Rishikesh: Rafting and Relaxation.

Archive India- SHIVA
Greetings from Rishikesh, the world’s “capital for yoga,” not to mention some incredible white water rafting, mini cows and an array of other great wildlife. Rishikesh sits on the beautiful ganga, sparkling brilliantly and clean (as clean as it gets here in India) as it makes its way through this beautiful canyon. Yesterday the crew took a day trip down the river, rafting with a company called “Red Chilli.” Our… Read More

Home, home on the range..

Archive South Pacific- HONGI
   I find that sometimes it is those completely unplanned, random moments that stick with me throughout the trip. It might be squeezing into a horse trailer on the way to the farm or having a conversation about organic food with Graham (the owner) or even finding yourself in a cemetery on Halloween surrounded by people you’ve come to know and love. Clearly our time on the farm was indeed… Read More

Chiang Mai

Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
Greetings from Southeast Asia! The past week was spent in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We spent the week taking a variety of classes: thai cooking, jewelery making, Muay Thai (well we wanted to try it, but to keep a long story short, it was an epic fail). Our first night in Chiang Mai landed on Camille’s birthday, so to celebrate some of us went out to a… Read More

Hola from Leon!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Hello Friends and Family, this is Rachael blogging from Leon, Nicaragua. This last week or so has been busy since we left Chicacnab, in the cloud forest that you heard about from Kelley.From Chicacnab we hiked a couple miles down a muddy slippery mountain side (my feet just did not seem to want to stay under me) then took a bus to Coban where we spent the night, showered the… Read More

OPC

Archive South Pacific- WALKABOUT
After a night in the ghostown that was Wellington, we headed off on our 5hour bus ride to the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Center.  The week was spent doing some fun and unusual activities.  The first day we went streaming up a river, knee deep, for some of us short people waist deep, and for others who fell in head deep.  Without too many bumps and bruises, we made… Read More
Archive South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Hello friends and family,Sorry it’s taken so long to get our free travel blog out (which seems like forever ago now…) but it is finally here! After spending two magnificant days in Queenstown exploring the city and eating delicious Fergbergers and Fish &Chips;, the group decided to venture out on two different free travel options.Part of the group- MoMo and the minors (aka Simone, Samira, and Gabe)-decided to rent a… Read More

Just Some Wildlife, NBD

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
What’s up guys, it’s Emily again. That’s right, you haven’t gotten rid of me yet. And don’t think you’re going to, because for the rest of the trip, you’ll be hearing from me once a week. That’s seven blogs. Get excited. Anyway, to begin. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but we’ve encountered quite a bit of wildlife lately, starting in Chicacnab. After being assaulted by insects… Read More

A Picture is Worth a Thousands Words

Archive South America- INTI
Hello all! This past week we did a 4 day trek through Huascaran National Park in Peru. The highest altitute we reached was 15,500 feet. Although we had some cases of altitude sickness, we all had a great time. The pictures we took can describe how incredible it was better than we ever could with words. We spent the night in Huaraz and caught a bus to Lima in the… Read More

Silent Fall

Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
May all beings be happy…May all beings be free… May all beings have access to and ipods and facebook during vows of silence. (This last affirmation being our group’s request to modernize Buddhist practice). We just finished our 5 day intro to Buddhism and meditation retreat which ended in a full day of nobel silence. Nobel silence redefines silence as inadequately quiet, requiring abstinence from speaking, reading, writing, or attempts… Read More

Free Travel-Edirisa

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello from an internet cafe in Kabale! We’ve been doing so much, I have a lot to cover- Free travel was definitely a learning experience for all of us. Figuring out transportation was a bit of a challenge, but we ended up taking a public bus from Lake Nkuruba to Mbarara. The day was a stretch on our comfort zones but we all stuck together and worked things out. We… Read More

Ganges

Archive India- SHIVA
Yesterday I took a walk down the bank of the Ganges with Nelle, Jeff, and Amanda Ji. It was a walk that won’t leave me for a while. As we began our stroll we immediately came across a Bollywood style dance scene being filmed on the steps leading to a temple that sits on the edge of the river. Indian music was blasting from a speaker as ten dancers, half… Read More
Archive Central America- MAYA
Hello blog readers, Whitney and Lillie checking in on our last night in Xela. Today was our final day of classes and we had a party and a lovely goodbye ceremony with our teachers and staff of Casa Xelaju. It was also Jaime´s, one of the office workers, birthday so we had cake (!!!) and tostadas. They were both delicious and many of us went back for thirds (we´ll admit… Read More
Archive India- SHIVA
Varanasi There is so much to say. This is our sixth of nine days in this holy city on the Ganges. In that time, all remaining healthy members of the group got their first taste of Indian sickness (Dylan and Trevor). No need to worry parents, everyone is healthy now and stronger for their struggles with unfamiliar looking bowel movements. Please excuse the crudity. Meanwhile, we have all taken part… Read More
Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello! We’re stopped in Kabale to pick up some fruit at the market and some cookies at the bakery while en route to Edirisa’s Special Needs Education Center (SNEC). I’m sort of short on time but here’s some stuff everyone had to say: Chris- I got to teach 2 classes in primary school. I taught science in P3 and social studies in P4. I love the entire Edirisa program and… Read More

Doughnuts, Salsa, and Clouds

Archive Central America- MAYA
 Group on top of Santa Maria  San Andres  Market in Chi Chi  Santa Maria  ¨Look, it´s Mexico!¨ Santiaguito eruptingHello faithful viewers, Greg and Katrina here with news from the past week in Xela, Guatemala.  On Monday the 18th, after classes at Casa Xelaju, some of the group attended a Guatemalan history lecture from one of the Xelaju teachers, Victor, regarding the Guatemalan revolution. On Tuesday, we had classes in the… Read More
Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Sorry it has been so long since the last blog! We have been doing so much in these past 10 days that we have hardly had time to get into a town with internet. So since the last blog by Izzy we have completed a major part of our semester; the R&R; weekend ! Our R&R; weekend took place at one of the beautiful Crater Lakes called Lake Nkuruba where… Read More

Chicacnob!!!!!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Greetings from Coban….Kelley here!! Let me start this weeks blog entry by saying everyone is alive and well after our week in the cloud forrest. (Dirty, smelly, and cold…but alive, and happy to be alive!) After our super relaxing week in San Marcos getting in touch with our spiritual, creative sides we had a bit of a change of pace hiking to a remote village with no plumbing or electricity.… Read More

Last Week in Ecuador

Archive South America- INTI
Hi Everybody, We last left off in Otavalo and so much has happened since then. Last time we blogged we were about to go to Cuicoche (thats how you actually spell it) a crater lake right outside of Otavalo. To hike around the whole thing it takes a number of hours so we only hiked a portion of it to get spectacular views. After hiking for an hour or so… Read More

Learning to Fly

Archive South Pacific- HONGI
There is nothing more unsettling to me than being surprised by a gigantic winged insect whilst visiting the restroom. On an average night, I would have responded with A. a scream, B. an immediate retreat, C. the throwing of something heavy at the intruder, or D. some combination of the three. On our first night at the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Center, however, I encountered a bug that made… Read More