Namaste family and friends!
We have just arrived in Rishikesh in time for Diwali after an amazing two weeks of exploration in the Himalayas. We started out in Gangtok, the beautiful capital city of Sikkim, at a lovely homestay nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. We spent our mornings taking long uphill walks to the Serenity Home to volunteer with men recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. We all… Read More
Since we didn’t have the world’s most interesting week (and we know that you all depend on us for your weekly dose of excitement), we’ve decided to spice this blog up with short bios of everyone on the trip, so you have an idea of who all these people are that we talk so much about.
In no particular order, here are the members of Carpe Diem Nkula, Greta and… Read More
Hamjambo, Marekani!
We are currently in Iringa, celebrating the one week anniversary of our arrival in Tanzania. We flew from Kigali to Dar es Salaam last Thursday, stayed the night in Dar es Salaam, and then took the world’s hottest and longest bus ride to Iringa, a city in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Although apparently no one on the 9 hour bus ride to Iringa wanted to open their… Read More
Here are several photos from our stay in Varanasi. They are the burning ghat, the sunrise over the Ganga, Paffy and I on the boat, and our fire dancing instructor Krishna in action!… Read More
I heard the clean snip of the scissors and gazed up into the mirror of the barber shop into the eyes of a tall, cheery Indian man. With sparking eyes, and eccentric smiles, he and Payton held up my pony tail. Ten minutes later, I was officially bald…
Namaste family and friends!
Megan (the recently bald group member) here. This week was as fast paced and hectic as ever. We… Read More
hey yall,
We’ve been in Arequipa for about 11 days now and have a had a lot of fun. We all met our awesome homestay families and have been having fun with them frequently. For the weekdays, the group is split in two. One group learns spanish while the other helps out this cool dude Rick out at the orphanage he started here. Last week the group at the orphanage… Read More
Here’s the Thanksgiving story (October 14th):
Starting the day, Jack and I woke up and our homestay mother put us right to work. We were sent to the ‘shamba’ (farm field) to clean up the old corn stocks. Mama John (the homestay mother) gave us Djembes, a gardening tool much like a hoe, and told us to chop down the old dried-up stocks. We worked for about half an hour,… Read More
Hi all! Maya and Shane here, recapping on this past week. As we write this, we are sitting in the common area at Project Bona Fide, a farm dedicated to the diversification and availability of plant species in Nicaragua. The common area is completely open, and overlooks the lush jungle/farm, as well as the lake that could most certainly be mistaken for the ocean due to its endless horizon. We… Read More
Well it’s now almost November and the brief sleet storm which just hit us in Cornfields on the Diné (pronounced “Din-ay” and the more polite name for “Navajo”) Reservation is a definite testament to the oncoming winter. In the past couple of weeks, we have travelled from Diné College to Canyon de Chelly and to Ganado and Cornfields, two of the 126 chapters which make up the Diné Reservation.
Our… Read More
Rock Gardens near Morogoro Getting the Fish’s eyes ready to eat! (Yum) Liam and big big fruits Siafu! (ants that CAN and WILL eat you.) Stranger Danger (Siafu) Kellie and Amanda teaching the locals how to make peanut butter cookies! Foggy mornin’ hen keepin her chicks warm Liam helping Msafiri prepare for his national Math exam (Mufindi Orphanage) Zaoda on the swing that Liam and Kulywa fixed at Mufindi Zaoda… 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
Parents, Friends, and Followers of our Hongi Adventurers,
We had a wonderful day in Auckland and we are now headed south for a week of adrenaline pumping activities with the Blue Mountain Adventure Center. We are hoping for a tramp around/up Mt.Doom as well as any other Lord of the Ring locations we can find! We won’t have access to Internet, so stay tuned until next Monday.
Ryan and… Read More
Hi!!
Where do I even begin?! I could start by telling you all about the amazing animals we saw during our stay…but someone (*cough* liv) forgot to bring the list to the internet cafe. That is okay though, you will all just have to wait a week to see our nerdy list. Just imagine birds of every color and size, ones that passed too fast and we couldn’t help but… Read More
For the first time in over a month of travels we are in the comfort of a home again. The smells of morning porridge, the comfort of a warm bed, and the energy of a bustling family. For the past week the Walkabout crew has been WWOOFing (Worldwide Oppprtunities on Organic Farms) on a farm Carpe has visit several times about an hour from Hastings. The experience I’ve had at… Read More
But not quite.
The group has just returned from a hike up to a Nature Reserve called Ampante on the edge of the city. Spirits were high as we embarked because Quintin had a premenition that a sloth would fall from the trees into his open backpack. We believed him as he was correct about his host family making pancakes this morning. When we got to the reserve we were… Read More
Hey guys!
We just finished our second to last day of work on Sheila’s farm. This week has gone by so fast and we are sad to see it come to an end. Each day we wake up at 7, eat breakfast and start that days work. The work involves planting trees (720 total), herding cows, feeding baby cows, repairing/building fences, gardening and other various jobs around the farm. We… Read More
African dance lessons, surfing, delicious burritos for only two fifty, bonfires on the beach, baked treats, a sweet hostal, and sleep. These were some of the great experiences we had in the small fishing village of Mompiche. As of four years ago there was not even a road to the village the only way to access it was by boat. We arrived early Wednesday morning and all crashed after a… Read More
For the past 5 days the Hongi group has been staying on a farm on the North Islands of New Zealand. Shela (farm owner) has been having us work everyday from 8 – 12 with jobs such as herding cows, cleaning cow pies, and planting hundreds and hundreds of trees. I can speak for everyone when I say there is not one thing we can complain about. After our working… Read More
