Follow the Journey

El dia de amistad We can´t believe it´s been almost a week already! After landing on Guatemalan soil, we were promptly settled into a cozy camp on the hillside with views of a little colonial city nestled between two volcanoes that seemed to dance with the tireless clouds and provide us with endless entertainment. As a group, we spent our first few days getting oriented as we acclimatized to the… Read More

Hi everyone! We´re here exploring in Antigua. So far we have walked around a ton, looked in lots of cool shops, and went on an amazing tour of a cathedral from the 1600s. The architecture was amazing and we got to see the crypts of both important famous people and commoners who had died of infectious diseases. We still have a lot of work to do to complete our scavenger… Read More

Hi Everyone, Ana and Jessie here… we just met a three month old huskie and his owner who wanted to speak English as much as we wanted to speak spanish. The town is beautiful with cobble stone roads and is  full of life and color. Everyone here is so incredibly friendly, helpful, and appreciative. The vibes are awesome. It feels surreal that we are finally here! We are looking forward… Read More

Hola Friends,   We are in Antigua, Guatemala.  Today we are having a scavenger hunt and enjoying the beauty of Central America.  We came down to the town today at noon after getting a solid nights sleep and have a list we have to accomplish in order to win! (which we will)  Hope all is well and we are having fun! Adios… Read More

Hola, Today is our first day of exploration in Antigua. Jana and I are making our way around the city as well as our senses of direction allow us, but enjoying every minute of it.  We´re trying to curb our hunger because we want to space out our meals so that we don´t over eat; healthy living  is one of our missions on this trip. We´re doing a scavenger hunt… Read More

Hasta luego friends and family! As you are reading this, a new group of curious travelers are likely sitting in a circle somewhere in the airport getting to know their travel companions for the next three months.  They have all met up, checked in, gone through security, and our ready to embark on an epic journey.  It was a bittersweet good bye in the office today as we dropped Ben… Read More

Saludos a todos los estudiantes de Carpe Diem Centro America!  We hope everyone’s winter has been fantastic!  We are quickly approaching our rendezvous time at the SFO airport, which is now only 1 day away.  Weee!  We are ridiculously excited to meet all of you and start this excitedly anticipated adventure. This is the blog that you all will be the authors of during your semester, so please pass this… Read More

SORRY AMIGOS! This post is late only because we were all so busy last week, soaking up every last second of each other’s company and the central american atmosphere, trying to get our fix before it was too late… We were stationed on the lovely island of Roaton, Hondorus, in a totally lux hotel (hot water shower, wood floors, superbeds…the works.), where we spent the majority of our days working… Read More

Hola amigos y familias! Sorry for the delay in the blog post for last week, we have been busy as always! After our sad goodbyes at Tyler’s place, we loaded up and walked across the Costa Rican border to catch a bus to the Nicoya Peninsula.  Our clan spent the past week at Playa Langosta on the pacific side of Costa Rica, working with turtles!  Playa Langosta as well as… Read More

HEY! Sup? we´re in Costa Rica! We spent the last week in beautiful San Juan Del Sur, at Playa Madera. We stayed at a sweet ec0-art hostel called Parque Maderas, which is owned and run by Tyler, Ethan´s childhood friend. Tyler´s dream was to build the hostel right on the ocean and it is one of the coolest places that we have been so far. We felt really at home… Read More

¡Hola familias! Many apologies for the delay in updates. Free travel was a great experience for all of us as we chose what adventures to embark on, whether it was chilling by beautiful natural springs, or speeding down a volcano on a sled! We started the week off with an extra day in León, three of us attending an extra day of Spanish school while the rest headed to the… Read More

Hola Friends and Family- Last week we all arrived safetly in Nicaragua after a long and tiring day of traveling.  We were quickly greeted at the airport by Rolando, the director of our new spanish school. After a 2 hr bus ride into Leon we were dropped off in pairs for our new and final homestays! The next day we jumped right into school, half the group in the mornings… Read More

  Greetings from Nicaragua! Since our last post we have been supa busy. From Coban we took a looong shuttle ride, an unexpected boat ride across a flooded city, and one more shuttle before arriving in the city of Flores on the coast of lake Peten Itza. We almost immediatley crashed for the night in a funky, hip hostal.  In the morning we took a nice little boat ride across… Read More

So we got an early start on our trip to semuc champey. We had to catch the bus around 8 am and would have almost missed it if it werent for the help of our friendly local Tigo Van. After a couple blocks crammed in the back of the van and enjoying some bumping music, we made it to the bus station to head off for another adventure. After just… Read More

We just finished up a week at San Marcos filled with some awesome learning activities and for many a spiritual self discovery. However our final days in San Marcos saw endless tropical rains that prolonged our stay and probably drove a few of us over the edge with cabin fever. The rains caused numerous landslides on some major roads that prevented us from finding a reliable way out and leaving… Read More

Good news: We all made it through the trek alive! Even the crew members of the metaphorical ¨sinking row boat¨ (Mariya, Abbie, Callie…) On the first day we walked from dawn till dusk, and beyond. Night-hiking through foggy jungles with our headlamps was fun, however crossing over a raging river via two ¨bridges¨ consisting of a few unsteady logs was not. To depict how confident of the bridges we were:… Read More

At long last pictures are here! Special thanks to Kristen for being the photographer. Jacob, Turner and Bjorn in their tradional clothing. The group before we ventured up Volcano St. Thomas The group in Pasac before we danced the night away! The mines at San Mcguel, post mountain top removal Abbie, Kristen, Amanada with the lovely nurses who dignosed us. The mob Kristin encountered after the futball game. GO XELA!… Read More

Whatup families, friends, and creepers. Just a quick update of what we´ve been up to! We finished strong in Pasac after after surviving the trek up the volcano Pecul and serving our last day dancing in the Quitche traditional attire. It was a wonderful experience and we have definitly learned to appreciate basic luxaries. We spent one night with the Rights Action group in San McGuel. This is where we… Read More