Fall FANZ Kick-Off

Dear Fanz Hongi 2010 crew:  Dimitrios, Kyle, Nina, Laura, Alex, Nick, Alexandra, Greg, Michelle, Michael and Catherine. We hope you have been enjoying the last gasps of summer and are psyched for our South Pacific adventure.   We leave in two days! This is our group trip blog, a site where all of your friends and family will be able to keep track of our movements and experiences over the… Read More

Stop…Hammer Time!

Hola Todos!  Bienvenidos a nuestra blog! We are so excited to be leading your semester in Central America.  We’ve now talked to all of you on the phone and in addition to hammering home some important points about the semester we’ve gotten a brief glimpse into the make up of the group.  From our short conversations with each of you, we know that we will be a fantastic team and… Read More

WELCOME!

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Sawadeecap or Sawadeecah (for the females)! With less than a week remaining before we depart for our semester in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, we feel an overwhelming excitement to meet you and begin our adventure together! As we sit at the Carpe Diem Headquarters in Portland trying… Read More

Godzilla Attacks Portland; Students Flee to East Africa

Karibu – Zoe, Taylor, Rebecca, Charlotte, Will, Izzy, Alexa, Chris, Victoria, and Jessica! Welcome! This is the blog through which you’ll be sharing your adventures with friends and family from across the globe. It will be a place to post photos, tell stories and store memories as a group. And it will become a place where your loved ones will come to find out where in the heck your adventurous… Read More

Walkabout FANZ Fall 2010!

Dear Walkabout Fall 2010 team: Ross, Hannah, Samira, Stephenie, Michael. R., Eric, Sam, Kellon, Michael C., Tate, and Gabe! Benny and Simone here welcoming you to your new and exciting blog!  We hope you have all been enjoying the last bits of summer and are ready to extend the sun and fun right into the South Pacific…woot woot.  We are here in Portland at the Carpe Diem headquarters getting all… Read More

Jessica and Andy prepare from Portland!

Dear Emma, Megan, Austin, Austin, Joe, Jim, Catherine, Claire, Mia, David, Anna, and Natalie! Saludos! Buenos dias amigos! Esperemos que ustedes esten emocionados por nuestro viaje. Ready to fly with the help of some great leaders and an awesome student group? Either way, we are here to support you. We have spoken to most of you by now. It was a pleasure to hear your voices, know a little more… Read More

A Word From Your Leaders

Backpacking in Olympic National Park this summer Saludos a todos los estudiantes de Carpe Diem MAYA!  We hope everyone’s summer has been fantastic!  We are quickly approaching our rendezvous time at the SFO airport, which is now only 8 days away.  OH MY!  We are ridiculously excited to meet all of you and start this much-anticipated adventure. We are writing you from Portland, OR, where we are currently preparing for… Read More

Countdown…

The countdown to takeoff for the Motherland of India is down to the fingers, and with that mounts starry-eyed excitement, flurries of butterflies, curiosities, concerns, etc. Even though we (your leaders Jeff & Amanda) have set out multiple times on these quests, we still feel the spectrum of these emotions in the lead-up to flying away from ‘home’… we think of it as the billowing clouds around the rocket before… Read More

Our journey comes to a close… except for Claire.

Holy Salt! We boarded a night bus bound for Uyuni listo para nuestro horah final. 7pm to 1am was ok, we slept somewhat. However, come one o´clock the lights burst on, blinding us out of our slumbers, for the bus had stopped for a bathroom break. The toilets were worse than usual…. One in particular had a sloaping ceiling that forced Jandro to pee in the upward dog position, while… Read More

The Stragglers Brigade

And the journey continues… across borders. BOLIVIA!! But first, we had to attend to our patient, Diegito, a sick young pup. Left pale and skeletal in the airport, the Diego missed his flight with the rest of the group on their departure to the Estatos. It was not a pretty sight, the tears that put Niagra Falls to shame, left us wandering the streets of Cusco like blinded dogs, lost… Read More

NAMASTE

To all those friends and family who have been following our blog we thank you for all your support and good wishes over the last 3 months. We have successfully wrapped up a full semester in India finishing off our “free” travel through the fresh air and beautiful trees of the lake district of Nainital to end up with an extended exploration of New Delhi. In New Delhi we stayed… Read More

Great maybe the Greatest

Woah Woah Woah! Time flies when you are in 4 different countries, flown in over 10 planes and slept in over 20 different beds. Today is the day we have all anticipated/dreaded/waited/been excited for. Its no surprise that we are feeling a lot of different emotions. However, we had a wonderful final week in Roatan and are enjoying our last day together. Two days ago we dove our final dive… Read More

Ultimito Dia (We still dont know how to spell in Spanish)

Over the past two weeks we have partaken in many activities. We spent three days at a wonderful yoga retreat eating gourmet vegetarian food, and learning to bend our bodies in questionable ways. We also learned about making energy balls through Reiki, about crazy things called chakras, and Vedic Astrology (your star signs are not what you think they are). Last but not least we spent 5 grueling days hiking… Read More

Deep, maybe the deepest

Hey everyone!After a relaxing week in Sarapiqui for free travel we flew here to the beautiful island of Roatan, Honduras. It was an easy and early trip, when we got here we spent the day unpacking and hanging out in our awesome hotel. On Thursday morning we walked next door to seagrape plantation diving center to begin our SCUBA course. Our instructors Tony and Reno showed us some informational videos… Read More

Me Gusta Tortugas

Hello from Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui we have arrived here for our week of free travel. The last week we were in Gandoca close to the Costa Rican and Panamanian border where we helped with leatherback turtles. We would either have to go out from 8 pm to 12 am or 12 am to 4 am on the beach to patrol. Once on the beach we would be lead by… Read More

Horses, Biking, Weaving….. Oh My!

Previously on 24….. Titikaka, shamans, and a few long bus rides to Cuzco, our story continues. Snap! Crash! Our first hostel in Cuzco was shotty to say the least. Within 5 minutes of inhabiting our inhabitance, a bed was broken, and brain cells were being killed with wet paint still on the walls. Yet, in the morning, we were still alive and kicking. Like every other big city, Diegito and… Read More

The Bellybutton of Sweet Pacha Mama

Greetings faithful readers, ¨Jumping for Joy at The Door of Wisdom¨ On our last episode, we had just finished shreding the sandy slopes before heading up to altitude. We got into Puno around 8:01 pm, found some grub, and hit the sack. Sleeping proved a wee bit dificult for some, as Puno sits at about 11,000 ft, especially mixed with the chilly weather. What happened next, we knew not. We… Read More

Mcleod Ganj

“Where we love is home, Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Nothing helps sooth the heart like some quality family time. After almost 2 and half months of traveling with no place to call our own, we found ourselves a home. For 8 days McLeod Ganj served us up a steaming plate of family lovin’, which is exactly what we all needed. Our… Read More
Our group with Tyler and Chloe of Parque Maderas at our Carpe Prom. Look at how real we look…we dressed up as best we could for the occasion. All geared up for the longest zip line in Nicaragua…except for the three chicas at the end who were too cool to put their helmets back on for the photo. Beautiful sunset in San Juan del Sur.. Hannah, Brian, and Heather went… Read More