A Curandera, a Slaughter and Some Jaguars!

We are wrapping it up here in San Andres, spending some time with our families and preparing some thankyou gifts. We have been emmersed into some of the historical Myan beliefs of San Andres, including a visit to a Curandera(a shamanistic herbal healer.)At the Curandera we learned about some of the common sicknesses amongest children and ways of healing them. One of the illnesses is caused from the transfer of heat, from someone who has recently been working or is drunk, to a baby, causing fever. Curing it involves an egg, a lemon, a duck, a local grown herb, some other goodies and some ancient orations. Karen has visited the Curandera since then and has had a facinating experience. Aside from this, these last couple of days have been mello and relaxing, as far as activities go. We have managed to fit in allot of swimming and time with group.
Last night Dan, Celia, Robert, Max and Alex had an experience that will forever change there outlook on what it is to eat meat. Dan´s family are butchers and the group mentioned before, had the opportunity to watch them kill a pig. This raw experience has brought more appreciation for the meats eaten here as well as respect for the locals interactions with the animals. The animals here live a life untainted from inhuman treatment. We are thankful for the culture we have been exposed to and are pumped to continue on our journy.
The excitment continues to bubble up in us as we prepare to head our for our first visit to a Myan ruin site, in Tikal. We will be camping out over night at the Jaguar Inn near the Tikal jungle. Hopefully none of us will wake up to find ourselves in a jaguar cuddle puddle, for there are Jaguars in the area, thus the name. Dan, Alex and Kaise arranged our stay in Tikal as well as the transportation there. Thanks Boys!
All of us here send our love and are thinking of ya (you know who you are)!
The Cam Crew
- Heidi

Quetzales in the Bank, Shawty Whatch Drank

Its our third day at our second homestay, in San Andres. We apologize for the lack of blogs thus far. We thourghly enjoiyed ourselves in Poptuon and were fortunate enough to have participated in the local Guatemalan Independence Day festivities. These festivities included, sack races, music, a compatition with horses and a scramble up a 30 foot tall, lard covered log. Alex and Robert were champs and participated in the human ladder to get to the top of the lard pole. Although Alex got pantsed infront of everybody and a little aftermath of sore backs, it remains a once in a life time experience. We explored the city of Poptun with a fun scavanger hunt, put togeather by Celia and did our first service project at La Escuela. Our service project included filling a large planter box with soil and putting up the fence. We spent alot of time at the school aside from our service project. There, we were greeted with lots of smiles and many invitations to play soccer and basketball. The children were very friendly and we became immediate friends with many of them.
We were spoiled with the wonderful meals made for us and ate togeather as a group. Most of the meat we ate was once crusing around in our backyards, including tamales made with a cerro, pig, from Heidis house. With a mixture of excitement and a little sadness we moved on in our adventure, never to forget the family and freinds we made in Poptun.
We took an hour long bus ride form poptun, which gave Andy the first hand experience of what a sardine in a can may feel like. To our ammusment he was accompanied by a man who basically sat on his lap the whole way, yelling for more passangers out the window. We were thankful to arrive in Florez where we took a great boat ride across the lake, Peten, and arrived where we now reside. Yesterday we had a great field day. Max, Andy and Heidi went to an organic farm , where they gathered fruit, habeneros and saw the national tree of Guatemela, a Ceida. Karen, Celia, Robert, Kaise, Alex and Dan went to an animal rehibilitation where they saw the beautiful Occelots and experienced how crazy Spider Monkeys can be,
Big Love from The Cam Crew!
- Heid, Robert and Max!

We made it!

