from Marley and Monica Once upon a time, eleven wazungu went into the wild. These are the things they saw…. lions, tigers, bears oh my! Just kidding about the tigers and bears, but the lions were a thing. Oddly enough, two out of the three times we saw these lions, momma and papa were doing the “downtown shuffle”. In those moments we all felt that we were right inside of… Read More
I have been at the Healing House now for over two months. I have been experiencing and learning so much here.
It was at first a difficult transition. I came to Cusco believing I would be working with kids and young mothers in programs offered at the house. When I arrived I learned that these programs no longer existed, and no one there knew anything about them. From there I… Read More
After the bus took us out of the city of Cuzco, steep mountains began cropping up on either side of the road. We had entered the Sacred Valley. After watching the rural (compared to city) lifestyle move by in the window for about half an hour, we came around a bend and the bus came to a stop. A river rushed along the right side of the road, along with… Read More
Hello from down under! I've spent the last month living in Bunbury a small city located in Western, Australia. While I am down here I am volunteering at the Dolphin Discovery Centre, one of the best places in Australia to see wild dolphins. When I'm working I can find myself doing random odd jobs around the centre, educating people about the 150 plus dolphins that can be found in the bay… Read More
This week there was an overthrow of the Audrey/Greg regime as the students took the reins for "Student Directed Travel". It didn't take us long to figure out what we wanted to do as soon as Amalia put bungalows on the beach and a National Park on the table. So, instead of heading straight to Vietnam, we decided to extend our stay in Cambodia and chill on the beach in… Read More
It’s been a week full of emotional highs and lows, which is really quite a fitting way to visit a country like Cambodia, whose people have experienced some of the most horrific extremes of human capabilities and yet still find ways to smile, laugh, and welcome visitors with open arms. We started the week in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, where we visited the S21 prison that was run… Read More
A week ago we parted from our host families and Rabulu village with tears and heavy hearts but excited for the fun times ahead. This past week was our free travel week, which means that the students decide everything, including the food, how we get around, activities, and even the places we stay. After a challenging search, we agreed to spend the week in the Vatia Beach Resort, in a… Read More
We made it to Australia!!!! Spent the day of April 3rd exploring the beautiful city of Brisbane. Now we are spending a few days in the beach town that is Noosa. We are attempting to surf, hang out, and get psyched for our next adventure which begins on the 7th.… Read More
We just completed our second week in Arequipa and I´m full of food…stories! This past Tuesday was my 20th birthday, which justified my hunt to try every cake in Arequipa. This wasn´t hard to accomplish, considering there is a pasteleria on every corner. What started off as a blessing, seems like somewhat of a curse these days. Caroline, my roommate in Arequipa, was my honorary twin this week, and my… Read More
Rolling along with the food blog theme (considering food is one of the things we're enjoying most in South America), I wanted to share some of the weirder foods we've gotten to taste down here. Cuy: I tried Guinea pig, which is a famous Peruvian dish but is available basically everywhere, in Pucara, Ecuador, where my homestay mother slaughtered one of her own guinea pigs to eat for dinner. Despite… Read More
This world we live can be such a beautiful place if you let it be. If you open yourself up to what it has to offer you can find yourself again.
This week Shanti India found themselves in the Asian fairy tale of Sikkim. Famous for its wide variety of plant life, that attracts botanists from all over the world and opportunities for mountaineering tourism. We arrived at our destination… Read More
A big hello from Playa Gigante in Nicaragua! I am currently in my 5th week here working with Project Wave of Optimism and loving it and all the people I’ve had the chance to meet so far. It seems like just yesterday that I was here with my group semester (shout out to the Quetzal homies) and falling in love with it all so much that I had to return… Read More
Fiji, What an amazing country. We started out in Nadi, staying at Bamboo Beach. Serving as a baby step by teaching a few cultural traditions and Fijian phrases, Bamboo Beach was lots of fun. Nadi was very chaotic, with the food markets, lots of kava and loads of souvenirs. Free travel begins. We stayed at this beautiful resort called the Beach House. The best way to describe it was 4… Read More
Bula! This past week in Rabulu Village was spent getting to know our host families and falling into the pace of village life. Some of us went horseback riding to local swimming holes, while others went fishing and watched the village rugby team play in a local tournament. On Wednesday, we went to the Fiji Water plant to get an inside look at the production process. On Thursday, we… Read More
Hola. My llamas name is maria. Soooooooo we may or may not have been slacking hardcore in the blogging aspect of this trip. Two weeks ago we chilled in Matagalpa and stayed with host families while also going to Spanish school. Pretty good gallo pinto if I do say so myself. We spent the week looking at tall buildings and learning about the canal that will be going through Lake… Read More
Overnight trains are almost becoming comfortable — compared to train station floors. We left the busy city of Calcutta and looked onwards towards the mountains of Gangtok, Sikkim. After our first jeep ride we were eager to make our way into the nearest cafe to grab pizza, hot dogs, and a cake to celebrate the 19th birthday of our wonderful group mate, Hava. We made our way into our… Read More
Bula friends and families! We have spent the last week in Rabulu (pronounced "Rambulu") Village living with host families and getting to know everyone in the village. Upon arrival on our first night, we introduced ourselves to everyone and were welcomed into the village with the traditional drinking of kava, a crushed plant saturated in water which produces a tea-like drink. After the drinking of kava, meeting our host families,… Read More
What’s travel’s environmental impact? And how can you be a sustainable traveler?
Congratulations! You’ve decided to travel internationally during your gap year. You’re thinking about all the new people you’ll meet, the adventures you’ll have, the places you’ll go – but have you considered the environmental impact you’ll have?
“Impact?” you ask. “But I’ll be living out a backpack, maybe taking fewer showers, not driving a car….”
While that can… Read More
This week we left Thailand and moved on in our journey to Cambodia. We all knew that this week especially was going to be a pretty emotional and heavy because of what we were about to learn. We left our hotel in Korat to travel to the border of Thailand and Cambodia. There we crossed over and got our Cambodian visas and found a bus to bring us to the… Read More
At the beginning of my trip to Ecuador I thought I would be able to draw countless parallels between the experiences I had last semester in the South Pacific and the experiences I would have in South America. However, I was very wrong. I also thought that I was prepared completely for the adventure I was entering. And literally, I was. I had my backpack, steri pen, Spanish- English… Read More
