A final Farewell

 

What an amazing trip it’s been!  Our last week in Honduras was spent on white sandy beaches Scuba diving, and eating delicious Caribbean coastal food, while our friends and family at home were probably wishing for a little more sun.  We have been to four countries, and had the chance to discover Central America, learn Spanish, and make friends that will last a lifetime.  Thank each and every one of you for working hard, having fun, and making the trip as incredible as it was.  Through the good, the bad, and the crazy we came out of it all with a smile on our faces.  Have a wonderful Holiday season, and I wish you all the best with school, travels, and your own personal adventures.

 

Con mucho amor,

          Toya

San Jaun del Sur and Parque Madaras

Last week was amazing! We arrived in San Jaun del Sur last Sunday and made our way down a nonexistant road through a river to the beautiful Playa Madaras and Parque Madaras. Parque Madaras was absolutely amazing, whatever any of us had been expecting, this was not it! Our rooms all had ocean views and we were served the best food of our entire trip here. We each even had our own double beds! The first few days we learned about permaculture and sustainable living and all the work that Tyler, the owner of Parque Madaras, had put into this project. We spent most of our afternoons playing at the beach or trying our hands at surfing. The waves there were incredible. On Wednesday, we started building two solar ovens. It was really interesting to see how they work and how these ovens were made. We all had a wonderful week and were very sad to leave on Saturday.

Saturday, we took a charter bus across the border into Costa Rica. It was around an eight hour drive, but totally worth it in the air conditioning. We got to our hostel, Costa Rica Backpackers, around ten and then spent the day Sunday exploring San Jose and shopping in all the markets. Later tonight we are going to go and watch the new James Bond movie.

Tomorrow we leave for our turtle project on the cost and will be out of contact for the week. After the project we will be spending the following week at Punta Mona, a spirital and meditation retreat place.

We all also have agreed on going to Panama for our week of free travel. We will be heading to Boca del Torro in the North of Panama on the Caribbean side.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful November!!

Melanie

One month left...

It´s November! We are in Granada in Nicaragua, on our last night here for Day of the Dead. In preparation they painted the cemetary with a fresh coat of white and there are traditional yellow flowers sold everywhere in the street. Granada is a beautiful, colonial-era city on Lake Nicaragua which we boated on Wednesday afternoon. It was a little stormy but we landed at an old fortress, and from the cannon tower we could see all of the city and the surrounding volcano called Mombacho. We spent our mornings this week in language school at One to One Tutoring, a great experience. They were very helpful and good teachers, and brought us around the city one day as well. We explored an abandoned hospital, a former government prison, and saw many churches. There is a huge yellow cathedral in the square, the pride of Granada. Our afternoons we had free and we could just walk around the city, there is a lot to see and do. Tomorrow we leave for Parque Maderas, on the beach outside the city San Juan del Sur, to do volunteer projects and surf for the week. Everyone is looking forward to this!
By Jessa

Hello everyone,
I know it has been a while, we are just so busy, it is hard to make time to wirte on the blog. So let me catch everyone up on our latest travels. After leaving Xela, we spent a few days in the amazing city of Antigua. Im pretty sure everyone found something to love about the city, whether it be the subway(the sub shop), the local markets, or the great little breakfast places. While in Antigua we made up for our three day hike that had to be canceled by climbing up a volcano! It was really amazing. The hike itself was pretty hard but once we made it to the volcano we saw a lava flow which was really cool. After spending some time melting at the top we all headed back down, but this wasnt just a hike down we got to slide down the side due to the build up of the volcanic ash. We had two amazing days in Antigua, but the time had come to pack up and go to Guatemala City where our trip in Guatemala ended. We were all a little sad leaving the safety of Guatemala but the time had come.
We finally made it to Leon, Nicaragua after a long day of waiting in Managua trying to find a ride. In Leon we stayed at this very cute little hostel the "tortuga booluda" (the lazy turtle). We all had a great time staying together and we also all got to cook our own food, the Chef came out in everyone. While in Leon we got to see some of the beautiful churches, which the city is known for. Some of the girls also went out dancing at night and had a blast. We spent a very relaxing few days there. After regaining out strength in Leon, we moved on to Granada. But before making it to the city we made a little pit stop to go zip lining. It was a blast, it was run by a small company so they had plenty of time for us. We got to go upside down and super man style through the canopy's of the jungle. It was a great group bonding trip. After getting our tarzan on, we drove on to Granada. Right after getting there we all got asigned our new homestay families. Most of us are with another person, which is always fun. We also all started language school agian today at One on One Language School. The school is well organized, but hard as always.
I hope I have been able to catch you up, it is always alot haha but we are all still having an amazing time. And Happy Halloween!!
Sophie

