Written by Central America Students, Laurie and Ray What’s New? This past week, we had the pleasure of continuing to explore Xela, but through a different lens—homestays! We were paired off with another person in the group and got to build one-on-one relationships while also building community and connection with the host families. Seeing Guatemalan life through the perspective of a local family was an enriching experience. Eating delicious… Read More

  Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Andy & JB What’s New? The program started in Antigua, Guatemala for orientation. The group quickly found its footing as we explored the town and created a culture amongst everyone. As the first couple of days went by, we explored markets, reviewed the itinerary for the next 10 weeks, and got to know each other more before heading to Comalapa, Guatemala for our… Read More

Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Andy & Jubitza 👋 Hola!  Andy and Jubitza here, writing to you from Portland, Oregon. We’ve been in training for the last couple of days, with a few more to go before setting off on this awesome adventure ahead of us. Here’s a quick rundown of who we are and what excites us about the next three months: Andy is from Wyoming and recently… Read More

Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Malcolm and Jasmin It’s hard to believe our ten weeks together in Central America have come to an end. How is it that we won’t all be sharing a meal later today or waking up groggy-eyed tomorrow before another adventure? We formed such close bonds and integrated into each other’s lives throughout our wonderful semester together, filled with exploration, new challenges, and lots of… Read More

Written by Central America Student, Danny Evans We arrived in Drake Bay for the last week of the trip! Here we explored the biodiversity of the Pacific Ocean as through the week we completed our Padi Open Water Dive Scuba certification🤿. We were also fortunate to visit Corcovado National Reserve seeing many different animals native to Costa Rica. We saw different types of monkeys, a sloth, an anteater, a boa,… Read More

Written by Central America Student, Cleo Miller New Adventures in Mastatal Landed in Costa Rica! This week we traveled to a small and remote, but extremely beautiful, town called Mastatal in biodiverse Costa Rica! We stayed with Javier and his family in Villas Mastatal, and remained unplugged for the week, which was amazing to connect more with nature and I also finished a great book. Throughout the week we worked… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Jess Solit and Danny Evans This week was student-directed travel (SDT)! Our group embarked on the intimidating yet exciting task of planning and budgeting all of our housing, activities, transportation, and food for the week, while also leading our expeditions. We started our week on the west coast of Guatemala in El Paredon, splashed around in the ocean, played some frisbee, surfed some waves, and… Read More

Written by Central America Student, Arianna Cochrane What’s new? We were in San Juan staying in homestays for our second and final week! Which also means our final week of Spanish school! We are all glad we got to improve our Spanish so much, but definitely happy we made it through it all. Our group also had painting classes and weaving classes, and we got to learn the history behind… Read More

Written by Central America Student, Henry Probolus What’s new? We arrived in San Juan and started our week of Spanish classes. We started on cultural art projects like painting and weaving. We enjoyed the cultural events of Semana Santa like the procession and creating alfombras out of flowers and colored sawdust. We visited nearby towns like San Pedro and went to Panajachel to see butterflies and other animals at the… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Jess Solit and Cleo Miller What’s new? ⦿ Our group headed over to Tzununa to learn about permaculture from Neil and Jeremy at the Granja Tz’ikin – The Farm. ⦿ Swam and walked around San Marcos, learned about the 12 values of permaculture, harvested veggies, and turned over garden beds. ⦿ We also met some incredible people like Ava and the families at Quixaya to… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Henry Probolus and Arianna Cochrane This was our last week in Xela! At the start of the week, we left our hostel and moved in with our host families! It has been such an amazing time experiencing the culture and tasting the amazing food inside our families’ houses! We met and became friends with so many people through the school PLQ, and we have improved… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Danny Evans & Cleo Miller This week we’re located in Xela! We are starting one-on-one Spanish classes with the beautiful teachers at PLQ. We attended the many events put on by PLQ including a student soccer game and a trip to the hot springs. We stayed in Casa Siebel and made many trips to the Central Park. We also had a blast at the local… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Ari Cochrane & Jess Solit Greetings from our team’s latest adventure! We ventured to Comalapa to collaborate with Long Way Home (LWH), an organization dedicated to sustainable living and community development. Here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been up to: Learned about sustainable living practices Worked on a retaining wall made out of tires Helped build houses out of cob (dirt, sand, water, pine needles)… Read More

Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Jasmin & Malcolm Hola a nuestras familias y amigos! We’ve had a great few days in Antigua, one of the larger cities here in Guatemala. Our groups flew into Guatemala City and we made our way to Hostel Hopa, our home for the next few days. Our group was finally together when the LAX crew pulled up and joined us for breakfast after a… Read More

Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Jasmin & Malcolm Hola chiques! We hope everyone is getting as excited for the semester as we are! We’re here in Portland, Oregon at Carpe Diem Headquarters reviewing our program itinerary, policies, curriculum, and more to fully prepare for our time together. This being the first time we’ll lead a trip together, we’ve also been getting to know each other and learned some fun… Read More

Written by Central America Overseas Educators Malcolm and Jane Happy end of program to our wonderful students, and to all of their parents and family and friends waiting to greet them at home! This semester simultaneously feels like it flew by, and it feels like we’ve been together and known each other for so much longer than just 10 weeks. We have just enjoyed our last couple days in Costa… Read More

Written by Central America Student, Sophie N.  This was our last full week as a group, we spent it in Drake Bay mostly scuba diving. We met great directors that guided us along the way and met our needs while diving. On Thursday, since we wouldn’t be spending Thanksgiving with our families, we decided to plan a Friendsgiving in which everyone was split into pairs and asked to make a… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Lily & Matilda This last week we rode, climbed and scrambled up the steep Permacultures farm sides of Maztatal Ranch! From herbal tours to chocolate adventures, night walks, and even cooking with our host family, it really feels like we did it all! But that’s so broad, so what did we get yo to? In more specific terms: We started off fighting the brutal sun… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Lily & Anantya We continued our second week in San Juan, a small town on Lake Atitlán. We continued our Spanish classes at Eco Spanish school, and also enjoyed several new events and cultural activities. We ended the month of October with a very personal archaeology tour. On the tour, we were able to meet a very honorable woman from the community. She graciously welcomed… Read More

Written by Central America Students, Matilda & Leila  This week we pushed off the shores of San Marcos and landed ourselves on the opposite side of the lake in a small welcoming town with the name of San Juan. Here, we began our Spanish lessons at a local Eco School where we grow our skills in one on one classes in the mornings followed by alternating days of art classes,… Read More