Old, maybe the Oldest.

Hola everyone!
We just finished our first week of spanish school and we all learned a lot! Most of us had our own teacher, and all of them were great. We spent 4 hrs each morning at the school and spent the afternoons swimming in the lake, or doing various activities. We took a boat trip into Flores to shop on thurs. and stopped at a small museum on the way, where we learned all about mayan artifacts. Yesterday afternoon we went went fishing...well we tried but only caught one. It was fun just being on the water though.
Today we woke up extra early and went to the famous mayan ruins in Tikal, only a couple hours away from here. We all loved it! It was so cool to see and learn about the ancient city. Tonight is our last night in San Andres, tomorrow we leave for Coban and start our week in the Cloud Forest. It should be a great time!
Here is some trivia from Kelly...
The national bird of Guatemala, the quetzal, is actually only found in the cold parts of the country. The quetzal is also the name of the currency.
We learned at Tikal that the Mayans used ball games to work out conflict, instead of going to war. However the loser would be killed...
Cush, the boat driver and kelly and lexis homestay dad is apparently more famous then bush...but can not swim. We learned this from the locals.

Okay that is all for now! Well be posting again soon, and well try to upload some pictures when we have a better connection.
Sending lots of love,
Emily

Calor, maybe the Caloriest.

Grettings from San Andres, Guatemala.

We arrived in the very hot town of San Andres yesterday after a week full of Guatemalan traditions, holidays, parades, pageants, and costume contests. The week started with carnivale where we were all covered in flour and confetti thrown on us by the local children. The next day was a mardi gras parade where we were once again attacked by the children. On friday it was the day of the Guatemalan national hero Tecun Uman. A child from every grade in the school dressed up as the leader of the Mayan resistance against the conquistadors. The day also celebrated the marimba which is the national instrument of Guatemala, it is very similar to a xylophone. We are now begining our spanish school and hope to be able to better communicate in the local language. More posts should follow this week during our time in San Andres.

Hope all is well in the states.

¡HAY USTEDES!

Hello everyone,

We have had a very eventful last few days here in beautiful Guatemala. On saturday we took a 2 hour hike into the hills, mountains, jungles, and every other imaginable terrian and arrived at a cave. On the hike to the cave we were attacked by a chacha bird and it felt like it was a scene straight out of Jurassic Park and the chacha was a Velociraptor. We survived the attack and kept treking and made it to the cave. The cave was massive and wet and cold and awesome. It took over an hour to reach it to the end of the cave and we were guided by candlelight. At the end of the cave everyone got up the courage to jump from a high ledge and into the water. After a long 2 hour hike back we enjoyed dinner and slept soundly.

We now have all moved into our first homestay houses in Barrio Ixobel and are working on understanding our families converstaions and learning about their culture. Barrio Ixobel is a small tightknight community that is hardly seen in the states anymore. It is really cool to see the whole community work together and know everyone around them as if they were the cast of Cheers. Later today we will be treated to some sort of beauty paegant that seems to involve some music by Lady Gaga. We are all having a great time and looking forward to whatever comes next.



Hope all is well with everyone back home in the states,

Griffin

Scavenger Hunt in Poptun

Hi everyone!
Its Emily, Lauren, and Hannah. We are in the village of poptun in guatemala doing a scavenger hunt (like the others below said) It took us a while to get to here but we made it! Even though were all sweaty and not very clean were excited to be here. We´ll post again as soon as we can
hasta luego

So thats a Basura!?

Hello everyone this is Brian, Lexi and Kelly. We are on a scavenger hunt in Poptun, Guatemala. The place where we are staying is amazing and wonderful. We are all looking forward to a lovely lagoon swim later after a very long trek today. In case you did not know a basura is not just a garbage it is also a landfill...we were able to find this in the mountains on our walk. We were all together on the walk and bonded over the lovely experience. Everything is amazing and we will let you know more about our adventures along the way.

Adios for now!

NUMERO UNO!

Hola amigos y familia!
Lauren F, Brooke, and Griffin here! we are currently on a scavenger hunt in a local town. we have had a wonderful time sofar at finca ixobel, relaxing, bonding, and preparing for our trip. the walk here was supposed to be 40 minutes but due to directional difficulties we went on quite the adventure through the town basura, aka the dump- the elephant graveyard... well not elephants but horses, with vultures. it was quite the experience, especially for griffin who was very afraid of the birds. the walk took almost three hours and made lunch taste so much better! we will take a tuk tuk back, which is a motorized rickshaw with room for three. later we will be swimming in the local lagoon, and tomorrow we are hiking to a river cave.
we love you all and miss you!
hope everyone is well, look for more posts soon
Griffin, Lauren, Brooke

Arrival in Finca Ixobel

I just received an email from Heather and Adam that the group's officially touched ground at Finca Ixobel, the site of their orientation and also the group's first real solid ground since taking off in SF! In Heather's words the leaders are typing from "the Flinstone's original computer" so don't expect any contact from the students until tomorrow at the earliest :-)

Yours,

Ethan

Let the journey begin!

I just got off the phone with our fearless leaders and everyone has safely arrived into SFO and are with their group! ... that's right, everyone! Despite snow on the East Coast, several frazzled flight rearrangements and one delay, the group is successfully united!

Stay tuned as another blog gets posted from Finca Ixobel during their first stop for orientation.

Yours in spirit,

Ethan Knight

Executive Director

Airport meeting information

Hola otra vez! 5 Days until we meet in SFO...

We will be meeting in front of the TACA airlines counter in the international terminal at 8:30pm on Wednesday, Feb 10th. We know many of you have flights that get you in well before 8:30pm, but just in case you are running late or can't find us, please call 1-877-285-1808. This is a Carpe Diem office number that will be answered all evening the night of our departure, and they will help you find us or let us know where you're at if you're behind schedule.

"True morality consists not in following the well beaten track ,
but in finding the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it."
Mahatma Gandhi

Look forward to meeting you all soon!
Adam and Heather

Hola CAM Spring 2010!

Hola and greetings from Carpe Diem HQ in Portland, OR. We are both very excited for our upcoming adventure - with less than a week to go before we meet in SFO, we have been working hard with final preparations and packing, as we imagine many of you are doing as well.
We will be calling you all in the next few days before we leave, to chat a bit and answer any questions you might have, as well as to pass along some last pieces of information.
Feel free to pass along this link to your friends and family, as we will all be taking turns updating it throughout the semester.
Enjoy your last weekend at home and we look forward to meeting you all muy pronto!
All the best,
Heather and Adam