Tortugas

carpediem Central America- MAYA
“title” : TORTUGA! Welcome to sunny Costa Rica where we’ve been staying at a turtle conservation project for the last week. Apparently we came in the low season which was a disappointment because we’ve all been looking forward to seeing turtles for the last 11 weeks. 3 of us did actually end up seeing a turtle on the beach the very first night but no more after that. The beach… Read More

Blowing Bubbles

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
G’day mate, This week our crew traveled back to Cairns once again to explore the wonderful world of SCUBA diving and snorkeling. Tommy Boy, Loose, Molls, JJ, Georgie, Randy, Caro and Aisil woke at the crack of dawn to get ready for their first day of SCUBA school!!! They spent the day watching videos with their instructor Rob as well as blowing their first bubbles underwater!! While they were in… Read More

Student Directed Travel!

carpediem Central America- MAYA
Nicaragua has been a dream. We started off the week leaving Bona Fide which just about everyone was excited for. Getting up before the sunrise was hard for most but we managed to make it to the bus stop in time. The day was full of a lot of ‘playing it by ear’, running to catch the next bus and being squished by random Nicaraguans. We eventually managed to make… Read More

SCUBA!

carpediem Southeast Asia- SABAI
Hello and welcome to one of our final blogs as we enter the home stretch of this trip. This week we came out of student directed travel through the wild city of Saigon and entered the most more relaxed tourist hotspot of Nha Trong. Surrounded by sandy beaches and full of shirtless Russians, Nha Trong reminds you more of a florida beach resort than a Vietnamese city. Here we got… Read More

Mr Him

carpediem Southeast Asia- SABAI
Nestled on the southern coast of Cambodia lies the town of Kampot, a short walk through the town will find you more english text than Khmer script as foreign run bars and burger joints dominate the center of town. Stationed along the beautiful Kampot river that has provided the town with a steady supply of fish markets and seafood restaurants, it has also provided a living to the countless fisherman… Read More

Uganda and Student Directed Travel

carpediem East Africa- KIFARU
Blog from Kevin Seeger. Photos from OEs It seems that I have somehow ended up with the task of writing yet another blog post. I think in total I will have covered the entire time we were in Uganda. I’ll start off with Lake Bunyoni. It was absolutely amazing to be able to swim for the first time in Africa! The water was pretty cold, but it was disease, hippo,… Read More

Short and Fun Brisbane Adventures

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Hello folks! Greetings from Cairns. But… You’re probably wondering how we got here. It all started a few days ago… *record scratch* After leaving the Bodhi Tree Buddhist monastery on Tuesday April 18th, the group boarded a bus from the nearby Lismore and headed to Brisbane for three days of swanky student travels in the city. Now, this day, however, was no ordinary day. It was a day with cause… Read More

Ollantaytambo

carpediem South America- INTI
Blog from Jennifer Owens We ended our week at Lobitos with a goodbye dinner and campfire singalong, and loaded up a van at 3 a.m. to begin our travel day to Ollantaytambo, a town of 3,000 near Cusco, Peru. In contrast to the hot sun, desert-like climate, and ocean air of Peru´s northern coast, the mountains of the Sacred Valley are cool and green, where wildflowers grow among the chacras,… Read More

Dharmalaya!

carpediem India- SHANTI
Blog from Nelyn Phillip “Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek” -Dalai Lama XIV Namaskar Family and friends! It has been an exciting week spent on the organic farm of Dharmalaya. We are up on the Himalayan mountains where we are learning about earth building, agriculture and rain water harvesting, covering the basics of how important it is… Read More

Exploring La Habana

carpediem Cuba - CHANGO
Blog by Tess Dreizen Our first week in La Habana was full of many exciting things. We began our week by visiting the largest amusement park in Cuba. The park is situated in Cuba’s very own Coney Island. However, to our surprise the park was not designed for people our age and many of the rides did not work.Yet it was very interesting to see and helped us to further… Read More

Mangrove Project

carpediem Southeast Asia- SABAI
Hello, everyone and all distinguished guest, it’s Martin Farias again, I well be the author of todays blog. We made it to Vietnam and are in the city of Can Tho; We crossed the border through a travel van from Cambodia to Vietnam. Everyone now happily resting. Furthermore, the most important activity we did throughout this week was our work at the Mangrove ecolodge. The Mangrove Ecolodge works to conserve… Read More

Nica Fun

carpediem Central America- MAYA
Howdy y’all, Greetings from sunny Nicaragua! Currently we’re finishing up voulnteering at a permaculture​ farm in Omatepe, a small island made up of two massive volcanos. Our daily routine consists of an early 6:30am wake up, and then we make ourselves useful for 4 hours grating poop, chopping up termite nests, or whatever else the farm needs. In the afternoon we either get free time or take part in various… Read More

Buddhism at the Bodhi Tree

carpediem South Pacific- WALKABOUT
Warmest greetings! Upon departing from Fiji and commencing our travels along the East Coast of Australia, we were able to take part in a bit of mid-trip reflection at the Bodhi Tree Buddhist Monastery, a peaceful enclave located just outside of Lismore. After a brief (yet energetic!) overnight stint in the colorful city of Brisbane (featuring a trot over the city’s bridge to wander the streets amongst stylish locals,) we… Read More

Kmer Fun

carpediem Southeast Asia- SABAI
Hello blog readers, my name is Brenden and I will be the one writing the blog this week. Our last day at PTD involved watching a group of Khmer students test their English with a spelling bee. We then got recognized for our hard days of volunteer work by being awarded a certificate and then got to eat dinner with all the students. We have been traveling Cambodia majority of… Read More