This past week was one for the ages! After spending last week in the remote town of El Pisacho, we set forth to the city of Matagalpa, for our fourth and final week of spanish classes. We spent each morning taking classes at the Colibri Spanish School, and were blessed with yet another wonderful set of teachers. Much thanks and love to Diana, Carla, and Myra for an amazing week… Read More
Hola familias!!
Its our first week in Nicaragua. Wooo homestays and spanish school! We are in the highlands of Nicaragua outside the city of masaya. We each lived with our own homestay in the tiny village of La Concha. In the morning we volunteered with children at local schools and in the afternoon we were in spanish classes. Our teachers are awesome. The school is a refuge for many stray… Read More
Hola de Carpe Diem!
We have reached the end of our Guatemalan adventure and about the midway point of our trip in total. The last 5 days were spent at the mystical yoga farm where we encountered some of the biggest challenges thus far. The food was vegetarian only but some of us would mozy on over to the near town to grab a little pollo frito. It was a… Read More
After two strenuous weeks of language classes at PlQ and la Escuela de la Montaña we took a four hour bus ride to the city of Antigua where we spent one night. The following day we left for the remote town of El Paredon where we have been volunteering with the local non-profit La Choza Chula. We have been learning about sustainable development in small communities. We volunteered with local… Read More
We started our week at La Escuela de Montana, a Spanish school in the middle of the jungle. The staff and teachers were fantastic and everyone’s Spanish has improved exceptionally. Throughout the week different lectures and activities were available such as an early morning hike and history lessons on mayan culture. For our last day with our teachers, we competed in an intense game of futbol (we practically won). To… Read More
We arrived in Xela after a 5 hour bus ride from Guatemala City on Friday. A couple hours into the trip we stopped for some food but other than that it was a looong bus ride. This is our first week with homestays and we´ve been using what we learned from G22 and being environmentally responsible. This whole week went by like a blur, we´ve been taking 5 hour long… Read More
Hola from Guatemala,
Its been great first week so far. We started out with meeting each other at the LAX airport. The vibe and connection within the group was amaze balllsssss! After that we were off to the beautiful country of Guatemalaaaa. We all landed safely. We started the week off with orientation at Earthlodge. which was beyond beautiful. the view was amazing. you could see all the volcanos and… Read More
hi everyone,
This is janie and Gabe here! We got here safely and its so much fun! We are enjoying the sun and all the yummy foods! The group is connecting so well and we love our OEs. Orientation iss great and we cant wait for all the adventures ahead of us! We are sending this from the beautiful Antigua and traveling around by buses and vans. Cant wait to… Read More
Hola its chase and claire!
we are on the scavenger hunt in antigua. we only got lost 3 times so far. we have talked to about 8 locals thats have pointed us in all different directions but we finally found the tourism office and now we are at an internet cafe. we love Guatemala and our hostel the earth lodge! we miss our families already but already feel like a… Read More
“This trip has barely started and already I’m having so much fun! The group’s great, the food’s decent, and the activities are fantastic. So excited for our next stop. Until then, -natalie (PS mom and dad love you)”
“Yo, me and Natalie out here killin the game. We are number one and no one can beat us. Everyone else has to take the “L”. But on a separate note so… Read More
We just received word that the MAYA group has arrived safely in Guatemala. The were picked up from the airport and driven to their hostel outside Antigua, where they’re settling in, and enjoying the good weather and beautiful views. They are looking forward to the next few days of orientation – where they’ll get to know more about one another, Guatemala, and the semester ahead. The next posts will be… Read More
The MAYA group is all together for the first time! They’ve all arrived safely to LAX, checked in for their flight to Guatemala and are heading through security. They are already enjoying getting to know one another and are looking forward to the journey ahead. We wish them safe and easy travels tonight and will post another blog here once we receive word that they have arrived in Antigua and… Read More
Greetings from Portland—Jonathan and Michelle here. We have been busy digging through our itinerary and planning our incredible semester! We are getting pumped to meet you all and fly to Guatemala next week!
Here are some things to keep in mind during your last few days at home:
-Pack light! Follow the list Carpe Diem gave you and you’ll be all set. You probably already have too many things in… Read More
Hi everyone,
The sun is still shining brightly today in Roatan, but it feels so different without you here. No one is shouting our names from across the room, no one is asking us questions… we’re just regular ol’ people again. But don’t worry! We took our own advice. We wrapped you all up neatly in a little package, and we’re carrying you next to our hearts.
And while our… Read More
Costa Rica- Pura vida!
After a 4:30 am wake up and around 14 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Costa Rica! We were welcomed with a huge fiesta at one of the homestays, accompanied by a drastic difference in food; Ribs and BBQ chicken instead of just the usual rice and beans. We were given a quick intro to CIRENAS, the program that we worked with for the… 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
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