Having met the group after months of only knowing them over the internet has made this whole journey become real. It started as we sat in a circle on the ground in the airport playing games and getting to know eachother. After a 6 hourt flight to El Salvador and another half hour to Guatemala City we hopped on a 7 hour bus ride to Finca Ixobel. Alex managed to get the most sleep on the bus in the most uncomfortable awkward positions while everyone else struggled to get any sleep. After 7 hours we were shown around the beautiful Finca Ixobel grounds and to our rooms. Bobby, Dan, Max, Alex, and Kaise were all in the same dormitory while Celia and Heidi slept two doors down next to Andy and Karen. The boys were welcomed by a half foot long spider and a bat flying in their room. After eating a great dinner we ended the night with a few games of scattergories and after a long day of traveling for everyone and lots of heat and humidity everybody fell asleep with no problems. The next day was filled with activities, orientation, and group agreements to make these next 3 months go smoothly. In between group meetings some people decided to swim in the lagoon while other people relaxed and did what they wanted. We were lucky to have a ping pong table which everyone managed to spend plenty of time on throughout our stay there. Everyone decided to get a early nights sleep to prepare for a long and exciting day of caving and swimming. Everybody woke up ready to go except for Celia and Dan who unforunately came down with a slight stomach illness. Andy graciously stayed behind to make sure things went well for both of our sick companions (including but not limited too providing ginger ale). As for the remaining six, we enjoyed our breakfast, packed lunches and flashlights, applied sunscreen, filled up our water, and began our two hour trek through the Guatemalan jungle. Our guide Pilar, although not practiced in English was very experienced in navagating the jungle and got us to our destination with only a minor hiccup. Pilar and most of us heard a gun shot while no more than 100 yards from the cave entrance. Erring on the side of caution, the students sat and waited for Pilar and Karen to go ahead and examine the noise further. Our anxiety was for nothing, after seeing three jovial hunters walking towards us. The cave at first sight was a lot like many others, but upon further inspection it was rather unique. Flying bats and cool deep waters put smiles on all of our faces. The stark contrast between the heat of the jungle and the refreshing pools of the cave was welcomed by all. One of the many features inside the cave was a 20 foot jump which had the bravest of us showing signs of trepidation. Once out of the cave we enjoyed the quick lunch that we packed and scrambled back to Finca Ixobel as fast as the terrain would allow.
Betweem the great meals, plush accomodations, and some heated games of ping-pong, Finca Ixobel was a great place. We left it for the town of Poptun for our first homestays. Everyone seems to like their families so far, though most of us can´t tell what they´re saying. I am excited to be forced to improve my Spanish, because progress has been slow so far. Tuesday is Guatemalan Independence Day, and being part of the celebrations should be a great experience for all. Until next time, much love from Dan, Celia, Max, Heidi, Kaise, Bobby, Andy and Karen. Paz!

Let the Journey Begin!

I just spoke to our intrepid leaders, Andy and Karen, and they've got the entire group together and are heading through SFO airport security as we speak! I have to admit this is an auspicious beginning to the semester as everything seems to be going quite smoothly thus far ... and I'm sure the semester will continue accordingly!

So, stay tuned for fairly regular blogs from the students on a roughly weekly basis. Until then, this is Ethan, signing off.

Cannot wait for CAM!!!!

Hola Los Amigos: Alex, Celia, Dan, Heidi, Kaise, Max, y Robert,

This is our blog-site in which all of your friends and family will be vicariously living through. Once a week one of you will be a "blogger"/author who will describe all the juicy details of our amazing, twisting, bumpy and winding roads that we travel along during the next three months. We encourage you to peruse past blogs to get an idea of what they might, might look like. Also, please inform your family and friends of this site, and show them how to log in, so they will know what an amazing and authentic experience we are having.

In addition to gaining responsibility of the blog, we will have other job titles assigned and rotated once every 1-2 weeks. They are described below. Contemplate which one you are most enthused to take charge of for the first couple weeks of the semester.

Cribs: Organizes any sleeping accommodations we need. ie: hotel/hostel/camping

Hotwheels:
Coordinates our transportation to and from cities, activities, caves...

Director of Fun:
Scopes out and arranges fun activities. ie: Hiking volcanoes, reiki classes, salsa lessons...

El Cap:
The leader of our team who makes sure everything runs according to date, corresponds with budget and is plainly doing their job. Yeah, crack that whip... ;)

Slacker:
Actually one of the most important roles. The slacker picks up the slack we all drag behind. If we are messy, you help clean up and delegate us to pick up our poop. The slacker may also write appreciation letters to those in communities helping us have an amazing experience and may deliver flowers and chocolate... you get the idea.

