Follow the Journey

Hola Todos!  Bienvenidos a nuestra blog! We are so excited to be leading your semester in Central America.  We’ve now talked to all of you on the phone and in addition to hammering home some important points about the semester we’ve gotten a brief glimpse into the make up of the group.  From our short conversations with each of you, we know that we will be a fantastic team and… Read More

Woah Woah Woah! Time flies when you are in 4 different countries, flown in over 10 planes and slept in over 20 different beds. Today is the day we have all anticipated/dreaded/waited/been excited for. Its no surprise that we are feeling a lot of different emotions. However, we had a wonderful final week in Roatan and are enjoying our last day together. Two days ago we dove our final dive… Read More

Hey everyone!After a relaxing week in Sarapiqui for free travel we flew here to the beautiful island of Roatan, Honduras. It was an easy and early trip, when we got here we spent the day unpacking and hanging out in our awesome hotel. On Thursday morning we walked next door to seagrape plantation diving center to begin our SCUBA course. Our instructors Tony and Reno showed us some informational videos… Read More

Hello from Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui we have arrived here for our week of free travel. The last week we were in Gandoca close to the Costa Rican and Panamanian border where we helped with leatherback turtles. We would either have to go out from 8 pm to 12 am or 12 am to 4 am on the beach to patrol. Once on the beach we would be lead by… Read More

Our group with Tyler and Chloe of Parque Maderas at our Carpe Prom. Look at how real we look…we dressed up as best we could for the occasion. All geared up for the longest zip line in Nicaragua…except for the three chicas at the end who were too cool to put their helmets back on for the photo. Beautiful sunset in San Juan del Sur.. Hannah, Brian, and Heather went… Read More

Hola from Costa Rica!After traveling on bus for most of yesterday we made it. But before we got here we did some awesome things at Parque Mederas. We helped the family to build the kiln for Tyler and even got to try our hands at spinning a pot on the foot powered wheel, its a lot harder than it looks or sounds. Before we left we even got to see… Read More

Hola from San Juan Del Sur!!! The weeks been going amazing, we arrived after a nice 4 hour bus ride from Leon Monday afternoon and everyone really seems to be enjoying themselves. Were staying at a hostel called Parque Maderas, which is incredible we can see the beutiful beach down the hill and in the and in the afternoons the temperature cools down, which has been a nice change from… Read More

All of us in Heather and Adams appartment during our potluck in Xela The view from the top of the Devils Nose on our third trek day. It was totally worth it to get up at 4 just to see this sunrise over Lake Atitlan. Do you see that tiny tiny building on the tippy top of the tallest peak in the right hand corner…?Thats where we watched the sunrise… Read More

Greetings from Nicaragua!!!We arrived in the extremely hot city of Leon Sunday afternoon. The flight was rather short and we were all very excited to arrive in a new country. It was only a short busride from the airport and we learned that this part of Nicaragua is surprisingly less mountain filled than Guatemala. almost all of us are in doubles this week so we settled into our last homestays… Read More

Last Saturday we went on a 40 kilometer hike from Xela to San Marcos. It took 2 and a half days. We carried our big packs with us and it was extremely challenging for all of us. The first night we slept at a campsite in tents. The next night we slept in an empty house that the trekking company supplied for us. The third morning we woke up at… Read More

Happy 19th Birthday Brian. Here’s wishing you a great year and many happy adventures to follow! Love, Dad, Pam, Carlie, and McKenzie… Read More

HOla from Xela! Today was our last day at Casa Xelaju. Tomorrow we are headed to San Marcos for a week of yoga and meditation. Before we get ahead of ourselves, we must talk about the past week in Xela We enjoyed a nice day of shopping in Chichistenango. As you can see in the picture below, we took a chicken bus for transportation. We shopped for a while on… Read More

our wonderful leaders!lexi, lauren f, brian, heather, hannah, and kelly in the hot springs!lauren w and griffin in barrio ixobel (old picture but griffins smiling!)… Read More

all of us on emily and lauren fs bed at a hostel in chichi!adam, kelly, brooke, emily, and brian after volunteering at la pedrera. a nice view of xela!… Read More

A few more photos for all you wonderful blog followers…. The cloud forest was so beautiful… the little house is where we stayed. The Chicken Bus ride back from chichi….so many people on the bus!! The Dude Shack in the cloud forest…Brian, Griffin, and Adam The group at Tikal on top of one of the temples! From L to R: Lexi, Griffin, Hannah, Brian, Brooke,Emily, Lauren W, Kelly, Adam, Lauren… Read More

Hey everyone!Hope you liked the pictures, there are more to come.Uploading is easy this week because we are staying in the second largest city in Guatemala, Xela. There is a gorgeous central park and tons of things to do everyday. Everyone is living in a homestay again, some farther then others, but all the families are great.Daily life in Xela goes a little something like this: school starts at 8:00… Read More

Ariel view from samuc champay, where we went last weekend for the dayHiking to the Cloud Forest (from left to right griffin, brian, kelly, emily, lauren f)Climbing to the top of one of the temples at Tikal!Sitting inside one of the Mayan ruins at Tikal (lexi, lauren f, emily, and brooke)Our whole group in a cave at barrio ixobel! ( top left to right: brian, heather,… Read More

Dear mothers, lovers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors and beloved pets, Greetings from Coban! We are staying in a Hostal tonight and taking a lengthy bus ride to Xela tomorrow morning, but, lets not get too ahead of ourselves here. You must know about last week first! We left San Andres for Coban last Sunday. We stayed in the same Hostal we are staying in now, it is very clean… Read More

Hola everyone! We just finished our first week of spanish school and we all learned a lot! Most of us had our own teacher, and all of them were great. We spent 4 hrs each morning at the school and spent the afternoons swimming in the lake, or doing various activities. We took a boat trip into Flores to shop on thurs. and stopped at a small museum on the… Read More

Grettings from San Andres, Guatemala. We arrived in the very hot town of San Andres yesterday after a week full of Guatemalan traditions, holidays, parades, pageants, and costume contests. The week started with carnivale where we were all covered in flour and confetti thrown on us by the local children. The next day was a mardi gras parade where we were once again attacked by the children. On friday it… Read More