Did you know Xela is Alex spelled backwards, a story of gigging down in the streets of Xela

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Friends, family, countrymen, lend me your ears. We write to you during our last precious week in the lovely city of Xela, more formerly known as Quetzaltenango. Since its been a little over two weeks since our last update, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for a semi lengthy account of our ongoings thus far. Arriving in Xela on a Monday, our first days of class were on a Tuesday. The… Read More

Alto Choco

Archive South America- INTI
hello home! que tal? we have some bad news… ecuador lost the world cup qualifying game…we were in quito that weekend and the streets were crazy. we even tryed a little dancing in one of the clubs that night… an interesting experience that some of us enjoyed more than others. then we packed up and headed into the cloud forest of Alto Choco for the week. we were planing on… Read More

Goodbye Uganda, Hello Rwanda

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Woooh! It’s been quite an amazing disasters couple of days. As it being our first time planning free travel we’ve learned many valuable lessons. The most important being: 1-It’s not as easy as it sounds 2-Because of number 1 the earlier you plan the better. 3-Little to nothing (more of the latter) works out as planned despite how hard you’ve worked, so roll, roll, and keep on rolling with the… Read More

Spirtual Week

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
So after we spent a wonderful week working with Youth Encourage Services it was time to say our goodbyes. Jacob(volunteer) luckily volunteered to drive us to our next destination Lake Nkaruba which is only45 minutes away from Fort Portal.When we arrived the first thing everyone notice were the beautiful black and white colobus monkeys and the less attractive vervet monkeys.In the days to follow we practiced yoga daily with our… Read More

CHIMPANZEEEEES

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello from Rwanda! We are currently living the luxurious albeit expensive life in Kigali, but you’ll have to wait for a future blog post to hear more about that. I am here to catch you all up on what we’ve been doing on the first half of our free travel (the beginning of this past week). After our rejuvenating retreat at Lake Nkuruba, we did a 180-degree turn away from… Read More

Gibbons & Ziplinning!!!

Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
We made our way to Huay Xai, a border town on the Thailand/Laos border, so that we could enjoy the Gibbon Experience. Getting to Huay Xai was quite the adventure as it required taking a 14 hour bus ride. We all boarded the bus at 7pm and prepared ourselves for our travel into the night. The bus wasn’t very crowded which was quite nice as it allowed us to spread… Read More

Luang Prabang

Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
We descended from the hills of Lao into our home base of Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage City, looking ahead to three days of relax and exploration before traveling onwards towards the Thai border. We had a good meal and rest in preparation for the next morning when we made our way to a set of brilliant clear blue waterfalls. Tessa and Amanda chose to pump their way to… Read More

Welcome to the Holy City.

Archive India- SHIVA
We arrived in the Hindu Holy city of Varanasi after a short train ride from Bodhgaya the night of the 12th, welcomed by dry air, refreshing bright lights, and freedom from constant threat of mosquito attack. The city is, in my personal opinion, lovely – it sits comfortably on the river Ganga and is filled with more half dressed holy men than I ever thought possible. The river is really… Read More

A Week In Otavalo

Archive South America- INTI
This cloudy friday morning finds us once again happily settled in the mountain town of Otavalo. We´ve spent the week attending spanish school, practicing spanish with our new found ecuadorian families members, hiking liberally around the area, and imitating bird calls in an attempt to tease flight out of Andean Condors. We eagrly await reuniting with our group mates, now lost amongst the forest of clouds. This weekend there is… Read More

Naturally Flowmatic

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Carpe Diem is the name of our group.Crammin 25 in a 14 seater, as if were in a coop.Going nation to nation,on the road agin to a fresh destination.Bags packed, domes in tacked, onwards in our adventure yo, no hesitation.Were naturally nomatic,scratch that flomatic, no static, on the road wreaking havoc.Back at it cause were a traveling addict.Just left Jam bamboo, all night long played teh drums with you.Were one… Read More

Xela who? No, Xelaju!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
After reading this blog families, friends, and loved ones will understand why it has been such a long time since our last post. Today is our first full day in the lovely metropolis of Quetzaltenango aka Xela, but before i delve too much into our current activities let me inform you all of what our group has been doing the past several days. The last post we shared that we… Read More

Our last day in Kolkata

Archive India- SHIVA
Tonight we leave Kolkata; when the group left Sikkim I thought it impossible that I would be able to fall in love with any other part of India. But I have, and I will truly miss the home I’ve made for myself here. Before leaving for India, I was told by anyone that had ever been here that this country was full of contradiction. I believe I love Kolkata because… Read More
Archive Southeast Asia- SABAI
The trek….Let us give you a break down each day of the 5 day trek and 2 day water rafting in Laung Prabang….. Day one,we got into several different moving vehicles and meet our guides Mong and Mr.Jim. What wonderful men they were and they treated us so well along the trip. One hour later finally making it to where we begin. Hiking through many river, rice fields, mud, climbing… Read More

Hiking a Mountain!

Archive South America- INTI
Today we encountered our first mountainous obstacle as a team…literally. We climbed a mountian. We scaled one of the largest mountains in the area around Otavalo, a mountain by the name of Fuya Fuya. The views were incedible and the acsent steep, but we enjoyed every second of it, relishing in the challenge. At the top the clouds wisped up the mountain and enveloped us like a blanket left out… Read More

Fort Portal – YES Hostel

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
So as the trip reaches its 3 week mark we are in Fort Portal, Uganda volunteering our time to an NGO. This NGO, Youth Encouragement Services, works with children who are HIV / AIDS positive or have lost all family to the disease. Talking to Carrol (the founder of the organization) truly showed us what situations this children were in before they were helped. Some of the kids were living… Read More

Conquering our own “cliffs of insanity!”

Archive India- SHIVA
Sitting here in Darjeeling, it seems quite a feat looking back on the arduous trek the group and I just accomplished. From Yuksam at 6,000 ft. to Dzongri at 13,200 ft., we were out in the Himalayas for a good 7 days; days full of ups and downs, challenges and rewards, pain and beauty. I believe the trek was much harder than most of us expected, and in that sense,… Read More

Mmmirembe

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
So we’re back in Jinja for the night after spending an AMAZING week working with the Mirembe (meaning peace) Kawomera Coffee Co-op in a small village just outside of Mbale. Mirembe in unique in the way that in combines the three major faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, to promote a message of peace between faiths and throughout the world. We lived with the founder of the Co Op, JJ Keki,… Read More