Follow the Journey

As requested, here are the prompts for our guided meditation on our incredible journey!! After  leading you through the relaxation we asked you to steady your mind, your heart, your breath and remember the… First moment you heard one of our voices on the phone talking to you about the adventure ahead New faces in San Francisco First massage circle on the floor and the dance party in the dark… Read More

Hola friends and family of our Itza family! We had an incredible last day in Roatan, which included a day trip to West Bay, where we lounged and swam in one of the most beautiful beaches that we have ever seen. About half the group even got to go on a final dive the last day, swimming in underwater galaxies with many little fishes, eels and turtles by our sides.… Read More

Student Directed Travel begins at our new hostel called El Retiro.  With a lovely bar restaurant right on the river, we go tubing, hot tub, sauna and have lots of good food.  Including our Thanksgiving feast!  We go on the most amazing candle lit cave dive filled with beautiful rock formations, waterfalls and cannonballs 🙂  Some of us go off this giant river swing into the water, followed by tubing… Read More

Hey ITZA friends and family! After a beautiful drive to Lanquin (which included a hilarious game of sharing embarrassing stories and the most breathtaking, glorious, bright, bold full rainbow that any of us have ever seen), we arrived safe and sound at El Retiro hostel in Lanquin, a little town right outside of Semuc Champey. We had a scrumptious buffet dinner, a delightful breakfast with dishes ranging from chocolate heaven… Read More

Hello family, friends, and concerned parents and grandparents, we have had a great time during our second half of being in Xela. All of us continued with our one on one spanish lessons in the morning and cultural activites in the afternoon. We worked closely with Christian, one of the men who works at the school, who helped organize all of our activities. He facilitated a cooking class one day… Read More

Being in Pasac during Dia de los Muertos was an incredibly enriching experience. We were lead by locals to the cemetary about ten minutes away, along a narrow rocky path in between dilapitated houses and yards. The cemetary was filled with families; women in traditional Mayan clothing, crowds of young teens dressed in all black with their hair slicked to the side, old men in traditional kilt-like clothing and red… Read More

Fiesta in Matagalpa Outlined in  a halo of light from the fireworks whistling into the air, me and my host siblings pass thorugh the couples and other families to the inner circle where the children of the town strain to see what is happening. As we approach, my younger brother perches on the highest part of his tipy toes. I turn to my host sister to tell her to help… Read More

Weary, sore and cramped after five hours stuffed in a mini bus, the beating sun created a sardined sauna as we bumped along endless Guatemalan roads. We finally peeled off the highway, winding through small villages, staring hopefully out the window at families walking down the street dressed in traditional Mayan regalia, beautiful full length skirts pleated in every color of a bold painter´s palate, sturdy intricate embroiderty exhibiting extraordinary… Read More

  Hi world! We are in Guatemala! It´s really quite exciting to have yet another new country to explore. (: We said goodbye to Camaronal, Costa Rica and our precious sea turtle hatchery. We took a nice bus about 5 hours to Alajuela (just outside of San Jose and the airport) and stayed in a backpackers hostel for the night. We found our new European style home exceeding our expectations. Rustic… Read More

Adios Nicaragua. Next stop Costa Rica. After a four hour luxury bus ride we found ourselves in Liberia, Costa Rica. Although we were only staying in a hostel for a night, we still had a decent amount of exposure to Liberia. Some of us were more than happy to leave the rustic Bone Fide farm. Privileges such as Air Conditioning, TV, a washer/dryer and quality shower rooms were highly anticipated.… Read More

¨Watching Willy Wonka as a little girl and giggling at the umpalampas never prepared me for the real cacao, the ashy skins and haunted history of this scared plant. In an open-air jungle kitchen, we gripped sticky blocks of cane sugar and rushed them back and forth over a cheese grater, creating mini mountains of molten, oozy sugar. We ground coconuts upon a hand grater on the counter, a simple … Read More

Hey everyone, my name is Mira and I am the Bilbo Blogging’s for this past week. I’d like to apologize in advance for only doing one post; sadly the wifi ability on the farm was limited. Otherwise I would have done a post every day. Wow, I can’t believe that we have only been abroad for 4 weeks! It feels like we’ve been gone for soo much longer. But enough… Read More

Hey guys, Ben here with a quick update on our last week and a half! As the sun beat down, we hopped aboard the old, rustic ferry that would shuttle us to the island of Omotepe. Although the boat leaned significantly to one side and was packed with both people and random junk, the ride was rather relaxing and uneventful.  The boat ride provided a nice break from driving in… Read More

  I never thought I’d be back in school so soon, but who would’ve expected a school where you could swing in a hamock while sipping coffee in an outdoor classroom? The last two weeks have been nothing but amazing. Throughout the remainder of our time in Matagalpa the group continued to participate in activities organized by the language school. We visited an organization called Agentes de Cambio (Agents of… Read More

Hola, Anna Rodis here, your Bilbo Bloggins for this week. SFO –>Nicaragua We knew we were in Nicaragua when our plane landed and water vapor spewed out of the ceiling vents. Stepping off the plane, we felt the hot stickiness in the air outside. Josh, the redhead, Spanish-speaking Texan, greeted us at the airport and took us to our temporary home—Casa Nica in Masaya. We all piled into a van… Read More

Hi all, We have made it to Nicaragua–safe and sound! We will be posting our first full blog by the end of this weekend; so, keep an eye out for that! Love, The Itza Group… Read More

We are having a great time in Nicaragua, besides trying to keep away the stray dogs. We are staying at a Hostel called Casa Nica, run by a red haired man from Texas.… Read More