Like every other week of this trip, this week was none the less of amazing. So much has happened and we even became open water certified scuba divers.We had an interesting, unexpected turn of things at the beginning of the week when our flight from Alice Springs to Cairns wan cancelled. Which actually ended up being a treat because Quantas Airlines paid for everyone’s overnight accommodation along with $50 for… Read More
After a 10-15 minute tuk tuk ride from our hostel in Phnom Penh we arrived at the Killing Fields, a memorial dedicated to the over one million people killed during the Cambodian genocide.
The genocide lasted from 1975-1979, killing 2 million people, a quarter of Cambodia’s population.
On April 17th 1975, the Khmer Rouge army overthrew the Lon Nol government. They took control over Phnom Penh, forcing everyone to abandon… Read More
Namaste all of you beautiful souls! With a happy heart and a calm mind I am blessed to be writing to you from the quaint town of Rishikesh where we just completed our one week transformational journey at the magical Phool chatti Ashram! Nestled along the banks of the Holy Mother Ganga, this beautiful yoga ashram is 120 years old and surrounded by mountain ranges that have aged over the… Read More
Blog from Matt and Jo
During this past week of Thanksgiving celebrations, we are sure our friends at home are finishing coursework, reviewing the past semester and stressing to the max about upcoming finals. While they are anxious about freshman year, we are nonchalantly celebrating a Thanksgiving party with our homestay families, exploring the beautiful and historic streets of Stonetown in Zanzibar and swimming with dolphins in the Indian Ocean.… Read More
We said goodbye to our new friends at the Mystical Yoga Farm climbed onto a small boat and begun our Student Directed Travel time in Guatemala. Getting across Lake Atitlan was and adventure through some huge waves and, to say the least, our butts are pretty sore from boat ride.
Student Directed Travel took us to Antigua, a beautiful colonial town. A few of the fun activities we took part… Read More
After our beautiful stay in the small quechua community of Patacancha we started out our student directed travel in Lares with a relaxing day at the hot springs. Willy, Emi, Douglas, Rebecca, Sam and Harvey decided to head up early to the hot springs to get a full day at the “Spa” to be joined later that day by the rest of the group. Our hostess at the hostel thoughtfully… Read More
We just finished up our week of student directed travel, and have now settled down in Costa Rica. Sunday morning we left the Mariposa Spanish school at 8 am and hitched a 1-hour van through the school to Granada, Nicaragua.
We had been planning our student directed travel for several weeks, beginning deliberations in Ometepe and finalizing our itinerary in La Cancha. We were in charge of booking accommodations, reserving… Read More
Blog from Jada & Brent
“Kamwene” (hello!!) From the Foxes NGO!
After a fun week of student directed travel, we made our way over to the Mufundi highlands, where we started the week off in homestays. We were in groups of 2 spread among 3 villages within the community. During our homestays we had the privilege of learning and experiencing daily life in rural Tanzania. Students participated in everything from… Read More
Salutations! We just finished a great week in the Daintree Rainforest! We started off by staying at a local ice cream company, where we participated in a reforestation project while enjoying fresh exotic fruit ice cream. We planted over 100 trees in the course of two days!
After the ice cream company, we traveled down the road to the Botanical Ark where we stayed for two days! Previously a cattle… Read More
Greetings from Chango!
This crazy group of gringos took Cuba’s capital city in stride as we entered the third to last week of our travels. Our second week in Havana carried a similar structure to the first, with Spanish classes at University of Havana in the mornings from 9AM to 12:30PM and teaching English to Cuban students at a church in the afternoons from 4-6PM. We spent Monday afternoon at… Read More
Our group had an eventful week in the outback! We started off our days emerging from our cocoons (also known as “swags”). There is no easy way to explain what they are, so if you are confused click the following link-
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=swags&rlz=1C5CHFA_enNZ710NZ710&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOn83ui7XQAhWITLwKHfgqCREQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=roll+up+swags .
Although it took a little convincing, almost our entire group put our underlying fear of the unknown creatures of the outback aside, and slept underneath the stars… Read More
Blog from Alanna T
Hello to everyone who is reading this latitudes blog post!
While most students have their group semester in the fall and their latitudes semester in the spring, I decided to have my group semester in India in the Spring and head of on my own in the fall. It took me a really long time to decide where to go and what organization to be with,… Read More
Blog from Reed & Paiton
Our week of student directed travel started early: at 5:00 AM as we boarded a public bus from Njombe to Songea. The purpose of student directed travel is to give students the opportunity to learn, on their own, travel without training wheels (Adam and Mary). We, the students, had to plan what we did, where we slept, how we got there, and how we managed… Read More
Blog from Ford about their trek & Amritsar. Photos from Alessandra from their time at Dharmalaya
Hello from the Shanti Crew!
Ford here, writing our group’s blog for the last few days in Mcleod Ganj and in Amritsar. Picking up from where Dani left off, our group was just leaving our Tibetan homestays and getting ready to head up to Triund, a mountain camp at the base of Dhauladhar Peak,… Read More
Last weekend, we exchanged the normal contents of our packs for tents, sleeping bags, and lots of food before embarking on a strenuous (to say the least) 2 day trek through the highlands of Guatemala. On the first day, we were greeted with rain, fog, and even a downpour of hail. We didn’t let the chilly first night ruin our attitudes though, and we enjoyed a fun second day of… Read More
We have finished our final homestays and spanish classes on this trip. In Ollantaytambo, Hollyn and I stayed with Abella and Alex along with their two daughters, Alexandra and Janice. We had spanish classes every day but would often do cultural activities like walk to the ruins or make guacamole during class time! We went on a few different hikes throughout the week. One was to a really pretty waterfall… Read More
Greetings family, friends, and significant others! Week 8 has officially arrived and our next chapter begins in the beautiful colonial city of Havana. This week more than ever our misbegotten bandwagon of students has felt surprisingly adjacent to the United States we have begun to grow unfamiliar with. After nearly two months of travel in this tiny country it has taken progressively more and more unique and surprising events to… Read More
For our student directed travel time in Fiji, we stayed in a house on the coral coast and relaxed after our village homestays. The house had an amazing view of the ocean and plenty of room for activities.
After leaving the house we said “Moce” (goodbye) to Fiji and hopped on a plane to Brisbane! After a day in the city, we hopped on a train Chenrezig Institute for a… Read More
Hey everyone! We just finished our last week of spanish school and have moved on to student directed travel, two things that most of us are very excited about. We left Bona Fide on Monday instead of Sunday due to Nicaragua´s elections, and made our way to Escuela Español Mariposa. There we were all introduced to our families for the next week. It was especially exciting because this was the… Read More
