Copied from my personal blog doslenguasdosalmas.wordpress.com
Alright boys and girls, its been a while, but I’m back. Since my last update we’ve been through three cities, Baños, Tena and Otavalo.
Our time in Baños was highlighted by the volcanic hot springs. The city of Baños sits at the base of Tungurahua, a 16,000 foot active volcano which heats the pools of water down below to a comfortable but attention grabbing… Read More
Many things have happened in these last ten days since we have been off the grid. In some ways, there has been too much to be able to fit in a blog post so I will try to keep it short. After spending a little over a week in the beautiful mountain enveloped city of Baños, we went to another location with our Spanish school in the jungle near Tena;… Read More
( Adapted from personal blog, http://jackdubreuil.blogspot.com/ )
It´s almost a challenge to describe the Ecuadorian town of Baños without sounding like a travel brochure. The place has everything a tourist (or a roving band of student-volunteers) could wish for: a friendly atmosphere, fantastic food, plenty of nightlife, and a picturesque mountain range, which rises up majestically on every side and boasts something like 65 waterfalls. The outdoor scene, as you… Read More
This week we are in Baños, Ecuador for the second week of our language lessons. The first week was spent on a farm near Las Delicias, where we met the the owner of the language school, Lorena. We spent a the mornings of every day last week in Spanish lessons, and the afternoons hanging out on the farm. One day was spent working on the farm; harvesting plantains, then washing… Read More
Adapted from personal blog: http://jackdubreuil.blogspot.com/
We spent our last week in the Ecuadorian town of Las Delicias. That is, if you can really call Las Delicias a town.
To the uncultured American observer, Las Delicias is an altogether unfamiliar type of establishment. It´s a semi-official conglomerate of farms and residences, clumped loosely around a couple of stores and a homely futbol court. A quick Google search doesn´t turn up anything… Read More
(Copied from my personal blog doslenguasdosalmas.wordpress.com)
A lot has happened since my last post and I’m struggling trying to figure out how to include it all. For starters I know all about banana/plantain farming. We worked on a farm with a man named Juan Karlos and his family. When we arrived on the farm we got a tour of the property and got to sample the goods; everything from plantains… Read More
Copied from my personal blog doslenguasdosalmas.wordpress.com
So, something I failed to mention in my first blog post was the fact that I lost my passport in the Quito airport. So the first three days in Ecuador were spent in pursuit of a new passport. As of Friday I have completed my passport application in the US Embassy and I should have another in 10-14 days. Friday morning a group of… Read More
This is being posted to fulfill the requirements of a scavenger hunt. Our group is on in Quito. Don’t worry everyone is safe and having a great time!!… Read More
Finally ended my devastatingly long fasting streak over our 16 hours of plane rides when we all got to Community Hostel and indulged in our first taste of a traditional Ecuadorian meal here…bacon cheeseburgers! Not exactly what I was anticipating but it was absolutely starvation quenching material and delicious – and no doubt because this hostel is phenomenal. It was not exactly what I was expecting when I envisioned some… Read More
Today we were walking the streets of Quito on a scavenger hunt when we were contacted by our OE’s. Topher and Lindsay proceeded to inform us of our “secret assignment.” We were to learn a few steps of a traditional Ecuadorian dance and teach it to the rest of the group. We hung up the pay phone and proceeded to ponder how on earth we were going to find a… Read More
The South America group has arrived in Quito! After a night of travel, they have arrived safe and sound, with all their luggage, to the Hostel in Quito where they will spend the next few days orienting. In the coming days, all the students will also have the opportunity to post to this blog, so check back to hear more about their adventures in their own words. They will continue… Read More
Dear family and friends,
The South America semester is off to a smashing start. All eleven male students made it and the group is already joking, laughing, and practicing Spanish. Oversees Educators Topher and Lindsay are excited to finally have faces to this rambunctious group and they are all safely through security at LAX.
Stay tuned and we will post a second blog as soon as we hear that they… Read More
Lindsay and Topher here, the trusty leaders tasked with guiding you around Ecuador and Peru. For the first time ever in Carpe history, we have an all male group, which we’ve been excitedly preparing for by carrying around 11 construction paper males, and also (and more productively) by brainstorming topics and activities that we think you all will be stoked about. We can’t wait to replace your construction paper cut-outs… Read More
In Spanish there is not really a way to say goodbye. Nos vamos, hasta luego, hasta pronto, adios…all imply that we will see each other again. The alchemist says that if something happens twice it is bound to happen a third time. In order to ensure this let us set intention to make that second encounter happen. Although this particular adventure has come to an end, view this opportunity to… Read More
We have just finished our week of home-stays in the beautiful town of Incan ruins, Ollantaytambo. For the first half of the week we took Spanish classes at a nearby Spanish school from 9 am to 1 pm each day. Classes would consist of a few hours of Spanish practice and grammar in the classroom and then a few hours of exploring ruins, nearby markets, and the town with our… Read More
Our week in the Amazon was very rewarding and very challenging. Through extreme heat, bugs, fire ants, butcher wasps, and spiders, we were working on reforestation with our contact, Robin. We spent every day on his farm, which used no electricity save for a solar panel-powered satellite phone and chicken coop electric wire, and learned about the natural biodiversity of the Amazon and how vital it is for the area… 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
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