Appreciator:
This person compliments the slacker. He/she tags people throughout the week with stickers or ribbons as he/she catches them performing acts of kindness, growing in a special way, recognizes strong effort, pushing comfort zones, etc.

Clark Kent: The news reporter who finds out current events in local communities, U.S. happenings and any other cultural information we should be aware us as we travel.

Spanish Spiller: provides us with a word of the day and encourages us to use it until we are blue in the face. ie: "VACA" "Tengo un vaca en mi camiseta." Yes, we just wrote that.

We are pupped for our upcoming endeavors as we get ready for this place called Central America, and hope you are too. Spend lots of time with your family and friends, eat lots of American food and listen to a lot of Latino music. We'll See you sooner than later!

PAZ,

Karen and Andy

Gratitude

Happy Mother's Day! As we post this last blog, Namanda (Nick & Amanda) would like to take the opportunity to thank the mothers (and fathers) out there for giving space for your son and daughters to further spread their wings over Central American's vibrant currents. How to encapsulate three months of intense living and inspiring transformations... although there is not so much a need for this, since the 'light bulbs' from our trip have registered at bodily levels, and will thrive in us and lead us onwards.
For one, I think we'd all agree how we've learned of the freedom that comes from opening up to the magic of the moment. For one, I (Amanda) am reminded of that as I scribe this blog from Arizona. Prior to May 5, I had no plans to make it home for Mother's Day, but found the world conspire to move me in this direction as our CAM family attempted to travel to our respective homes from Roatan, Honduras.
On May 5, we arrived to the Roatan aiport and Namanda began the check-in process. To our amazement, we learned that five of the eight of us had our plane tickets mysteriously 'canceled'. While a bit strange, we expected this to eventually sort itself out, but ultimately Nick, Tim and Julia had to board the plane without the other five after we said our abrupt goodbyes. The rest of us hunkered down to 6.5 hours of airport time while we phoned our travel agent nearly every half hour in hopes of new flight confirmations. As the airport shut its lights off around 7pm, we swiftly negotiated vouchers for food and lodging, and set off in a taxi for West End beach. Safely checked into our hotel, we found out from headquarters that indeed we'd have the same flight schedule the next day. We drifted off to sleep with that relief and assurance.
The morning greeted us with another unexpected surprise: rumors of strikes on the island which might prevent us from traveling to the airport from West End. We heard several different stories, but ultimately took the advice of a taxi driver wielding a cell phone and radio. He anticipated that the strikers would close down several more routes as the day progressed, and that it would be best for us to leave for the airport immediately.
As this driver (who we learned is the president of taxi drivers on this side of the island) carted us to the airport, we learned more about the situation at hand. The strikers were Honduran construction workers frustrated with the reality that many Guatemalans have been arriving to the island and taking up jobs that would otherwise be theirs. As a result, many Hondurans were struggling with 'making ends meet'.
We arrived to the airport to find all but one of our plane tickets confirmed and easily ticketed. While we waited for TACA to locate Amanda's ticket, several reporters entered the airport to investigate the situation of plane departures in light of the striking laborers. Apparently, there had recently been an altercation between the police and the strikers, reporting several injured, and the rioters were now moving towards the airport. Amanda was briefly interviewed live by these reporters, before being called by TACA personel who asked all of us to move through security to our first flight which was taking off an hour and fifteen minutes before schedule. Unclear, but a bit relieved to have lift-off from the island, we boarded our first of four planes en route to San Francisco.
For the next twelve hours, Anjali, Hannah, Rachel, Jessica and Amanda rode the wave of travel home (Amanda having decided to suprise mom for mom's day rather than travel El Salvador), through La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula to San Salvador, and finally to the open arms of Julia awaiting us in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Nick was struggling with worry as he attempted launch into solo travel in Panama, and Tim was off to his Boston home.
The interesting twists of these final moments of our journey appropriately reflect the curiosities we encountered on our travels through the region. It's these unpredictables of life that encourage us to develop a comfortability with the 'chaos'. The attitudes with which we deal with these such situations that arise are ultimately those which sculpt our experiences of life...
We hope you continue to find the magic, the silver lining, the message of hope and possibility in every instance of our ever-changing lives. Remembering that it is our relationships with one another that sustain, and in the most frustrating and seemingly 'lost' of times, we can call on one another and again set aflight with the wings expanded in Central America. Que viva, pura vida.

