The ITZA group arrived sleepy, safe, and sound to Earthlodge today, a series of charming rustic a-frames perched on a side of mountain overlooking a valley of coffee plants, a distant Antigua, and two smoldering volcanoes. We even jumped up from the dinner table to catch a few seconds of lava flow. Guatemala, thanks for the great welcome.… Read More
Sleep deprived and still excited, we have confirmed the group is all together and eager to start their journey! Remember to stay tuned for regular blog updates! Ethan and the Carpe Crew… Read More
ITZA group:
Just a reminder that our original TACA flight was moved by the airline to 5:50am from the original 12:30am flight. We will be at the TACA ticket counter (SFO International terminal) from 9:00-9:45pm to meet any students who had direct connecting flights and no other San Francisco arrangements. For those who have accommodations in or near SF and can rest until the new flight time, be sure to… Read More
The Central America surface feature map has been released, our intrepid explorers. We now have the locations of Central American people who will reveal previously unearthed nuggets of inspiration, learning and growth. Just follow the X’s and your heart, if you dare…… Read More
Saludos nuestro grupo querido de ITZA!
With less than a week remaining before we depart for our semester throughout Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Roatan, we feel an overwhelming excitement to meet you and begin learning through experiencing.
We were sitting on the steps of the front porch in Portland when we started laughing thinking of papusas, liquidos, chicken buses, beautifully awkward moments in language mistranslation, and the group waking… Read More
Hi family and friends, Keely here from San Jose, Costa Rica. We just completed our week of free travel, which we spent in Puerto Viejo de Talamaca, a small beach town on the Caribbean coast. We had a low key week in this relaxed town, using rented bikes as transportation. (A shout out to Mike, who was kind enough to tote me around on the back of his bike due… Read More
When I was eight years old, I saw the movie Blue Crush. You know, that one where Kate Bosworth lives in Hawaii and surfs in competitions until she gets into an accident and becomes truamatized but eventually finds the inner strength to win Pike in Oahu? Yeah, well ever since I saw that movie, I´ve wanted to learn to surf. There´s just something inherently cooler about a girl who can… Read More
Hey everybody. Maya here, broadcasting live from the beautiful beachside town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, our chosen free-travel destination. Our week on la Playa Camronal was harder than most of us expected, with killer bugs and long, often fruitless nights of turtle work. A fair ammount of our time during the day was spent relaxing, and the rest performing various seemingly meaningless tasks– we picked up garbage on the… Read More
Greetings yet again from the city of Leon as we wind up week two in this beautiful ciudad de Nicaragaua. Youve already heard from Becca–alright from the open door to my right i just witnessed my first Nicaraguan ¨ding dong ditch¨. I hope everyone else can find this as ammusing as I am, proof that where ever you are life is more similiar then different (atleast in my opinion), and… Read More
Sup guys, it´s Emily. Again. In light of us having about a month left in Central America, I thought I´d share an important lesson that I´ve learned the hard way: that no matter where you are, who you´re with, or what you´re doing, you have to walk.It seems simple, the act of walking. You put one foot in front of the other, you move yourself forward through space and time.… Read More
¡Hola amigos y familia! This is Becca reporting from a scorching hot but beautiful León. It has been a very busy week, what with adjusting to a new location, but I think everyone has officially settled in and is having a great time!Like Rachael said, we began our time in León by meeting our families. Unlike the homestay situation in Xela, the majority of us are staying two to a… Read More
Hello Friends and Family, this is Rachael blogging from Leon, Nicaragua. This last week or so has been busy since we left Chicacnab, in the cloud forest that you heard about from Kelley.From Chicacnab we hiked a couple miles down a muddy slippery mountain side (my feet just did not seem to want to stay under me) then took a bus to Coban where we spent the night, showered the… Read More
What’s up guys, it’s Emily again. That’s right, you haven’t gotten rid of me yet. And don’t think you’re going to, because for the rest of the trip, you’ll be hearing from me once a week. That’s seven blogs. Get excited. Anyway, to begin. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but we’ve encountered quite a bit of wildlife lately, starting in Chicacnab. After being assaulted by insects… Read More
Greetings from Coban….Kelley here!!
Let me start this weeks blog entry by saying everyone is alive and well after our week in the cloud forrest. (Dirty, smelly, and cold…but alive, and happy to be alive!) After our super relaxing week in San Marcos getting in touch with our spiritual, creative sides we had a bit of a change of pace hiking to a remote village with no plumbing or electricity.… Read More
Hola familias!
Debbie here, writing from the super zen, super hippie town of San Marcos. So, last time we checked in was in during our lovely 2 weeks in Xela homestays! Where we are now, is quite different, not in a bad way though, in fact most of us love it here more than Xela! San Marcos is a tiny town located on Lago Atitlan (one of the most beautiful… Read More
Saturday was our trip up to chi chi. Unlike our other trips this one was planned entirely by the students. The plan was to take a mini bus to Minerva where these guys ask you where your going and then try to drag you into their bus. Once we found one that was headed to chi chi we all hopped on. Keep in mind this was no New… Read More
Hola mis compadres! It’s Liza here, blogging from the gringo friendly cafe, La Cafetera. Where do I begin? This week has definitely passed by much faster than the week we spent in Pasac. This is a good thing. Pasac was overall, an amazing and wonderful experience that I’ll always remember. However, upon our arrival in Xela, I had one thing on my mind and one thing only: to take a… Read More
Eliza,
This is a photo-message from your parents and Iris just wanting you to know how much they love you and are appreciative that you were born … I’m so sorry though, my understanding is that there’s no birthday cake left! 🙂… Read More
So I know that this is our first blog and everything and that whoever reads this probably wants to hear about how amazing everything is and how nothing bad has happened and how we’re loving every aspect of Central America, but I wanted to start off on a more honest note. Now, obviously I can’t speak for everyone, but I was straight up dreading this week. After arriving in Guatemala last Wednesday… Read More
After a minor hiccup with Kelley’s bags being sent by her airline to somewhere she wasn’t going (now fixed) the ITZA group is all together and through security. In a short time they will be on their way to Guatemala to begin their adventure.
Look for more from them in a couple days! … Read More
