By Kaela Horton Hello friends, relatives, and everyone else who is along for the ride. It’s crazy to think that two weeks have gone by since I met the 13 strangers that I’ll be living and traveling with for the next three months. It’s also unbelievable that in that short period of time we’ve become the opposite of strangers and are building relationships and creating memories. After a week of… Read More

Here’s a video of the group gathering, cleaning, cutting, and packaging bananas:… Read More

Making chocolate at Las Delicias farm. Alex grinding fresh cacao. The Carpe Diem group with our hosts at Las Delicias right before departure—now on to the beach for the day! View from Las Delicias. Addy helping Clean up plastic used for banana production on Las Delicias. Down time at Las Delicias with Alejandro, a Spanish instructor, and Alex and Patrick. We celebrated Ellen’s birthday with a bonfire, singing our favorite … Read More

Selfie during our second to last stop on a food tour in Quito, Ecuador. See all those happy smiles? That’s because we just tried placenta soup, called guagua mama! Snapshot taken during a food tour in Quito- while this was picho, a simple snack of fried chicken, the group also tried placenta soup! Yum! Group shot while checking out Plaza Grande while on a food tour in Quito, Ecuador. Students… Read More

By Addy, Alex, and Audrey We found a very neat building. Unfortunately, the computer will not let us upload photos. We are incredibly excited to be here in Quito and very sad to be leaving tomorrow—yet, excited for Las Delicias! Everything is going well and we have been eating some very interesting cuisine ranging from cow placenta to sheep intestine. Very grateful to be here and excited for what is… Read More

By Brynlee, Eliza, and Daphne Hola familia y amigos! Though we’re mid scavenger hunt it’s like we’ve already won, pollitos for the win!!! Unsurprisingly no one understands, it’s an inside joke (we’re that close). It’s from a joke a guy told us on the street: ¿como se llama un pollito en uniforme? Un Pollitooooo!!! (Use google translate if you must). Anyway, we gotta get back to our upcoming victory, see… Read More

By Patrick, Ellen, and Sarah ¡Hello! My name is Patrick. I am in a group with Ellen and Sarah. We are on a scavenger hunt. I am writing this from an internet cafe next to Parque de Carolina. Just to get here was an adventure. It took us about an hour and three different buses to get here. We were lost at times but we made it safe and sound… Read More

By Program Director Heather Vaught The Inti crew has arrived safe and sound in Quito, Ecuador!… Read More

By Program Director Heather Vaught The Inti group is all together and ready to begin a phenomenal semester in South America! One of our students is already rocking a pair of classic elephant pants.… Read More

By Overseas Educators Laura & Dan Hey y’all! Dan and Laura here. We are finishing up final preparations here in Portland, and super stoked to meet the Carpe South America 2018 students! We hope with these final days leading up to the trip, students are finishing up final packing preparations, resting, and getting even more excited for a semester filled with learning, community, and awe-filled experience. We can’t wait to… Read More

By Alex Combs Hello friends and family, this week I have the wonderful opportunity to write the final blog for the Spring 2018 semester. For our final week in South America, we traveled to one of the Seven Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu. To start off the tale of our final journey we must start in Cusco, where we stayed in our lovely hostel Atawakama after our Yoga retreat… Read More

Namaste from the yoga retreat and our second-to-last week here on this incredible journey. This week we journeyed back towards Ollantaytambo and deep into the Sacred Valley, where we pulled up to our gorgeous yoga spot and our home for the next five days. After getting off the bus and organizing into rooms, we had a vegetarian lunch and were given our schedule for the week. Next, we gathered outside… Read More

By Lauren This week we started in the small town of Patacancha located outside of Ollantaytambo. There we learned more about the organization Awamaki, which is a nonprofit that helps women in the area sell their textile work to a larger market. We got to work with the women and see the work that goes into making these crafts; starting from the dyeing of the wool to the finished product.… Read More

By Isabella Spivey Saludos de Peru! Isabella here, to update you on our adventure from the past week. Our second to last day in Ecuador, we said a bittersweet farewell to Sarah Beth, and joined her and her family for dinner and shared our gratitude for having her as part of our Inti Family. As sad as it is that she will be leaving us, we are all holding out… Read More

By Karly Britt Hi friends and family! This past week, the group had the amazing opportunity to explore the Amazon! The week started with a boat ride down the Arajuno River, a tributary to the Amazon River, to our home for the week: the Arajuno Jungle Lodge. There, we met Tom Larson, AKA the coolest guy ever. Tom told us about all the work he has been doing to help… Read More

Hola familia! We spent this week in the beautiful city of Banos, a backpackers dream city full of opportunities for great food, extreme sports, relaxation, and good times. The group has enjoyed our homestays this week. We were able to become part of a real Ecuadorian family. We were treated like real daughters and sons, as we were served great meals and kindness. One of the most important things we… Read More

By Desi Casanova Hola from Baños, Ecuador! The group and I arrived here late last night after a long and tiring 10-hour van ride. Here we will spend a week learning more Spanish and diving deeper into the culture with our homestay families. I won’t give too much away; that’s for our next storyteller! I’m here to tell you all about our beautiful stay at Finco Mono Verde, a permaculture… Read More

Semester birthdays. Working on the beach yoga thing. Harvesting wild ginger. Handmade birthday card for Audrey. Jungle walk attire. Bird watching. Roasting coffee beans. Roasting coffee beans. Pounding coffee pre-roasting. Out of the coastal humidity and back into the mountains. Wrapping up a nearly ten hour bus ride full of laughs, movies, and good music. Hola Baños!… Read More

By Alex Combs Hello Everybody, My name is Alex Combs and I am from Washington State. I am currently 18 years old and also a part of Carpe Diem Education’s South American program. This week was full of memorable and extravagant adventures so I hope you are prepared for a decently-sized read. Over the past week, we have been staying in the coastal region of Ecuador more commonly known to… Read More