For starters, mode pronounced like (mo-day) is goodbye in Fijian and that is what we said to our Fijian getaway resort, and Fiji entirely. And with that mode to Fiji we said G’day to Australia and began the final leg of our journey. We arrived in Brisbane and had a little time to explore this city before we departed for Chenrezig Buddhist Institute. Here is where we say Namaste. We… Read More
Hamjambo marafiki na familia!
We spent the past week at a retreat about 45 minutes away from Njombe at Ohana Amani in the company of the amazing Curry and Luca. They were so welcoming and we all are super refreshed. From starting our mornings with an hour of yoga, to three very healthful meals per day (prepared with the help of our own group members), to engaging in labor including… Read More
Well Rishikesh was truly a dream! Full of breathtaking nature, yoga, live music, crystals, vegan food, and dreadlocks…yum. I know I’ll be back one day. In some ways, it kind of felt like a little bubble; it was too clean, peaceful, and full of Westerners to be “real India”. I was starting to feel really comfortable there, but that just means it’s time to move!
After fourteen hours of bumpy,… Read More
We spent the past week at the Special Needs Education Center (SNEC) up in the hills outside of Kabale, Uganda. The center is home to primary school-aged children with physical and mental disabilities and is one of the only institutions of its kind in the country. Each day we would split up and half of our group would go hangout with the kids either in the classroom or outside playing… Read More
Our week in Arequipa sold us on Peru pretty easily. Aside from Jimmy, Ryan and TJ, whose inconvenient location necessitated a 45-minute commute to and from the Spanish school, the majority of us took a quick liking to the new country – 5000-meter snow-covered warts and all.
This was especially good news because our next week was libre: We had six days to plan and follow our own schedule, operating… Read More
We left the Intag Watershed with a pretty simple itenerary: Head back to Quito, check into Community Hostel, hit the laundromat, eat ludicrous amounts of brownies, and fall asleep watching movies on the wall projector.
Community is an exceptionally comfortable hostel with delicious meals, friendly (English-speaking) staff, and a welcoming vibe. It was the first place we stayed after arriving in Ecuador back in September, and most of the group… Read More
!Hola muchachos! This week the Quetzal Queens and Kevin nested in Quetzaltenango; we finally made it home! Well, maybe not, but the time is flying by.
Our homestay families here were awesome. Everyone enjoyed some thrilling nights with their fams watching classic movies dubbed into Spanish with fun new names like, “Que Paso Ayer?”, “Los x hombres”, “Alecia en el lugar de los Maravillosas”, etc. Pop those into a translator… Read More
“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
On November 8th, the Sacred Valley, near Cusco, greeted us with an overcast sky, a calm river, and enormous, cultivated mountains on… Read More
Hola. The group has gotten very good, at becoming very comfortable, very fast. After a long day of travel, we arrived at the Bona Fide Permaculture Farm. Permaculture is a design science, an agricultural system that is the most sufficient, simple, and sustainable way of human life. A system in which every element has multiple functions, and every function has multiple elements. We started off the week with a brief… Read More
As we spent our last couple of days in Matagalpa enthusiastically talking about our Halloween trek through the Selva Negra all of the talk finally became realistic. Our 30 minute car ride was filled with excitement as we inched closer and closer to our hiking destination. Once we started our trek we stopped every so often to take some pictures and take in all the scenery that was around us… Read More
Wow! Week 7 already??!!
This week we stayed in a small rural community near Xela, Guatemala. We stayed at the school called Escuela de la Montaña! Though we lived at the school, we ate our meals with families in the community. Most of the meals included lots of tortillas, beans, vegetables, and sometimes pasta. I think everyone avaraged about 15 tortillas per day at least! All the families made them… Read More
G’Day Mates!
I think we can all agree that Sydney is our favorite city in the South Pacific. The past 3 days have been full of exploring this incredibly cool city that never stops giving us things to do. We were all able to enjoy the amazing food, friendly people, and beautiful attractions, like the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, and Manley Beach. Some of us even got the full Opera… Read More
As we look upon the ruins of a once prosperous city, visions of grand temples and elaborate ceremonies enter our minds. Once the capitol of Thailand and the largest trade hub of the Asian world, now left to trade in its stones for dust. The disintegrating stone temple towers loom high overhead each once serving its own distinct purpose. These ruins are a monument to a once great people now… Read More
This past week we moved out of the central plains of India and into Sikkim (or as we say in the group more often “The Foothills”). I think everyone in this group definitely is relieved to be out of the plains. I personally, am especially excited to be out of the plains again because the amount of car horns, people, air pollution, and trash all over, are all significantly less… Read More
Odds are Jay wears a bra at dinner at the Murai
Odds are Ben wades through a murky pond at Sheila’s farm
Odds are I wear a tiger hat around Auckland
Odds are Rebecca wakes up Ryan and Cheridyn in the middle of the night to say she had a nightmare
Odds are Morgan sprays all the perfumes in the duty free store on herself in the Fijian airport on… Read More
My time in Fiji has been something out of a story book. I went into the village stay expecting to be sick the entire time. I was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome we received and how comfortable I felt living the village life. Oh and not getting as sick as I thought was also nice. From the playful children to the strong women of the families, I learned the… Read More
Imagine, 11 students and 2 leaders piled in a bus with all of our belongings, bouncing along with every bump of the gravel road below us. That is how we started our week long student directed travel at Vatia Beach Resort. Our suspicions of a dirt ramshackle hut were quickly destroyed by the view of white, sandy beaches, wooden swings for our lazy afternoons, and crystal clear water reflecting the… Read More
Hills of green and skies of immense fluffy white clouds were the scene as we loaded up into our dugout canoes for our 3 day trek in lake Bunyoni. The rain came and went periodically while the nine of us, along with our new friends from France and Sweden, paddled across the lake from island to island and hiked over hills and through valleys.
Our first day we departed from… Read More
Hello and welcome to the cool side of the blog,
I am Valiant Val and I will be your host today as we follow the adventures of one group of young adults as they find them selves in the middle of the Arctic!!!
No wait that’s not right…. oh yes Africa!
Now now settle down, I know you are jealous of them I mean so am I, I can not… Read More
