Emotion mounts as the days pass quickly toward the ‘launch’ of our SAM- South America- semester. The subtle reasons why the eleven of us will be coming together on this three-month exploration will reveal themselves gradually over time as we experiment with unique and fresh realities throughout Ecuador and Peru.
As you pack your bag, remember that lighter is always better! We’ll be covering a good number of miles along… Read More
Blog
Hola CAM Spring 2010!
Hola and greetings from Carpe Diem HQ in Portland, OR. We are both very excited for our upcoming adventure – with less than a week to go before we meet in SFO, we have been working hard with final preparations and packing, as we imagine many of you are doing as well. We will be calling you all in the next few days before we leave, to chat a bit… Read More
Hey what’s been going on you guys? I know we joked around about still blogging so I was thinking why not?I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that it is so weird to be back at home and in this other reality, but life is good. Kaise my brotha I don’t know cold it is there but it don’t have nothing on argon. I don’t remember oregon getting… Read More
The End
What do goodbyes look like for people who have supported each other through changes, losses, wins, beginnings and firsts? For us it was backbreaking hugs, watering eyes, last words of adoration, and then at the end just a small wave and a, “Bye!” As if we were hanging up the phone or moving forward in the grocer line.
Let me rewind, Dan went scuba diving. Dan learned how to swim… Read More
Goodbyes, but not forever!!
Our super special adventure comes to a close, as we spend our last day together here in Roatan. Today the group got certified in there open water diving, and Bobby and Karen received there advanced scuba diving certification. As were all spending the day doing some last dives, and writing our goodbye letters to each, our I AM poems or flows, evaluations were all a little sad to be leaving… Read More
Scuuuba time!
After getting up at nearly 230am to catch our flights, we are finally here in the island of Roatan. An island only about 40 miles long, and mostly English speaking. A little bit different for us, seeming we have been traveling in central America where the most common language is Spanish. so walking in the grocery store, and speaking Spanish with an English reply is a little different for us.… Read More
On the journey between Chiang Mai and Phuket
After enjoying a semi-permanent home in Chiang Mai, the shorter ‘chapters’ of our journey over the last few weeks have made for a whirlwind of new sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feels… one of which is the tightness of our backs from shifting loaded backpacks from songthaws to trains to taxis to boats to pickup trucks to get us from north to south Thailand.Out of Chaing Mai we first traveled… Read More
Hi Again
Happy thanksgivin! The Sammers celebrated a little early by enjoying a huge feast and playing secret turkey for each other. We all are very well rested after a very amazing and spiritual stay at our yoga retreat. Sunday, a very sunny woman at that, shared her Hindu practices of meditation, astrology, and all the different yoga types and philosophies with us. The courses were intense, we sang, danced, meditated, and… Read More
I’ll order it from ZANZIBAR
Perfectly white sand, crystal clear water, tropical warm breezes, and fresh delicious coconuts. Not exactly the Thanksgiving we imagined but it’ll do. Karibu Zanzibar! Yesterday we arrived in Stonetown after spending 4 days,3 nights at the rasta relaxing Dhow Beach Village on Jambiani beach. We spent those 4 days playing beach vollyball, getting our tans on and in pure amazment of the mile long stretch of only knee deep translucent… Read More
If You Had a Tail, What Kind of Tail Would You Have?
If you were born with a tail, what kind of tail would it be? This question was tossed around amongest our group at the breakfast table this morning. In years past I had considered this question and decided I would like to have a big, bushy, red, fox tail. I feel it would be very suiting on me. It was decided that Alex would have the tail of a lion,… Read More
Free Travel Adventures and More!
Where I last left off our group was preparing for our final shift at Playa Longosta. We´ve done much traveling since then and we have experienced and seen some wild things. First off was our final shift working with the turtles. We had to rise at 4:30a.m the next morning to leave for San Jose, so we were able to all do the same shift from 7 to 11:30. We… Read More
oneal, beach, homestay
Hello to all,We finished part of a week with homestays, which did not end on the best note ever but we got through it as a group and have moved on from it. After that we headed back to pete oneals, which is starting to become more of a second home than anything else. Pete oneals hospitality towards us is something we all greatly appreciate. While we were with pete… Read More
Hi
Floating islands, a place none of us have ever expierenced before. The people create their land from condensed dirt and place piles of yellow reeds on top. The sun light reflects beautifully off of the islands as well as the lake, which creates a gorgeous contrast. Along with the reed monster boats that dock outside their homes. These islands literally float and in order for them to stay in place… Read More
Let the Camel Count Begin!
After the eye-opening events and education we had in McLeod Ganj, we left the Tibetan community in the afternoon, waving goodbye to Neema-la–our contact–Max, Santos, our Tibetan families, and the J.J.I. Brothers in Exile–just a few of the vastly interesting and genuine people we met in McLeod. It was raining, freezing, and our feet were promptly given baths when we stepped outside to greet the taxis that would take us… Read More
Turtle Time
After leaving the island of Ometepe we once again awoke well before sunrise in order to make the journey to Costa Rica in time for dinner at our new home in Playa Longosta for Proyecto Baula. Surprisingly Crossing the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica went smoother than expected. With our passports freshly stamped we were ready to venture into a new paradise known as Costa Rica. We soon experienced… Read More
A Blast of a Time
After saying goodbye to San Juan the beach and our new friend Tyler, who has been accommodating us, we made our way over to the island of Ometepe. The island is on the biggest lake in Central America. With its water covering 8,264 sq km makes it the 21st largest lake in the world . ITS BIG! We arrived to the island by a hour long ferry boat trip, then… Read More
Pun Pun and other fun
Hey everyone sorry for the lag time.
We have spent around a month in the interesting city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. The five of us spend our time in different ways.
-Brian has taken a Thai Massage course with Kuan Amanda. He has also taken some time to reflect on his different goals in life, such as his future coffee shop.
-Amanda has done a variety of activities, the Thai… Read More
Different Demographics
Walking through the streets of McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, home of the Tibetan Government and community in exile, it’s a far cry from the India we’ve grown accustomed to. Each of us is living with a Tibetan family where we sleep and eat breakfast and dinner but that is where the similarity of our schedules ends. During the day we peruse the various shops (holiday gifts!), pursue different internships, go on… Read More
Nothing But Good Times
All has been and is still going really well in San Juan. Our time is being spent eating, building solar paneled water heaters, surfing, playing games and just having a fun relaxing time. The past three nights some of us have witnessed the most beautiful breath taking sun sets with the sun seeming to melt into the sea. Some have watched from a bobbing board in the waves of the… Read More
Lake Titicaca
Here we are – it´s free travel time! We are in the tourist haven of Puno right now, super fried after our two weeks of spanish classes in Arequipa.
Colca was incredible, as you could probably tell from the pics.
After a 6 hour bus ride in a double decker, flying on all sides of the ¨road¨ through the most picturesque landscapes of the Peruvian mountains we arrived here with… Read More