Let the journey begin!

Archive South America- INTI
Phew. … after a little longer than we would have liked, everyone that’s supposed to be is together and accounted for! Poor Zoe will be joining us a few days later in Ecuador thanks to these incredible East Coast storms, so we’ll reserve some extra cheer for you on your arrival. For now, we’re all optimistic and excited as Drew reported it to be a phenomenal group thus far and… Read More

Let the journey begin!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
I just got off the phone with our fearless leaders and everyone has safely arrived into SFO and are with their group! … that’s right, everyone! Despite snow on the East Coast, several frazzled flight rearrangements and one delay, the group is successfully united! Stay tuned as another blog gets posted from Finca Ixobel during their first stop for orientation. Yours in spirit, Ethan Knight Executive Director… Read More

Together in San Francisco

Archive India- SHIVA
Parents, followers, friends, and relatives, I just heard from our fearless co-leaders, Nick and Stacey, that the San Francisco contingent of students is all together and successfully checked in and through security! They all depart in less than a few hours and what a beginning! We’ll connect with the Seattle folks in Delhi and post a blog accordingly, but for this first leg, everything went smoothly and … dare I… Read More

Namaste

Archive India- SHIVA
Hey Ya’ll, We want to welcome everyone to the Carpe Diem India Semester! We are here in Portland, making the final preparations for our journey, and wanted to reach out to everyone that will be with us during the next few months. This blog will be one of our main sources of communication for everyone back home, and a way for all our friends and family to share our many… Read More

Airport meeting information

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Hola otra vez! 5 Days until we meet in SFO… We will be meeting in front of the TACA airlines counter in the international terminal at 8:30pm on Wednesday, Feb 10th. We know many of you have flights that get you in well before 8:30pm, but just in case you are running late or can’t find us, please call 1-877-285-1808. This is a Carpe Diem office number that will be… Read More
Archive South America- INTI
Emotion mounts as the days pass quickly toward the ‘launch’ of our SAM- South America- semester. The subtle reasons why the eleven of us will be coming together on this three-month exploration will reveal themselves gradually over time as we experiment with unique and fresh realities throughout Ecuador and Peru. As you pack your bag, remember that lighter is always better! We’ll be covering a good number of miles along… Read More

Hola CAM Spring 2010!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Hola and greetings from Carpe Diem HQ in Portland, OR. We are both very excited for our upcoming adventure – with less than a week to go before we meet in SFO, we have been working hard with final preparations and packing, as we imagine many of you are doing as well. We will be calling you all in the next few days before we leave, to chat a bit… Read More
Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Hey what’s been going on you guys? I know we joked around about still blogging so I was thinking why not?I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that it is so weird to be back at home and in this other reality, but life is good. Kaise my brotha I don’t know cold it is there but it don’t have nothing on argon. I don’t remember oregon getting… Read More

The End

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
What do goodbyes look like for people who have supported each other through changes, losses, wins, beginnings and firsts? For us it was backbreaking hugs, watering eyes, last words of adoration, and then at the end just a small wave and a, “Bye!” As if we were hanging up the phone or moving forward in the grocer line. Let me rewind, Dan went scuba diving. Dan learned how to swim… Read More

Goodbyes, but not forever!!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Our super special adventure comes to a close, as we spend our last day together here in Roatan. Today the group got certified in there open water diving, and Bobby and Karen received there advanced scuba diving certification. As were all spending the day doing some last dives, and writing our goodbye letters to each, our I AM poems or flows, evaluations were all a little sad to be leaving… Read More

Scuuuba time!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
After getting up at nearly 230am to catch our flights, we are finally here in the island of Roatan. An island only about 40 miles long, and mostly English speaking. A little bit different for us, seeming we have been traveling in central America where the most common language is Spanish. so walking in the grocery store, and speaking Spanish with an English reply is a little different for us.… Read More

On the journey between Chiang Mai and Phuket

Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
After enjoying a semi-permanent home in Chiang Mai, the shorter ‘chapters’ of our journey over the last few weeks have made for a whirlwind of new sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feels… one of which is the tightness of our backs from shifting loaded backpacks from songthaws to trains to taxis to boats to pickup trucks to get us from north to south Thailand.Out of Chaing Mai we first traveled… Read More

Hi Again

Archive South America- INTI
Happy thanksgivin! The Sammers celebrated a little early by enjoying a huge feast and playing secret turkey for each other. We all are very well rested after a very amazing and spiritual stay at our yoga retreat. Sunday, a very sunny woman at that, shared her Hindu practices of meditation, astrology, and all the different yoga types and philosophies with us. The courses were intense, we sang, danced, meditated, and… Read More

I’ll order it from ZANZIBAR

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Perfectly white sand, crystal clear water, tropical warm breezes, and fresh delicious coconuts. Not exactly the Thanksgiving we imagined but it’ll do. Karibu Zanzibar! Yesterday we arrived in Stonetown after spending 4 days,3 nights at the rasta relaxing Dhow Beach Village on Jambiani beach. We spent those 4 days playing beach vollyball, getting our tans on and in pure amazment of the mile long stretch of only knee deep translucent… Read More

Free Travel Adventures and More!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Where I last left off our group was preparing for our final shift at Playa Longosta. We´ve done much traveling since then and we have experienced and seen some wild things. First off was our final shift working with the turtles. We had to rise at 4:30a.m the next morning to leave for San Jose, so we were able to all do the same shift from 7 to 11:30. We… Read More

oneal, beach, homestay

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello to all,We finished part of a week with homestays, which did not end on the best note ever but we got through it as a group and have moved on from it. After that we headed back to pete oneals, which is starting to become more of a second home than anything else. Pete oneals hospitality towards us is something we all greatly appreciate. While we were with pete… Read More

Hi

Archive South America- INTI
Floating islands, a place none of us have ever expierenced before. The people create their land from condensed dirt and place piles of yellow reeds on top. The sun light reflects beautifully off of the islands as well as the lake, which creates a gorgeous contrast. Along with the reed monster boats that dock outside their homes. These islands literally float and in order for them to stay in place… Read More

Let the Camel Count Begin!

Archive India- SHIVA
After the eye-opening events and education we had in McLeod Ganj, we left the Tibetan community in the afternoon, waving goodbye to Neema-la–our contact–Max, Santos, our Tibetan families, and the J.J.I. Brothers in Exile–just a few of the vastly interesting and genuine people we met in McLeod. It was raining, freezing, and our feet were promptly given baths when we stepped outside to greet the taxis that would take us… Read More

Turtle Time

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
After leaving the island of Ometepe we once again awoke well before sunrise in order to make the journey to Costa Rica in time for dinner at our new home in Playa Longosta for Proyecto Baula. Surprisingly Crossing the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica went smoother than expected. With our passports freshly stamped we were ready to venture into a new paradise known as Costa Rica. We soon experienced… Read More