When I first was leaving for Carpe, I was kind of numb. I couldn’t comprehend what I was about to do, or the impact it would have on me. Once I got on the trip, it hit me how enormous it would be, but even then, I couldn’t imagine. I’ve made new friendships, seen whole new worlds and ideas, and reforged myself. It’s been such an amazing opportunity to have… Read More
Thank you mom! Your constant support of me is without fail. You push me to push myself, but you’re still always there for me. You make me feel like the luckiest son in the world. If it wasn’t for you I would of never had the strength or courage to embark on this journey. You motivate me and I can’t help but brag to everyone about how freakin sweet of… Read More
Hello everyone! This is Leanna here to inform all you lovely people on our wonderful adventure through the Sapa hill tribes. To start with let me begin with our voyage to Sapa. Instead of taking the usual bus ride to our destination, we were fortunate enough to go on an over night train ride. It consisted of 2 bunk beds, with extremely comfortable mattresses, and beverages presented to us. We… Read More
Before I came on this trip, the world seemed like a pretty huge place. There was so much to see, so much to do, and so much to wrap my head around. My worldview was a patchwork of blank unknowns. Coming on this trip, with its incredibly diverse schedule, seemed like it would help to fill in the white spaces on my map. And seeing and doing the things we… Read More
Look out world, the kids are in charge! After weeks of researching, discussing and planning, we finally got to see our efforts pay off this past week during free travel. These days of student-directed travel have been several weeks in the making, and well worth the time we put into it. We made ourselves a busy itinerary. After waving goodbye to our contacts at G22, we caught a bus from… Read More
We spent a couple days on the Sunshine Coast in Noosa, doing some well earned relaxing after the Outback. We enjoyed the beach, shopping, and a national park. On our hike to the beach, we were lucky enough to pass a pod of dolphins and a sea turtle.
Our next stop was Brisbane (or Brissy if you’re an Aussie). We spent that afternoon at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where everyone… Read More
¡Hola Friends and Family!
This week we were able to take advantage of all of the rich culture, delicious food, and quirky handicrafts that Cusco has to offer while also improving our spanish. We kicked off our first FULL week in Cusco with a group hike on Easter to the mountainous region just outside of the city. There we enjoyed a picnic full of comfort food (peanut butter and jelly,… Read More
Greetings from Vietnam, Karen here, and I can’t be anymore excited than I am now to share with you all our awesome adventures scuba diving. It all began in a “classroom” with a textbook and a video. Before being able to jump into that blue warm watered reefs ahead of us, we had to learn all the scuba 411. But since there is nothing like actually practicing the skill, we… Read More
Hello All!
Just finished up an amazing 5 days in the Outback. We arrived in Alice Springs on Easter Sunday (Happy Easter Everyone!) and the next morning were picked up by our guide Tam, and her trusty steed Nelson (aka her truck), which was basically a small army tank. Greeted by the energetic and all smiling Tam we climbed into Nelson and started on our journey. After stopping to grab… Read More
My first two weeks at Kids Saving The Rainforest in Quepos, Costa Rica have been amazing. First off, it’s beautiful here as most people would imagine costa rica to be. It does get pretty hot and humid but you get used to it pretty quick. KSTR is a wildlife refuge organization, connected to a bed and breakfast called the Blue Banyan Inn. A day in the life of volunteer goes… Read More
So I’ve been in the DR for a little over a month now and it has been amazing. Ive been able to do so much in my short time here. Ive tutored students, coached basketball, surfed, snorkled, danced(in the loosest definition of the word), had conversations in spanish, and even took a short slightly illegal trip to Cuba(lets all just agree not to say anything,ok?). This has… Read More
Attention ladies and gentlemen: This will be a LONG blog post. Consider yourself warned.
Our first week in Tanzania, we were handed a map and a budget and told to plan six days ofour trip. With little guidelines other than nothing illegal and no leaving the country (though we pushed the latter), we dove in, eventually arriving on a pretty awesome plan, if I do say so myself.
The day… Read More
Hello one and all, greetings from Honduras Child Alliance of El Porvenir, sandwiched between the beautiful Caribbean and rolling mountain ranges. I live beachfront on the last stretch of main road, the only paved piece in Honduras.There are many different sections of El Porvenir that expand from there, and HCA trys to reach into these different parts of the community with multiple programs, and teaching locations. I’ve been here just… Read More
Hello everyone! Easten (aka Esteban) here blogging from Guatemala City. A complete 180 from where we all were just a week ago, sitting in Pasac, home to just 1500 people , we are now residing in a capital city home to 3 million people. We spent the rest of our time in Pasac playing in a local futbol match, which we won thanks to great passing by Jordan and clinical… Read More
Canyoning was a mindblowing and wet, adrenaline-filled adventure, and none of us will ever forget it. It could be described as white water rafting without the raft, or pure insanity.
On the way to the waterfalls, we met our canyoning guide; Tang. A wonderfully crazy guy who would provide training, and comic relief throughout the day. When we arrived, we were stylishly outfitted in harnesses, helmets, gloves and bright orangelifejackets,… Read More
Hola, buen dia!(:
Namaste! Hello, family and friends of SAM 2014! I apologize for the delay/procrastination on this blog post. These last couple of weeks has been quite a turn of events. Amazon week turned into student directed travel week and and student directed travel week turned into a volunteering week in Pisac and Cusco. It´s been quite hectic for the leaders and Carpe Diem but everyone´s been pretty mellow… Read More
Chapter 1 ~ Breakfast for Dinner
Our last day in New Zealand came quicker than I expected. Before dinner we walked up to the summit of Mount Eden and had our last New Zealand group meeting beside a crater, overlooking the Auckland city skyline. We watched the sunset and saw the transition of lights as they became brighter in the city. When we got back to the hostel we cooked… Read More
Imagine a river. a tropical river where the sun is so very hot but in mere seconds the water can cool your body by at least 10 degrees. it is a coastal river, rising and falling with the tides of the Gulf of Thailand. there are palm mangroves reaching 30 or so feet into the damblue sky speckled with pieces of floating cotton candy. the air was sweet and filled… Read More
HELLO!! it’s Brook here, and I’m going to write to you about this amazing first week of student directed travel…
We started our journey in Ha Tien, where we crossed the border from Cambodia into Vietnam, officially acknowledging Topher and Julia as our new students, and Paige and Karenna as our new leaders. The ride itself to the border was uneventful, aside from the lovely rain shower that cooled us… Read More
