Hola Team Inti, family and friends!!
It has been wonderful getting to chat with all of you over the past few weeks, our excitement for the upcoming semester is at an all-time high! From our brief conversations, it seems we have a really strong group, with all of you ready to bring your own passions and strengths to our new community. We are in the midst of staff training in… Read More
Well friends, we’ve done it. We’ve traversed the primary forests of the Ecuadorian Amazon, trekked the Salkantay pass at 15,200 feet, and visited the ancient city of Machu Picchu. We’ve witnessed community activism in Junin, and experienced the daily life of Ecuadorians while staying with local families in Pucara. We don’t even have to talk about our week working with the monkeys… The most important thing is that we all… Read More
After a mentally and physically demanding stay in the rural village of Patacancha, the INTI team headed back to Ollantaytambo for the first night of student directed travel. We stayed with the same families as the week before, and re-grouped at 9:00am in the Plaza de Armas to begin our long 3.5 hour journey to Lares. On the drive we went over the Lares mountain pass, and saw: extensive ruins,… Read More
A hike from Patacancha to high alpine lake Ispa Cocha Learning to spin yarn Making a friend at the yoga retreat Learning to make adobe bricks… Read More
For the most part, our week was relatively quiet. Everyone had Spanish lessons, either in the mornings or the afternoon, depending on skill level, which left half the day to roam free and explore the city of Arequipa. The real height of our trip was the weekend trek the group chose to do, through the Colca Canyon. As we learned, it is one of the largest canyons in the world,… Read More
After surviving innumerable twists and turns of Otavalos mountainy roads, the group stepped off in the small town of Pucara, comprised of 35 families in total. After being fed a filling meal of rice, beans and meat, it was time for the welcoming ceremony.
Sitting in a row, we watched the villagers speak, welcoming us to the town and inviting us to participate in a set of traditional games. Despite… Read More
It takes several arguments with disgruntled bus travelers and a boat ride across the Arajuno River, for us to reach the rocky beach of the Arajuno lodge. Quaint wooden cabins are spread out in front of us amongst patches of grass and towering bamboo stems. It feels like a microcosm of rustic urbanization. Between the wooden walls, colorful hammocks, and surprising satellite reception, it’s very easy to forget that we… Read More
Two weeks ago, the Carpe group was at the animal rescue and rehabilitation center Paseo de Los Monos. Every morning at 8am a few of us would accompany one of the workers to the fruit shed where we would prepare breakfast for the animals. While distributing the meals, we learned some of the creatures´names.
Two of the Chorongo monkeys were named Bebe and Yaya. Bebe is an attention seeker who… Read More
This week for our journey, we came to a quaint little city called Puyo and just on the outskirts of it is a little place called Paseo de los Monos. Paseo de los monos is a refugee camp for rescued animals (mainly monkeys) but there are other animals such as tortoises, parrots, pecardis (hogs with a white collar around their neck), a margay, a kinkachu, coati (supposely a mix between… Read More
Hello from Baños. After an early leaving from Las Delicias and Santo Domingo (which was at 4 A.M) and a five hour bus ride, we finally arrived in Baños. On our first day we meet our host family and our partners for the week. This gave us the chance to get to know a person from the group really well and to get to know our host family as well.… Read More
Stepping on the bus to head to La Delicias was a bittersweet feeling. We were sad to be leaving the luxurious life in the hostel in beautiful Quito and all the wonderful people we met. But at the same time we were thrilled to start another page in our adventure. The drive was a long three hours but but the view from outside the window of the bus was breath… Read More
We left Quito and its bustling streets and various tourist traps for the promise of a remote rural banana farm. We took three buses that first took us out of Quito, down the Ecuadorian mountains, and finally through the city of Santo Domingo to the town of Las Delicias through a winding back road to the banana farm.
Upon arriving at the banana farm, we ate a delicious lunch of… Read More
For anyone reading this, I am alive, and so is everyone else 🙂 After making it through the plane rides and sort of acclimating to the altitude we finally settled down in a cozy hostel. Never in my life have I been more greatful of seeing a bed with a comfortable pillow.
The first days were spent doing orientation and exploring the city, struggling to walk up steep hills and… Read More
On February 12th at 7 pm we left on a tasteful journey through the streets of Quito. At the first stop we made we tasted morochu, some delicous beef, and a fried mashed potato dish. The next stop we made which was right up the street was this place serving fried plantains and different types of tamales. At this stop they served us this delicious fruit smoothie drink and morochu… Read More
We are currently in an internet cafe in Quito Ecuador. We got to tour around Quito yesterday, and did a food tour last night. Today we are are exploring the town through a scavenger hunt. It is challenging to navigate around the city, but we are managing to get by with very clumsy spanish! Signing out yo!… Read More
Hi mom, hi dad. Quito is cool. We’ve been doing a lot of orientation type stuff so far with a bit of exploring the city. The group is good also. The food is surprisingly good, seems really unhealthy and greasy but it tastes good. We’re leaving Quito the day after tomorrow to go to the coast and a banana farm.… Read More
The first day here was amazing. The sight descending down to Quito was beautiful. The giant hills and ravine were a sight to see. I’m in awe as to how they get the houses built up in such places. The heat really hit me once we exited the airport but it was still a beautiful country. All the other people that in this group are amazing and knowledgeable and give… Read More
The South America group has made it safely to Quito. After their overnight flight, they were picked up from the Quito airport and taken to their cozy hostel. They are settling in and looking forward to the next few days of orientation. Stay tuned as the students will be posting blogs in here in the coming days!… Read More