Chicacnab and Xela

Hello to friends and family! Apologies for not getting a blog posted sooner, but I will try to catch you up as best I can on the past couple weeks! After leaving San Andres, the group headed for a small city called Coban. We stayed at an awesome hostel called Casa Luna for a night, and got to spend a bit of time exploring the city and checking out the Ropa Americana stores. (Secondhand clothes stores with American clothing.) Its amazing what you can find in those places - including sweatshirts from places you took field trips to in Elementary school, to Superman capes, to designer jeans for roughly $3 US. The next morning we traveled to a place called Semuc Champey. It is a gorgeous national park with natural pools to go swimming in, and the most powerful river I have ever seen, (no worries, we didnt go in the powerful part of the river). The river goes underground for a while, and you can see where it enters and exits the cave, but not in the cave. We stayed overnight at another hostel, and the next morning the group traveled a couple hours outside of Coban, where we were dropped off part way up a mountain. We continued up the mountain on foot, wearing our much needed rented rubber boots. The trail was a very muddy, uphill, mental and physical task to complete, but at least had some beautiful scenery along the way, and I think the group would say was worth it in the end.
Much to our surprise, we got to stay in a recently built bunk house for guests. In fact, we were told the last Carpe Diem group helped build it! We were the first group to sleep in it, and therefore got to watch a house blessing ceremony that was very interesting. The village we stayed at is called Chicacnab. It has a little over 108 people, and they speak the indigenous language of Q' eqchi. Most of the males speak spanish, so we could still communicate. The village had no electricity, although they did have a generator they turned on once and a while at night.
The next morning our group started our volunteer project which was helping level the ground for and constructing a second level of the church alter. Tod and Dan unearthed and shoveled clay onto satchels the rest of the group hauled in to the church and packed down. It took us four days of hard work by all, but the project was completed and looked great! It was awesome to see how well everybody worked together, and how much we accomplished. We worked from after breakfast until lunch, and afternoons were spent for the most part in the bunk house lounging around, and some people also took part in hikes and helping bury a cow.
On Saturday morning we hiked down the mountain, not nearly as brutal as hiking up, and traveled back to Coban. We stayed at the hostel Casa Luna again, got to take much needed showers after not bathing for a week, and got up very early the next morning to travel to Chichi - an incredible market in Guatemala. We became bargaining pros, and many people came back to the van with multiple bags. After the morning in Chichi we traveled to Xela, the second biggest city in Guatemala. We will be here until Saturday morning, and are again living in homestays and going to school. People seem to be enjoying being in a city environment and are taking part in different activites such as dance classes and movies at coffee houses. But, I must get back to my homestay to be in time for dinner! Hope all is well and we love and miss you all!
-Megan-

Week Two in San Andres

Hello, everyone!
It is a warm Thursday afternoon, and we are all lounging at the internet cafe in Flores. The weather this week has been much cooler, so we have been enjoying the sun without sweltering in the humidity.
Last Saturday, we took a weekend trip to Tikal. We piled into a van in the morning and headed off. Along the way, we stopped at the fantastic Maxi Bodega to pick up some groceries - lots of bread, lots of peanut butter, lots of jelly. The ride there seemed pretty short and uneventful, except for when we came across an enormous herd of cattle in the road. Some of us snapped pictures as the (real, live) cowboys tried to move the herd along, so ask about the cow photos.
When we arrived at Tikal, we settled ourselves under some trees and had a pincic lunch of pb&j sammies. Then, we worked out sleeping arrangements and headed to the Jaguar Inn to put our backpacks and groceries away. We doused eachother in bug spray and sunscreen, and headed for the ruins.
The structures of Tikal are spread all over the jungle. We would walk through the forest for ten or twenty minutes before coming across these unbelievable displays of stone and cement. Some were just crumbling remains, piles of rubble being taken over by the moss. But every so often we would stumble upon these enormous temples, wondering how they could still be standing after so many years. Some had ladders up the sides, for those who are brave enough to climb the practically vertical ascent. We snagged a perfect group picture at the top of one, so we will try to post it soon.
In the evening, we meandered back to the Jaguar Inn, had some dinner, and tucked in early. At four the next morning, we lazily made the trek up to one of the structures. The rain was dripping of the leaves above our heads, and we stayed contendedly silent as we followed the beams that our flashlights made. Then, we climbed the endless wooden steps to the very top and settled in among the dark. More people joined us - a group of Dutch travelers, some from Israel. We watched the mist seep across the trees and listened as the monkeys howled to each other from across the jungle. We never actually saw the sun come up, but we enjoyed watching the clouds turn from black to gray.
Tomorrow is our last day of language school in San Andres. On Saturday, we will pile back into another van and spend a weekend in Coban. Next week, we will be working alongside Peace Corps volunteers in the mountains. We will be in homestay houses with no electricity, so no e-mails or blog updates. But we all love and miss you guys at home, and we will talk to you again soon!
- Grace

day 14 In San Andres

We have left Poptun and moved to our second homestays in San Andres. The scenery has changed from dirt roads and rural housing, to near 90 degree paved streets and a lovely veiw of lake Peten Itza. Here is the follow up of our last remaining days in Poptun:

