By Patrick Harris Patrick here. I am writing this from Cuzco, where the first night of student-directed travel starts. I will be writing about the previous 11 days. Nov. 5 to the 14.
This tale starts in Ollantaytambo, here the only set in stone activity was Spanish classes for 3 hours a day during the week. That being said it is hard to call it class when half the time… Read More
By Sarah Mckenzie Hello family and friends and anyone else viewing this blog! Sorry I am writing this a little late, but we just spent the last week doing some pretty awesome stuff. When we first arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand last week we spent two days exploring the city. Then we flew to Nelson which is at the top of the south island and was picked up by a… Read More
By Kelly Tobin TOP THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT TREKKING IN INDIA:
1. You never know where you are going or how long it will take.
2. Bring more chocolate then you think you need.
3. You will gain new animal friends (baby goats, dogs, and sheep.)
4. It will be very cold in November while hiking the Himalayas, bring warm layers.
5. The food is delicious, except desserts.
6. Mountain… Read More
By Ellen Zimmerman Hello everyone!
We just finished our week in the Amazon, where we stayed at the Arajuno Jungle Lodge. It was started by Tom, our contact, as a eco-tourism and conservation project inspired by his Peace Corps service. It is on the Arajuno River, a tributary of the Amazon. It is only accessible by a fifteen-minute boat ride from the nearest bridge. Our days were all structured similarly,… Read More
By Rachel and Sarah First week in Costa Rica! We had a pleasant early morning flight last Sunday and a short bus ride to the city of Turrialba. Meeting our host families created some anxiety as always but has greatly paid off this week. We feel we have made great connections with this group of people! We began our last week of Spanish school on Monday and we feel our… Read More
By Hannah Tashi Delek! Hey, again friends, family, and followers! Our long days of travel from Varanasi to Delhi and Delhi to Dharamshala have come and gone pretty smoothly. We’ve spent the last week exploring McLeod Ganj and all the cool sights and experiences it has to offer. This is our Student Directed Travel week, the week where we give Doug and Kate a little break and take over all… Read More
By Diana Ascarrunz Hello everyone, this week on the program we explored Maori culture. We were welcomed by Tiaki our Maori guide for the week. For the first three nights, we stayed at the community center near Rob and Rangimaries home. On the first full day, we took a walk around their beautiful property and reflected on the things we wanted to let go of in life. The next day… Read More
By Tatum Nadherny Allllrriiggghhty then we got a lot to cover, so get comfy folks (and excuse the excessive use of parenthesis, there were a lot of plot holes that needed more details).
And here. we. go.
After our week in the Amazon, we headed back to where it all started in the city of Quito….and promptly splurged on all available snacks and chocolate. It did not take long for… Read More
By Emily Bates Spirits were high as we left an amazing three days in the remote mountain village Taghzhirt to head to the Sahara for Festival Taragalte, a celebration of nomadic culture and music. We were all pretty blown away (haha… keep reading) when we first got to the festival grounds and looked at the rolling dunes of soft sand surrounding us. It didn’t take long for us to throw… Read More
By Ben and Rebecca Hello Beloved Family,
Let us tell you about our crazy week! We arrived at the small village of Mufindi at around 5 on Sunday evening. We were thrown directly into a week of new experiences and a little bit of culture shock. We were to spend the next 5 days in homestays with the families of Mufindi. We would not see our fellow Carpe students until… Read More
By David Chase Dear family and friends of the 2018-Carpe-Diem-South-Pacific-Walkabout-group,
As you may or may not know this program assigns a role to every member each week; group leader, chef, logistics, etc. During this particular week, I have been tasked with updating the group’s blog with the goings on of the past few days. My specific title (as stated in our official Carpe Diem packet) is “Bilbo Bloggins,” and just… Read More
By Emily Radek To paint the picturing of a sustainable living permaculture farm:
• Wake up at 6am to join the group for some Chi Kung-to move the energy in the universe and in and around you.
• Eat some delicious vegan food grown right on the campus
• Then it’s getting to work. We worked with the local villagers carrying bags of sand up a mountain, pugged (aka danced)… Read More
Crowded train in general class.Countryside of India, view from the train.Our train in India, and one of the memorable characters we met during our journey.Happy Birthday Tucker Joseph Peterson!Birthday party!Morning boat ride on the Ganga River.Ganga sunrise.Mornings on the Ganga and the start of our old city tour with Pinku-ji.Our master stone carver, Maya.… Read More
Dinner at our stone carving teacher’s house.Jed Foreman teaching us about Buddhism at Sarnath.Watching the beginning stages of silk saris being woven. With weavers from the sari factory.Rickshaw travel is exhausting and fun!Happy Halloween from the Shiva crew!Bobbing for apples!Fire show performed by Kate, Sarah, Doug, and Hannah.Pinku teaching us Hindi!Hindi class! Bahott achaa!… Read More
By Isabel Armas Namaste loag!!
Let’s just start off with how we got to Varanasi; it was quite the experience. Our departure day started amazingly. We ate with the “family,” said bye to Kolkata, and made it 2 hours early to the train station. It was about 30 minutes in when we realized that we missed our train. Whoops. Rawr. Our amazing leaders, Kate and Doug, were able to get… Read More
By Park and Rachel This week we dove into an outdoor education course with our new friends at Whenua Iti. This gave us the opportunity to try out multiple outdoor experiences that not only tested us physically but also mentally. Abel Tasman is the most visited national park in New Zealand with about 300,000 visitors per year. We got to see what it had to offer from not only inside… Read More
By Owen Kumasaka I’m sitting right now on the ground level “balcony” that serves as the roof to the bottom floor of our homestay house as well. The bottom floor is inhabited by the big animals that belong to our host family, a cow and a mule. They both share time in the little patio (pictured), however, aside from those animals, it is difficult to tell which animals belong to… Read More
By Sarah and Madeleine Howdy from your southern belles, Sarah and Madeleine!
We arrived in Flores Wednesday and met our contact Deiter who gave us some introductory information about Flores and the week ahead, then had free time. Some of us swam across the lake while others enjoyed immersing themselves in local culture by eating at Pollo Campero. On Thursday we toured the Yaxha ruins and camped overnight in tents.… Read More
By Emily Radek Our travel day(s) to McLeod Ganj was a long and odd one. We left at 4 am, took a 5 hour train ride, spent 7 hours in Delhi till our 12 hour overnight bus ride to Dharamsala. We got to our cute hostel in the beautiful towering mountains of McLeod Ganj, and we all passed out in the lounge on the roof– cute group cuddle puddle, as… Read More
By Rebecca & Elizabeth Hello beautiful family and friends,
We write to you from the depths of Tanzania in a small town known as Iringa. The air smells of eggs and french fries. We are sitting at an internet cafe in the post office, reflecting on our past week at Wildlife Connection.
On Monday we arrived at our campsite that was situated just 20 minutes away from Ruaha National Park.… Read More
