Tashi Delek,
Happy Thanksgiving in Tibetan is a little complicated, so we thought we’d settle for hello. Shanti Group has found respite in the hills, a welcomed break from the chaos, pollution, dust, stares, and smells of the plains. After a week at Deer Park Insitute studying Buddhism, we’ve moved on to McLeod Ganj, the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in-exile. Right now as we type… Read More
November 4th –November 11th Last night we had the privilege of camping in 18 degree weather, nature welcoming us to Chaco Canyon. Even though I slept in the back of our van, I was just as cold in there as I would have been outside. At 11:00 we took a tour of the Una Vida dwelling, the ruins closest to the visitors center. The region contains dwellings that date around… Read More
Our last minute Free Travel was a complete success! We had an amazing four days at the Rhino Sanctuary. We all came together really well to work out the tight budget to be able to volunteer at such an incredible organization. We spent a lot of time going out on foot with the rangers to monitor the different groups of rhinos. We were able to get as close as ten… Read More
This week, the group arrived in Newcastle, Australia, to begin our week of volunteer work with the CVA (Conservation Volunteers Australia)! We were split up into two different groups for the week–Neil, Courtney, Sadie, Tommy, Abbott, and me (Sienna) stayed in Newcastle, and Macy, Ally, Rob, Taylor, and Kitch were driven out about three hours to a farm, where I’m sure they’re having a blast.
My group is staying in… Read More
It’s time now for our free travel! We have managed to land an awesome deal with a rafting company which Michelle had some contacts in. 9 of us will be doing 2.5 days hiking on the St. James Walkway and deviating from it a little bit to reach the destination where we will be picked up and then go rafting down the Clarence River for 3 days. We woke up… Read More
So this is kind of a rap so bare with me, it’ll be a little awkward reading it through typing.
Happiness is the goalll,
and suffering is a prison
There ain’t no guards on patrolll,
and the keys lie with wisdom
Our minds are outta controolll,
and the remedy is Buddhism.
If we stop thinking and listen
we might find nothings missin’
No senseless hate, anger or killin’
Just compassion… Read More
hello everyone !!! its Ellen again, i hope you are all doing good and have wonderful health and fantastic luck and what not but lets get down to the blog this is serious time.
So we went from rishi kesh by bus (this was a new and …interesting experience) all the way to Amritsar where we planed to see the golden temple. when we where staying there we did not… Read More
Hola friends and family!
On Tuesday we said goodbye to Leon and headed south to Playa Maderas in San Juan del Sur. We were all really excited to spend our first actual week on the ocean, and this past week has been everything we have wanted and more! We are living with a good friend of Carpe Diem´s (Tyler) in his beautiful home overlooking the ocean. The first couple… Read More
Leaves crunching, birds chirping, everyone laughing, bells ringing, snow falling. We heard, felt, touched, saw, and most importantly smelt a lot this past week on our epic Himalayan trek. We spent four nights camping on the mountain and five days trekking up and back. It was a trip full of extremes. At points we were in shorts and t shirts sweating and slightly dreading the crazy mountain death star and… Read More
After an overnight train from Kolkata that was surprisingly on time, we got a jeep to Gangtok (about a 5-6 hour drive). We arrived that evening to Gangtok which was absolutely beautiful. We were staying at a Guest house/ Home stay but we were in separate rooms but we ate with the family. The family we stayed with was a very extended family consisting of a mom with her two… Read More
We have finally figured out the picture uploading. We apologize that it took so long, here are some pictures from Granada and Playa Gigante!
-Hannah… Read More
Breath in, breath out. Feel the oxygen fill your lungs completely. Take a moment to clear your head of all thoughts. On that note, let me say a few things about our time in the Sacred Valley at the Sradhavan yoga retreat. After the exhausting days of Cusco, a retreat was exactly what all of us needed. I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into it. I imagined… Read More
Since leaving the Dharma Center we went far South and a little east and ended up in a little town called Ayutthaya. It was really hot. We rented bikes for the day and rode around to all the old temples. After an exhausting day we went to the hostel expecting to sleep but unfortunately for us they played live music downstairs until 12. The next morning we had to catch… Read More
Namaste everybody!
Sarahji here telling you guys all about our AMAZING time at the Taj Mahal! We all wanted to see the Taj at sunrise so we started off our day waking up at the crack of dawn to go get in line. Tully and I thought what a better opportunity to wear our saree’s than at the Taj Mahal! Thakfully Kaila knew how to wrap a saree (she learned… Read More
Hello to all of our friends and family! We have just arrived in Jinja, Uganda, back from our 5 day volunteering project at the Mawoito school. We successfully completed our project of painting a block of three classrooms. Today we were thanked by the teachers and students with a performance of local songs and dances and many speeches by school board members and the head master of the primary school.… Read More
Hello from Carpe HQ! While the group wasn’t able to post these photos while they were in Ecuador, they recently were able to email them to me and I thought all the South America blog followers would appreciate them. (You can keep clicking on individual photos to see the larger versions.) Enjoy!
… Read More
Greetings all from Sydney Australia! Its hard to believe that we are now in our 3rd and final Country.
We had an incredible free travel week, a week completely planned by the students, to close up our time in New Zealand. We kicked off our week with a beautiful ferry ride from Wellington to the scenic south island! Our ferry arrived taking us through a maze of small islands in… Read More
This is a bit late as the group is already about to leave our first city in Nicaragua (Leon), but better late then never. Looking back on San Marcos our time was both amazing but also a bit detrimental. While in that kind of environment, I, aswell as many of the group members found it difficult not to slip into the tourist mentality. I know personally my Spanish was rarely… Read More
Everyone who was able to participate would agree that our White Water Rafting Trip was an experience that we will never forget. From the moment we arrived at the rafting company’s office, we knew we would enjoy ourselves, as we were greeted by the friendly rafting guides and a hearty breakfast. Then, we traveled about an hour through the village to our start point on the Nile River–a place most… Read More
Hi there people we love! Hola from Nicaragua!!! We are all SO excited to be continuing our adventure in a brand new country, especially one as intriguing as Nicaragua. On Monday, we arrived at the airport in Managua, Nicaragua and then took a bus to the big city off Leon, where we are doing our very last week of spanish school. We have school weekday mornings from 8-12, and after… Read More
