This cloudy friday morning finds us once again happily settled in the mountain town of Otavalo. We´ve spent the week attending spanish school, practicing spanish with our new found ecuadorian families members, hiking liberally around the area, and imitating bird calls in an attempt to tease flight out of Andean Condors. We eagrly await reuniting with our group mates, now lost amongst the forest of clouds. This weekend there is… Read More
Today we encountered our first mountainous obstacle as a team…literally. We climbed a mountian. We scaled one of the largest mountains in the area around Otavalo, a mountain by the name of Fuya Fuya. The views were incedible and the acsent steep, but we enjoyed every second of it, relishing in the challenge. At the top the clouds wisped up the mountain and enveloped us like a blanket left out… Read More
Due to complications with Flickr, we created a brand spankin´ new account through shutterfly, which allows all of us to sign in under 1 username. Here´s the link, check us out: http://www.samcarpediem2009.shutterfly.com… Read More
This dark saturday eve finds us nestled in between mamma and pappa volcanoes in the ever magnificent Otavalo Ecuador. After two weeks spent working the farm at Rio Muchacho, today we were able to satisfy our insatiable American need to consume, storming one of the largest handicraft markets in South America, scouring the streets for gifts, plauging store owners for their unnescesary knick knacks made of alpaca hair. We now… Read More
Hi Family! We are having such a great time in Rio Muchacho and want to tell you all about our trip so far! We started out at Saiunanda, a beautiful place just outside of Bahia. Alfredo, the owner, opened our eyes to a new way of living, as we all tried something new and did a singing bowls meditation. Peacocks roomed the land, along with many other birds and animals… Read More
We´re here!!! After a verrrrrry long day of travel, we have arrived at our orientation location on the coast.
We´ve been released into the city of Bahia de Caraquez by Jeff and Dawn, who (very lovingly) said to us this morning, `Now leave this beautiful hostel we´re staying in, fend for yourselves, and come back for dinner! No, we won´t be helping you. At all.´
So here we (Will and… Read More
hola amigos! we have made it here to ecuador and are in la ciudad de bahia de caraquez! this is our first stop so we havent seen much of the city, but the hostel we are staying at is mucho bien. there is even a sloth that live in the kitchen. we are on a scavenger hunt and are hoping we find some great things. the new culture is sometinhg… Read More
Sup guys its Dan and Keegan reporting live from an internet cafe in Bahia, Ecuador!! Being the first ones to post on this blog and to find internet access by ourselves we would to take this time to congradulate ourselves… After a strenuous day of traveling were eager to explore more of this town on foot. Our hostel that we are staying at is luxurious, very peaceful and full of… Read More
I’ve just spoken to Dawn and Jeff and the group happy, together and are heading through LAX airport security as I type this blog. With one slightly delayed student everyone arrived without injury and with all bags present – truly, this promises to be a wonderful and affirming semester! Please stay tuned for regular blogs from our students on a mostly weekly basis. Yours in spirit,
Ethan… Read More
Well Hi Thar:)This is your future co-leader team, Jeff and Dawn, just checking in with you, sending out warm welcomes. We have been spending many days together now, running around Portland doing last minute errands, talking Heaps about our upcoming adventure and how truly excited we are to meet all of you very very soon, and simply learning about each other. We’ve been going over our itinerary, finalizing a few… Read More
Well, its been a fantastic journey through America del Sur, and it has now come to an end. To recap:After we got back from the yoga retreat, we had a successful trek to the famous city of Machu Picchu. Along the way, we met a lot of nice people, saw some amazing scenery, and felt the presence of the ancient Inca in every footstep. For some, it was our first… Read More
We just got back from our Yoga retreat. Wow, what an amazing experience that was.
We got there Sunday night, and started right into a yoga philosopy class. We learned about the begining of yoga. We had our first yoga class that night. That night was really just spent relaxing and getting our yoga on.
We started our next day and everyday after that, with a session of meditation, then… Read More
We left Pilcopata after our almuerzo(lunch), loaded up the 4×4 that would take all of our food to the community, and headed out on foot to Huancaria. Our jungle stroll took us about two hours, hiking on rough muddy roads with just our water bottles. We met our Jeep in the main plaza of the town, picked up all our supplies and walked another ten minutes to the raised and… Read More
Hi all! Sorry its been so long- we have just been so so busy! So last week, after a lovely couple of days in the beautiful city of Cusco, the group set off onto a ten day expedition… to the jungle. It took us a few days to get out there being that it was so far away and we made a few pit stops. We left Cusco on Tuesday,… Read More
Well I didn´t have this weeks trivia on my lost post, so here it is guys!
Peru is one of the leading exporters for paprika, and asparagus. As well as gold, and they have some of the best silver you will ever find!
As a lack of education in Peru, they arent able to really get into the exprting as other countries are. So they sit on the moto of… Read More
Well tomorrow we have our last day in Spanish school. These last 2 weeks have been filled with learning and new experiences.
Today at school a few of us travel to the market, where some of us saw things we didn´t really want to see. Parts of animals that should never be shown. I know my teachers were trying to make me try Frog Juice….Ehhhhhh, no thanks! :-/ It definantly… Read More
Well this weekend, we hiked to the bottom of the 2nd deepest canyon in the WORLD! And there is only a couple 100 meter difference between the first and second.
Sheese it was a crazy weekend, we woke up on Saturday morning around 3:30 am, and got on to a bus and tried to sleep since we knew we had a long day ahead of our selfs.
We arrived to… Read More
Hello Lima, wait, no, hello Arequipa!
We only took a pit stop in the Lima airport to use our first Soles, and taste some fantastic gelatto.
And now here we are, settled in with our families, getting used to the groove of Spanish school, and spending our afternoons walking around the Plaza de Armas under the hottest sun in the world, so says Jenn’s homestay Dad Freddy. But Freddy also… Read More
So as of now, the crew is kickin it in Quito yet again before heading down to Peru-a-go-go where all should go equally swell. This past week Adam and Heather entrusted their sanity, safety and well being in the hands of us, spanglish speaking loonies, in hopes that we wouldn´t seriously hurt, or offend anyone. All i can say is bless their souls…bless their souls.Our week of fun in the… Read More
