From Massachusets, Virginia, Oregon, Maryland, Kansas, Texas, New York, Toronto, and Florida… the Spring 2016 South America students have all arrived safe and sound in Los Angeles! They are checked in for their flight to Quito, and are getting ready to head through security and begin their journey together. Everyone is excited, and happy to finally be together as group. We wish them much learning, laughter, joy and adventure over… Read More
Here we find ourselves in the midst of winter, spending time with all of the amazing people who comprise the Carpe Diem community and staff, and enjoying all that Portland has to offer.
It’s hard to imagine that in less than two week’s time we will all be enjoying the warm, tropical nights and hot sun of Ecuador! If it doesn’t feel real yet, don’t worry- it will soon! We… Read More
To all of the families and friends awaiting our ten beloved chicos,
We’ve just bid the sleepy, smiling faces of our wacky and wonderful group ‘hasta luego’ at the Lima airport, where they’ve started their long journey home to you. As a few guys mentioned in previous posts, we conquered many a mountain on our Salkantay trek, which rewarded us with spectacular vistas, sore legs, and a final treat of… Read More
Inti´s South America semester´s days have come to a rich end. After all the learning, growing, and experiencing that we´ve done, a hike to Machu Picchu was poised as the cap to our 3 months. After all, the site is a wonder of the world.
We began our 5 day trek at the trailhead of the Salkantay path. While most tourists head through the famous Incan Trail, we followed the… Read More
The group was all packed up that night and ready for an early 5:00 am wake up when we got the news that a city wide transportation strike would delay our departure 24 hours. So one day after our intended departure we boarded a bus and rode two hours to the head of the Salkantay Trail and began hiking. Salkantay means ”Wild Mountain” in Quechua and on the first leg… Read More
Inti just spent about a week in the ancient city of Ollantaytambo. A bus shuttled us all from Cusco and dropped us off in the central plaza of the city. The first things you notice upon arrival are the ruins all around you. On the two mountains to the North and South, Incan arqueological sites almost blend in to the similarly colored sediment. To the South, terraces and temples flecked… Read More
Yesterday we reached a milestone on this journey: we can now count the days we have left on our fingers. A whole lot has happened since my last post in Puno. We went from Puno to Cusco for a quick break before departing to the Sacred Valley for a week long yoga retreat. Each day consisted of 4 hours of physical yoga practice and two yoga lifestyle workshops covering topics… Read More
A little over a week ago we left behind all of the luxurious and touristy comforts of Cusco and took an overnight cama cama bus loaded with la-z-boy recliners, movies, AC, questionable airplane food, and even our own flight attendant. It was quite the experience, but short lived and the pampering was over when we woke up in the sticky heat the Amazonian river town Puerto Maldonado. The town is… Read More
Our week in Arequipa sold us on Peru pretty easily. Aside from Jimmy, Ryan and TJ, whose inconvenient location necessitated a 45-minute commute to and from the Spanish school, the majority of us took a quick liking to the new country – 5000-meter snow-covered warts and all.
This was especially good news because our next week was libre: We had six days to plan and follow our own schedule, operating… Read More
We left the Intag Watershed with a pretty simple itenerary: Head back to Quito, check into Community Hostel, hit the laundromat, eat ludicrous amounts of brownies, and fall asleep watching movies on the wall projector.
Community is an exceptionally comfortable hostel with delicious meals, friendly (English-speaking) staff, and a welcoming vibe. It was the first place we stayed after arriving in Ecuador back in September, and most of the group… Read More
“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
On November 8th, the Sacred Valley, near Cusco, greeted us with an overcast sky, a calm river, and enormous, cultivated mountains on… Read More
Peru is already a favorite among many group members. We arrived in Arequipa and I became instantly enamored with the landscape. A very dry city, home to almost 800,000 people, Arequipa is surrounded by three volcanos, Misti, Chachani and Pikchu Pikchu. The tallest, Misti, reaches 19,000 feet into the air. Jack, Hunter, Peter and I stayed with the Meza family. Mr. Meza is a volcanologist who studied the mountains surrounding… Read More
Two weeks ago we arrived in Arequipa, Peru. Having spent over a month in Ecuador I thought I knew what to expect from Peru environmentally; lots of green and lots of moisture. After all the country is separated into the same three geographical regions as Ecuador: The costa to the West on the Pacific Ocean, the sierra located in the highlands of the Andes Mountains, and the selva, the lowlands… Read More
After logging a week of homestays and enjoying typical Peruvian food alongside our newfound Arequipeñan family members, ten perpetually hungry teenage boys were released into the small world of meat, sweets, and live music at the Food Festival in Arequipa, Perú. The festival was located in a small town square overlooking a large part of the city. In the backdrop you could see the massive snow-capped mountains forever overseeing everyday… Read More
( Adapted from personal blog – http://www.jackdubreuil.blogspot.com )
The Ecuadorian villiage of Pucará is a solid candidate for the title of World’s Most Unassuming Place. It’s a humble little town, small in every sense, with modest buildings dwarfed even further by the Andean monoliths that pierce the horizon in every direction. The center square, complete with a small church, two stores, and a volleyball court, branches out into a few… Read More
Lightning crackled across a dark grey sky, temporarily illuminating the faces of the twelve intrepid travelers sitting around the table in the Pucara community center. However, just outside the doors a crime of magnificent proportion was underway. Blissfully unaware of the larceny taking place outside, our jolly wayfarers drowned out the following clap of thunder with a raucous bout of laughter and other expressions of mirth. Half an hour passed… Read More
Our time in Ecuador is drawing to an end. We depart tomorrow (Saturday October 24) for Arequipa, Peru where we will begin the second half of our adventure. We arrived yesterday in Quito after ten days in the Intag region. While we were there, we learned about sustainable, organic agriculture as well as the fight between the people of that region and ENAMI, the Ecuadorean national mining company trying to… Read More
Ten days ago we arrived in the small Andean town or Pucara and were greeted our local contact, Peter Shear, along with almost half of the local community. We were sat down to a welcoming ceramony involving a cultural dance performed by women in traditional attire. After the ceremony we were all introduced to our homestay families and given the rest of the afternoon and evening to settle in to… Read More
We spent four days of last week in the Ecuadorian Amazon, 30 bumpy minutes outside of the city of Tena, learning how much life can improve when you’re half an hour from the nearest power outlet and surrounded by deet-hungry mosquitoes. Special thanks to my anti-malarial tablets for making this awesome stay possible.
We bunked down in a ridiculously cool two-story shack that our backpacker-friendly host family had constructed in… Read More