Diving into our final week

We have found another paradise in Roatan, Honduras. Getting here was another trip in itself. Our taxi was late for our 4 am pickup at our hostel in San Jose, and at the airport we apparently "had reservations, but no tickets" and waited at the check-in desk for 1 1/2 hours. The rest of the day went complication free, despite the fact that we stopped at 4 more airports. Our hotel, Posada Las Orquideas, is a dream come true. We have three beautiful rooms with ocean views. Not to mention the simple convenience of water and electricity, both of which we were without the week before. Quick facts: We are on the West End, which is very touristy. The locals speak English, as well as a Creol dialect? because the British used to have control over the island. Ok, those were very quick facts.
We came to get certified in SCUBA, and Roatan is said to be the second best place to do just that (second to the great barrier reef of course). The dive shop is next door to our hotel, and is run by the sweetest, chillest, local people. Our classes consisted of watching 5 hilarious instructional videos (one of which was an infomercial for PADI "stuff"). Tony, our instructor, let us essentially teach ourselves the details. He didn't spend time in the classroom, but out in the water, he was great. The curriculum has closed-water dives, and open-water dives built into it. But this dive shop forgoes the close-water dives and takes students out in the ocean on the first day. Most of the group absolutely loved diving from day one. (The reef is such a beautiful world after all.) A couple of us were not as enthusiastic at first. When Hannah and I would begin panicking about a particular skill practice, Tony would say matter-of-factly, "why are you worried? This is the easiest sport in the world. All you have to do is breathe." Which is the truth, essentially. Not all of us are able to always see it that way, however, when we are many feet under the OCEAN. We all became certified on Saturday! With the exception of Jessica and Julia, who didn't take the course...(Jessica could not participate because of complications with a past head injury). Amanda was already certified on her last Carpe Diem trip in Australia, and chose to take 5 (we love our overachieving leader) courses. We all joined her in her final dive, the night dive. Tony told us before we set out that it is, "the safest dive", because we don't go deep, and stay in a small area. (And technically, if the night dive is the safest, and scuba is the easiest sport, we could have spent the evening in bed and been at the same risk level. Ha! According to this dude Tony.) We took down flashlights and were able to see lobsters, and other parts of the reef that only feed at night. Turning off the lights, we played in the phosphorescence. I personally had a terrifying experience when I floated to the surface due to a lack in weights, couldn't swim down, or find the boat. We had been warned that jellyfish swim at the surface at night. Tony pulled me down eventually (thanks to my amazing buddy Hannah) before I had a heart attack. All in all it was a great dive. Everyone was in a great mood afterward.
Although Jessica and Julia didn't take SCUBA courses, they were able to snuba, (which is the bizarre combination of snorkeling and scuba. One takes an air hose under the water, but without safety equipment used for scuba. Sounds more risky than scuba.), play with baby monkeys, and visit a local museum. Jessica and Rachel also swam with dolphins!
To get the vibe of this past week, we encourage you to listen to the following playlist (these songs were on repeat at the dive shop all day long):
1. Whatever you like--TI, and this song is also the theme song to the entire trip
2. Mad--Ne-yo
3. Right now--Akon
4. Miss Independent--Ne-yo
As it is our last week together, we planned a few final bonding evenings. We played a great game of "funniest Guatemala moments" charades, had a delicious potluck (each of the 3 rooms brought 1 or 2 special dishes, and it was quite a success), attempted to watch the Costa Rica vs. USA soccer game on tv, but ended up chatting on the beach, and tonight we have reservations at an ocean side restaurant. Our final night together! Yes, the time has finally come to say goodbye. We are in our last phases of organization before the trip home (although if you were to walk into one of our rooms the word "organization" would not come to mind). The students part ways with the fabulous leaders in San Salvador tomorrow evening, and go our separate ways the next morning. We all will miss Central America. What an experience this has been! I am failing to find words to express how valuable this journey has been. Thank You Carpe Diem! Goodbye dear blog readers, thanks for following. (For all you prospective CAM students, do it! Just do it. Wow.) With love, Anjali