Follow the Journey

Written by Emma & Spencer Hi guys! Emma and Spencer here. We have now successfully finished our first week at Long Way Home in what is known as the “Florence of Guatemala,” the vibrant town of Comalapa. Our first night in Comalapa we settled into the innovative and beautiful Long Way Home Lodge, only a stones throw away from the Heroes School which is the main focus of the Long… Read More

Written by Alex & Claire Hey Quetzal Family & Friends! It’s Alex and Claire, here to update you about our last week in Costa Rica- one of our busiest weeks yet! After saying goodbye to our man Stwarth and all the turtles with a final “Turtle Vibes!” chant, we had a pretty short drive to Samara. The group had an hour of free time to explore the city before meeting… Read More

Written By Michaela & Maya Hey guys, Michaela and Maya here! Writing from Refugio Camaronal, we are excited to talk about our time in Golfito and here in Camaronal at the turtle project! We left Mastatal early in the morning and drove for 5 hours to reach Golfito. We all were tired but excited to learn how to scuba dive. After we arrived we jumped straight into it. We split… Read More

Written By Maddi & Ethan Hola from Maddi and Ethan! We’re writing to you from the oceanside of Golfito, excited to tell you all about our time with Javier and Raquel in Mastatal! On Saturday we arrived at Villas Mastatal and moved into our rooms. The girls were in a dormitory overlooking the rainforest and the boys in a bedroom directly below. After we got settled and ate some lunch… Read More

Written By Rosa & Spencer Hola from Rosa and Spencer! As we spend our final hours at Spanish by the River, we write this in the hope that you’re excited to hear all about the second half of our time in Turrialba! On Saturday, we woke up bright and early to catch a 6:30 am taxi to Volcan Turrialba. After an hour or so of twists and turns (and beautiful… Read More

We’ve traded the rainforest landscapes of Chilamate for some small-city life here in the heart of Costa Rica’s Central valley in the Cartago province south of San Jose. There’s lots to love about this region, with lush waterfalls, rivers, and wildlife (including our first sloth spotting!) — as well as the second largest volcano in the country that looms over the landscape. But it is the chance to dive into… Read More

Written By Emma Emma here! We have safely landed and have been spending our first four days in Chilamate at the amazing Chilamate Ecolodge. On day one, we flew in to San José around 11am Mountain Time. We drove for one hour through the beautiful Costa Rican landscape, with cliffs of green, and lush mountains intertwined with clouds. We stopped at a remote local comedor where we started our journey… Read More

The QUETZAL group has arrived safely in Costa Rica! They are on their way to Chilamate, where they’ll settle in to their hostel and start their orientation. They’ll post an update here on Monday to let us know how their first few days in Costa Rica went. Pura Vida QUETZAL!… Read More

Our QUETZAL group is all together! Everyone has arrived safely at the Hilton Newark Airport Hotel and they are settling in, starting to get to know one another, and eagerly anticipating their departure to Costa Rica tomorrow morning. We’ll post another blog here tomorrow afternoon once we’ve heard that they’ve arrived safely in Costa Rica. Let the journey begin!… Read More

Hola Grupo Quetzal & friends & family! This is your Overseas Educators, Rachael & Ryan, writing from Portland, OR where we are in the midst of training. We started out camping with the other OE’s and HQ staff at the gorgeous Trillium Lake under Mt. Hood where we spent a lively and lovely couple days getting to know each other, learning about Carpe Diem stuff, swimming in the lake, and… Read More

By Anya and Doug Hola Jimmy, Katie, Bradley, Jillian, Jake, Toe, PJ, Cate, Juancho, Anna, Dylan, Ellie and Maggie!! Well, here we are, lying in hammocks overlooking Taganga bay in Colombia thinking back on our wildly successful three-month adventure. We are overwhelmed with feelings of love and gratitude as we think about our group and all of the fun times we shared this semester. You all each brought so much… Read More

By Jimmy and Jake Hello to every one of our blog readers, it’s Jimmy and Jake blogging here and we would like to inform y’all about all the fantastic activities and other experiences we had during the past week. Our journey during the past week started in the large and historic capital of Guatemala, Guatemala City. We entered by microbus coming from our fulfilling week at El Paredon, but we,… Read More

Last Wednesday we left Antigua. After a short two-hour van ride we arrived in the tranquil beach town of El Paredon. Our week in El Paredon was organized by a social enterprise called La Choza Chula. La Choza Chula is helping El Paredon through a recent increase in tourism. They are providing knowledge and help with sustainable ways of education, enterprise, and environmental protection. We stayed in an awesome hostel… Read More

by Jillian and Tori The day began with the microbus ride straight out of a circus. 16 of us crammed into a bus for 14 for 3 excruciating hours followed by a short boat ride through mountains and volcanoes of lake Atitlan to arrive at the mystical yoga farm. As soon as we stepped off the boat, it became apparent that we were not in Kansas anymore. We were greeted… Read More

These tidings come to you from ya boy Peej, ya girl Ellie (aka Estelle aka Ellsworth), and ya homegirl and a half Cate the Great 8. ‘Twas the week before Thanksgiving, and all through the group, not creature was stirring, because 80% were dying from various stomach ailments. But no matter, we were off to Semuc Champey to begin our week of student-directed travel, harrah! The groups prudent, fearless, and… Read More

By Jillian and Tori The day began with the microbus ride straight out of a circus. 16 of us crammed into a bus for 14 for 3 excruciating hours followed by a short boat ride through mountains and volcanoes of lake Atitlan to arrive at the mystical yoga farm. As soon as we stepped off the boat, it became apparent that we were not in Kansas anymore. We were greeted… Read More

By Jon Hey, Jon here covering part two of our “Escuela de la Montaña” adventure. Big thanks to Dylan for part one. Give the man a Pulitzer, 10/10 writing. Anyways, let’s hop right into Thursday, November 9th, 2017. As it’s been explained, we had been split up into afternoon and morning classes. Now, there were two planned times for groups to go the local Mayan SHAMAN at a town called… Read More

By Dylan Crovo Sunday morning was spent in Xela (pronounced shay-la); like any other morning spent at 8,000 feet in Guatemala, the day broke shockingly cold. Shivering despite my poncho, an impulse purchase made at one point or another by every member of the group, I arrived at Xela’s central park. In the mere 10 minutes it took for the rest of the group to arrive at the park, looking… Read More

By Jake Anquillare and Anna Parker ¡Hola! Es Jake y Anna aqui estamos veniendo de Xela, Guatemala ahora. Pero antes de nuestro viaje nosotros tuvemos un noche al hostel de Costa Rica. For all you amateurs out there we will break it down for you. Early Thursday morning we caught a ferry from the Nicoyan peninsula to Puntarenas and began yet another travel day. When we got off the ferry… Read More

By Anna, Bradley, Doug, and Anya Anya babysitting on a bus. Bradley in his happy place. Cate and Jimmy birdwatching. Cocos! Costa Rica cooking class. Costa Rican sunset. Quetzal dance class! Dylan and Jillian. Ellie, Maggie, and Cate. Cate, Maggie, Anna, Anya, Ellie, Katie, and Jimmy enjoying la playa. Gallina wranglin’. Jake and Cate. Jimmy getting in on the fun. Juan milking a cow! Cate and PJ. Katie and Anna … Read More