Thinking about taking a gap year after high school?
Or maybe you’ve started college and are wondering if participating in a college gap year program abroad is still something you want to do?
Perhaps you’re weighing your options between a gap travel program, gap year volunteering, gap semester programs or another experience, like study abroad?
You’re not alone!
We meet students all the time who are interested in gap year… Read More
Written By Daniel and Mira
We finally made it out of Tena, the protests ended by some random miracle, as the government agreed to place subsidies back on gas prices. This week, we were more than eager to continue on our program and travel to the indigenous town of Peguche, outside of the city of Otavalo. The week has warmed our hearts, minds, and spirits as we did homestays with… Read More
Written By Nicole & Alex
Kia ora!
A big hello from Alec, Nicole, and the rest of Hongi! We are excited to be the ones to fill you in on everything that has happened this last week. This week’s leaders were Alec and Sofie!
Alec: Being a leader for a week was honestly very stressful at times. It challenged me in many different ways that I never would have thought… Read More
We started our time together surrounded by the towering, barren, and snowy mountains in the Himalayas in Leh, Ladakh. On arrival, we spent a couple of days acclimatizing to the extreme altitude of 11,000 feet. A few of our group members started to feel the symptoms of altitude sickness, while others begin to battle the slowly spreading flu. Even so, the excitement about the new climate and the upcoming stay… Read More
Hey and welcome back to the blog of the Walkabout Crew!
We have been a busy bunch these past 9 days. We started in Wellington where we got to be in a big city for the first time while being in New Zealand. We got to have time to explore, eat great food and be independent. We had a few options of some things that we got to choose to… Read More
Kia Ora. Hello everyone, it’s Jackson and Trish and we are so excited to have the opportunity to blog for you all again. Tonight we have the official changing of the guards which means that tomorrow we will have new jobs and will no longer be the group bloggers. I know we only had the opportunity to blog twice but I am so happy we have been able to give… Read More
Written By Meredith & Tyler
On Sunday we left Banos and travelled to the city of Tena in the Amazon. We arrived late in the afternoon and got settled into our beautiful new hostel, previously picked out by Ava and Joey.
The next day we met up with Stephanie from Amazon Learning and she taught us all about the Amazon and what they do as a company. Following her presentation,… Read More
After trekking through the treacherous olive fields and weathering the daunting paved and unpaved roads of the Camino, we arrived in Cordoba. The light at the end of our tunnel, our flower in a dried up flower bed, our Harry to our very lonely Sally. We had found our salvation. We were saved.
Dramatic sighs of relief exchanged and many cups of Joe drank, we pressed on, running blindly through… Read More
Officially one month in! We left Chico Mendez last week for our three day trek to the lake. It was a challenging trip but everyone worked really hard and it was also lots of fun. It was so rewarding to look up at a mountain knowing we had just climbed it that day! On the last day, we got to see an amazing view of the sunrise over the lake.… Read More
Deciding to take a gap year after high school or during college is a big decision! That’s why we asked some of our gap semester program and Latitudes year alumni to share their experiences with you.
Introducing…Alex, Emily, and Patrick!
CDE: Hi, everyone! Let’s start with an easy question. In which gap program did you participate?Alex: Latitudes Year: South Pacific group semester, and FVP in San… Read More
A trek in the hills of northern Thailand. What a wild five days it’s been! Leaving our home in Ban Apa, we started our four day trek on October 6th. Our first destination was Ya Fu village. On our first day, we had a one and a half hour trek to the first stop at a waterfall where we got a delicious lunch wrapped in bamboo leaves. Paulina was a… Read More
Your semester is finally here! You’re leaving for your gap program in a few weeks and it’s time to start packing….but you don’t know where to start. You’re not alone – don’t worry!
I find packing to be a pretty fun process but I know a lot of people would disagree with me. I can’t promise that packing for your gap year semester or year is going to be fun… Read More
The past few days, we’ve been treated to a lavish smorgasbord of religion. On Tuesday, we began the day by attending a lengthy meditation service with an English-born Tibetan Buddhist monk. Rather than talk about religion, he spoke to us about the environment, saying that everyone needs to learn to “settle for less” – a very Buddhist statement, even though his speech could equally have come from the mouth of… Read More
Hello from the Highlands of Ecuador!
This past week we took an 8 hour bus ride from Tabuga to Baños in the mountain region of Ecuador. We had our first hot showers since arriving, as well as access to restaurants, nightlife, and as we are sure most of you know, the internet and telephones.
Baños is named after it’s thermal baths, natural hot springs that flow from the volcano at… Read More
Kia Ora loved ones! This past week we have all taken a step into the indigenous culture of New Zealand to learn the history of the people, the language they speak and most importantly, what it means to be Maori. Throughout the week, we were led on a journey of cultural immersion by a Maori native named Tiaki. Tiaki speaks with a gentle eagerness to share his knowledge and… Read More
After an exciting yet exhausting week at our first homestays in Thailand, it was time to say la gon (goodbye in Thai.) We packed our bags, bought some snacks, and our families sent us off to our next adventures.
The leadership team, which consisted of Joe, Bryley, and Claire G., coordinated transportation and bought bus tickets to Chiang Rai. The four-hour long journey, although boring at times, was breathtaking the… Read More
Hola everyone,
Hayden here, writing about our time in Quetzaltenango! (If you can’t quite say that you can call it Xela instead) We’ve spent the last week there, in the second-largest city in Guatemala and the home of the biggest parades and parties in the whole country (according to the locals). The focus of the week was practicing Spanish one-on-one with the great teachers at PLQ, but we also had… Read More
Bula and Hello!
My name is Jackson Tahmoush, and my name is Trish Pizzica. Today we are sitting in an amazing hostel in Nelson, New Zealand but this is the recap of our past weeks with Hongi Fall 2019. After a beautiful and sunny orientation in the Tubakula Beachside Bungalows right outside Sigatoka, we made our way to Suva for a day and eventually all the way up to a… Read More
Bienvenidos a nuestro blog de Finca Mono Verde! Welcome to our blog from Finca Mono Verde! This week we lived together in a bamboo castle surrounded by coffee crops, chickens and three adorable dogs. While we continued to practice our newly learned Ecuadorian slang, we learned about environmental conservation, effectively utilizing natural resources, permaculture, coffee production, local businesses, indigenous culture, and remembering to close the lid when using compost toilets.… Read More
Picture this: Granada, Spain, September 2019. We walked the long, arduous path up to the historic Alhambra Castle. Shan shrieked with excitement; he was overjoyed, for this was his childhood dream. The architecture was miles beyond our comprehension, but we admired the intricacy of design as our guide explained the cultural and power shifts that lead to such a diverse range of décor. We walked across the grounds listening to… Read More
