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Shiva shiva shiva shambooooo!

Hari om (namaste, rishikesh version)! It’s been awhile since we’ve last posted, so there is a lot to catch everyone up on. Going back in time about two weeks ago- we were in the wonderful city of Darjeeling for three days to relax after our trek. Darjeeling is an absolutely magical hill station located in North eastern India, surrounded by rolling hills and the Himalayas. It is well known for… Read More

Pura Vida

Hola! Here I will pick up from where our own lovely Robin Berk left off from her last blog post. As all of our followers know, we had a lovely thanksgiving dinner upon our arrival to the “Bay of the Pirates”, which is a fairly remote beach on the western coast of Costa Rica. The journey there consisted of a few hours via public bus with a few transfers but… Read More

Choose Your Own Adventure

In the spirit of choosing our own adventures, we decided on Monday to split into two groups: Abby and Ole headed off towards the crimson rock spires surrounding the town for a hike while Hannah, Mike and I opted to have our own “urban” hiking adventure. We set off from the Super 8, our home for this leg of our trip, towards a part of Sedona referred to as “Uptown”… Read More

Our wonderful time in Brisbane and Dalby!

G’day family and friends!   We’ve had an eventful week here in Australia that began in the lovely city of Brisbane! After arriving in Brisbane last Monday, we all headed out to explore the city. Some of us shopped, explored, went to museums, or just layed on the public “beach” and tanned. Our 3 days in Brisbane ended with a lovely Thanksgiving brunch with our new Carpe family. While this Read More

Hello Costa Rica!

Bienvenidos to all  the Parents, Friends, Acquaintances, and whomever else  is reading this blog.   As we bade our farewells to Nicaragua, we are again faced with the bittersweet transition of leaving a country we  have  grown to love, while  also  anticipating with excitement the adventures ahead.  As Thanksgiving rolled around and we  traded in the roosters whose  cockles woke us up  every morning in lieu of  the sea turtles… Read More

Gigante y Leon

¡Hola Amigos! As our time with Project WOO (http://www.projectwoo.org/) came to an end, we reflected back on the amazing week we had.  Who could forget all the hard work that we put into the repair and beautification of the elementary school´s fence, the time we put in teaching lessons, and the rewarding experience of working alongside the members of the community, children and adults alike?  In addition, our… Read More

Traveling to Nica.

Guat is over. The section was fun while it lasted. We had a flawless travel day coming into Nicaragua. We spent are first few days in Granada.Most of Granada’s streets are narrow, as the city evolved centuries before the advent of motorized vehicles. Therefore, today, many streets allow only one-way traffic, offering a challenge to visitors traveling by car. Luckly we were striking on our feet. Granada is located along… Read More

Playa Maderas

Playa Maderas was an overall amazing and fun experience. Our first half of the week was spent lounging on the beach and taking surf lessons, but our second half of the week was spent volunteering. One of the mornings we spent about three hours digging trenches and laying pipes so that we could deliver running water to the school. We worked with Communidad Connect and also parents of the school… Read More

Tashi Dalek!

Hello family and friends! It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since I last blogged about Darjeeling, but it’s true. Even harder to swallow is that we only have three weeks left in this beautiful country, so we are trying to savor every moment and learn as much as possible. Currently, we are staying at Deer Park Institute in Bir. We arrived here on the 16th and have immensely… Read More

Tashi Delek

Tashi Delek, Happy Thanksgiving in Tibetan is a little complicated, so we thought we’d settle for hello.  Shanti Group has found respite in the hills, a welcomed break from the chaos, pollution, dust, stares, and smells of the plains.  After a week at Deer Park Insitute studying Buddhism, we’ve moved on to McLeod Ganj, the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in-exile.  Right now as we type… Read More

Volunteering with the CVA!

This week, the group arrived in Newcastle, Australia, to begin our week of volunteer work with the CVA (Conservation Volunteers Australia)! We were split up into two different groups for the week–Neil, Courtney, Sadie, Tommy, Abbott, and me (Sienna) stayed in Newcastle, and Macy, Ally, Rob, Taylor, and Kitch were driven out about three hours to a farm, where I’m sure they’re having a blast. My group is staying in… Read More

Free Travel! And Sydney of Course.

It’s time now for our free travel! We have managed to land an awesome deal with a rafting company which Michelle had some contacts in. 9 of us will be doing 2.5 days hiking on the St. James Walkway and deviating from it a little bit to reach the destination where we will be picked up and then go rafting down the Clarence River for 3 days. We woke up… Read More

Blog from Brisbane on our week stay at the Chenrezig Institute, a Buddhist center and monastery.

So this is kind of a rap so bare with me, it’ll be a little awkward reading it through typing.   Happiness is the goalll, and suffering is a prison There ain’t no guards on patrolll, and the keys lie with wisdom Our minds are outta controolll, and the remedy is Buddhism. If we stop thinking and listen we might find nothings missin’ No senseless hate, anger or killin’ Just compassion… Read More

throwing plates and golden temples !

hello everyone !!! its Ellen again, i hope you are all doing good and have wonderful health and fantastic luck and what not but lets get down to the blog this is serious time. So we went from rishi kesh by bus (this was a new and …interesting experience) all the way to Amritsar where we planed to see the golden temple.  when we where staying there we did not… Read More

Living in Paradise

Hola friends and family!   On Tuesday we said goodbye to Leon and headed south to Playa Maderas in San Juan del Sur. We were all really excited to spend our first actual week on the ocean, and this past week has been everything we have wanted and more! We are living with a good friend of Carpe Diem´s (Tyler) in his beautiful home overlooking the ocean. The first couple… Read More

Yeah we made it- We’re the worlds greatest!!!

Leaves crunching, birds chirping, everyone laughing, bells ringing, snow falling. We heard, felt, touched, saw, and most importantly smelt a lot this past week on our epic Himalayan trek. We spent four nights camping on the mountain and five days trekking up and back. It was a trip full of extremes. At points we were in shorts and t shirts sweating and slightly dreading the crazy mountain death star and… Read More

Back into the Himalayas

After an overnight train from Kolkata that was surprisingly on time, we got a jeep to Gangtok (about a 5-6 hour drive). We arrived that evening to Gangtok which was absolutely beautiful. We were staying at a Guest house/ Home stay  but we were in separate rooms but we ate with the family. The family we stayed with was a very extended family consisting of a mom with her two… Read More