch an extremely early flight the following morning.  But little did we… Read More

Blooooooooooooooooooooooooog

Archive South Pacific- HONGI
From the farm, our group travelled to Te Anau for the beginning of our free travel. For our first activity, we hiked a portion of the Kepler Track that led to one of the highest peaks bordering Lake Te Anau. It took all day but the view from the top was completely worth the strenuous walk. The first portion of the hike ended at a hut near the summmit where… Read More
Archive India- SHIVA
Dear avid readers, Hello. I am currently faced with the task of blogging about our week at the Ashram in under 15 minutes so I can get to the Pakistani boarder in time for the show. And even I was stricken by the sheer weirdness of that last sentence. The week took on completely different meanings for each one of us as we all trekked through mountains and walked across… Read More
Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Greetings yet again from the city of Leon as we wind up week two in this beautiful ciudad de Nicaragaua. Youve already heard from Becca–alright from the open door to my right i just witnessed my first Nicaraguan ¨ding dong ditch¨. I hope everyone else can find this as ammusing as I am, proof that where ever you are life is more similiar then different (atleast in my opinion), and… Read More

Remembering Rishikesh….. Ahhhhhh yaaaaa….

Archive India- SHIVA
Hello!!!!! It’s been a while! Your blogger today will be me, Trevor Jermasek. This is my first blog on our trip. Actually, I think this could be my first time ever posting a blog. Period. So please please, bear with me, I’m trying. And I know that Amanda already put a little somethin somethin down about are travels up in those holy hills, and i cant say that I’ll do… Read More

Tienes Que Caminar

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Sup guys, it´s Emily. Again. In light of us having about a month left in Central America, I thought I´d share an important lesson that I´ve learned the hard way: that no matter where you are, who you´re with, or what you´re doing, you have to walk.It seems simple, the act of walking. You put one foot in front of the other, you move yourself forward through space and time.… Read More

Aldea Yanapay School

Archive South America- INTI
Dearest parientes y amigos, This week we started volunteering with an awesome and inspiring organization called Aldea Yanapay. The organization was started by a man named Yuri and has been successfully surviving for at least half a decade. Its purpose is to act as a social project for the children without opportunities of Cuzco. It was created for the kids and as Yuri says, the kids are always and forever… Read More

Lasting Relations

Archive South America- INTI
As Carpe Diem is an ongoing program, it is very important to us to maintain the friendships we make along the way. While we may be done with our volunteer work at the end of our stay, every one of the volunteer groups we help labors on in their efforts to make this world a better place. For this reason we would like to revisit a couple of these wonderful… Read More

Weekend in the Sacred Valley

Archive South America- INTI
Hey friends and family! This weekend we got the awesome opportunity to visit the ancient Sacred Valley. The place is brimming with visual history in the form of ruins. We left in a private bus around 9 in the morning on Saturday. Our first Incan destination was Moray. Moray consists of circular terrace ruins with a mystery surrounding their purpose. Some suppose that it was used as a lab to… Read More

Rotorua and Maori Restoration Project

Archive South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Howdy yall!     We have had a very busy week since you last heard from us.  We started off in Rotorua relaxing before we took off for the Maori restoration project.  During that time we went zorbing.  For those of you that don’t know what zorbing is, it’s where individuals leap into a giant hampster ball spritzed with water and are pushed down a hill.  Silly boys, Ross and Penrod forced… Read More

Genocide, Culture, and Quotes

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
It’s been an intense couple of days. On Friday, we all took our time to see the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The museum was really interesting to say the least. It walks you through the history of Rwanda in relation to the 1994 genocide. There was so much information is was nearly impossible to process it all in one sitting. Even today, a people are going back for round two. Yesterday,… Read More
Archive Central America- MAYA
Hola amigos! Greg and Bridget here with the word on the past week of our travels. We had our three day trek last weekend and celebrated Shayna’s birthday on the second day with vegan chocolate cake that Bridget and Jasmine baked. The trek was AMAZING! We walked 24 miles total up and down mountains through rivers leaving blood sweat and tears behind.  We stayed in rural villages each night sleeping… Read More

¡Spanish School, Sandboarding y Más!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
¡Hola amigos y familia! This is Becca reporting from a scorching hot but beautiful León. It has been a very busy week, what with adjusting to a new location, but I think everyone has officially settled in and is having a great time!Like Rachael said, we began our time in León by meeting our families. Unlike the homestay situation in Xela, the majority of us are staying two to a… Read More

The City of the Incas

Archive South America- INTI
Hey Friends and Family, Unfortunately, we´ve been having trouble putting up pictures of our recent endeavors, which truly pains us because we´ve wanted to share our trek with you. As an alternative, we asked everyone to tell us their most beautiful moment on the trek to try and paint as clear of a picture for ya´ll as we can. After we got everyone´s responses, we figured out the blog. Enjoy!… Read More

Goodbye Uganda, Hello Rwanda!

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
We arrived in Rwanda yesterday (some of us by foot!) and drove into Kigali. Of course, it wasn’t a completely hassle-free experience. Chris was stopped at the Rwandan entrance. The man pointed at his signature in his passport, and the one on the form and said that the difference in the tilt of the “C” was suspicious. That, piled on top of the fact that Chris has cut his hair… Read More