Our ditch digging was put to a hault after a query between a few local residences, whose homes were being flooded due to our efforts, and the school´s directora, who continually thought the project was a good idea and that we where doing a mediocre job of it. We switched our game plan to teaching english at the school and found it a much more helpful and involving activity. During the recesses all of the children found themselves drawn to play with us, give us flowers, and literally climb all over us. There was a day when about a third of our group was stricken with what we think was food poisoning, but it was only a day or two of extra trips to the bathroom and skipping meals. For the majority of our stay, we had grown fond of and used to taking day trips into the town of Poptun to get ice cream and then hiking back to the Finca to swim in the Lagoon before dinner. The morning of our departure from Poptun we where seen off by a small 6 year boy named Wilbur who we had grown fond of and who had particularly grown fond of Katie.

San Andres was met a few days ago by 11 smiles as we looked upon a gorgeuos lake and a beautiful little town on a hill. Here is where we started our 1 on 1 spanish lessons at Echo Escuela, which has given mixed results in furthering our knowledge of the launguage. We are still getting to know our new homestay families and have been finding many activities to do such as watching night basketball, cooking at Sophies homestay house, having movie night at Jessa´s, and visiting a animal reserve across the lake. Megan´s Homestay dad, Cush, transported us in his boat to the animal reserve and to the town of Flores while serenadeing us with his harmonica, lovely singing voice, and air trumpet. At the animal reserve we fed monkeys and were challenged to fights by the endangered birds. At Flores we saw other Gringos for the first time as well as got in some time to purchase peanut butter and other necesities. Swimming in the lake has been a nice way to kill the heat that has been taking its toll on us ever since we first arrived in town. We have another week and a half to look forward to in San Andres, with lots of exciting events to look forward to, such as: Visiting the Myan ruins of Tikal, going for nature hikes, boat rides, music on the beach, more spanish lessons, and what ever else there is to be done while traveling through Guatemala.

There will be more blogs written while in our stay in San Andres and this is Dan saying Adios.

Poptun, Day 3

One week in and the whole Central America is having lots of fun, even with the seven hour van rides, blazing sun, pouring rain, giant tarantulas, and occaisionally dubious bathroom conditions.

We spent the first few days holed up at the lovely Finca Ixobel, where we stayed in cabins and went caving, whitewater tubing, hiking, and horseback riding, as well as lounging by the pond and partying it up (sin alcohol) at the bar with our US Army buddies, and a dredlocked Israeli. The caving was pretty extreme, and had us crawling on our stomaches through some tight fits at some points. All but Dan and Tod went tubing down the river, which was quite relaxing, despite the occaisional rapid and the two fairly brutal sunburns. The section of the river after lunch was a little bit rougher, so only four of us decided to continue, and as we were getting into our rafts, the guide told us not to worry about the bad smell at the pullout point, as it was just from the (non-tubing-related) dead body that had been pulled from the river the day before. Thankfully, no harm befell us as we were equipped with lifejackets as well as helmets.

The next day some of the group rode some difficult horses while myself, Tod, Jessa, and Dan of the infinite nicknames climbed El Piramide, a formidable looking pyramid shaped mountain. The way up was tough, but gravity did most of the work on the way down, with Jessa practicing her bounce.

On Sunday we left the Finca early in the morning for the town of Poptun, a ten minute or so walk away, to meet our host families for the week and to see the activities set up for Guatemalan Independence Day. After a few hours of small town Guatemala, we were already ready for a break, and headed back to Finca for a nice refreshing dip in the pond, and a nice nap in the hammocks, something which we have made a daily habit of. More or less everyone is happy with their host families, although many bemoan the fact that it is very hard to communicate with them.

We started our community project of digging a ditch today, hopefully all goes well with that as the week progresses (photo to hopefully be placed below sometime in the future).

Until next time, when someone else updates the blog, this is Amit, on behalf of the Central America group.

Notes from the Airport Lounge

Well, it's official, they're together and ready! The group leaders just gave me a call and they have their full group - yes, everyone is there! In about three hours they'll be airborne and embarking on a journey of three-months and a thousand experiences.

I'm sure over the next few months you'll have photos of all kinds, calls of many emotions (and hopefully at least two languages!), and growth in more angles than you could imagine. May this be the beginning of a truly momentous and transformative semester!

Yours in spirit and adventure,
Ethan

CAM Countdown!

Hola! Toya and Tod here, with the inaugural edition of CAM update. The day of departure is almost upon us, and we hope all of you are as excited as we are about our upcoming journey. We're looking forward to meeting all of you in the Bay Area next week, so get your bags packed, your absentee ballots requested, and your domestic itineraries filed with Carpe Diem.
Other than that, get ready for an amazing adventure!