To our lovely readers who have followed along all this way, gracias! It’s your favorite OE team, Soumya and Ryan, despidiendonos from the sweet concrete jungle that is San José. Yesterday, we said our final adios to our Carpe crew who have been our family and friends for the last three months (complete with obligatory and very fashionable white bucket hats). As we close out another glorious semester, we want to revisit the journey we’ve taken.

At the beginning of it all, we arrived in LAX with our hopes, worries, and oversized backpacks with three towels too many (don’t worry; we gave them away along the way). We got a taste for a true Carpe beginning with the world’s most awkward name game where we cringed and self-identified as “holistic” and “epic” (was it true? To be determined…). When we arrived in Guatemala in the wee hours of the morning, we were stunned to be greeted by a beautiful sunrise over Volcanes Agua and Fuego over the picturesque valley of Jocotenango, just outside of Antigua. During orientation in these early days, we made up our own songs in the temescal, ate way too many french fries, supported Jane supporting local bees, figured out who did the best split, explored our various perspectives over social and political issues, learned how to stay safe (look both ways, don’t drink the water, and wash your hands), and got lost exploring the countryside and its greenery on a hike. We marveled over Volcán Fuego erupting at night and misplaced our passports and money and cell phone (I’m not naming names). Finally, we explored Antigua’s cobblestone streets in a meticulously-made scavenger hunt and made our first Carpe sacrifice, cutting Ryan’s shirt into Carpe’s first ever group flag.

From there, we rolled into the quiet and artistic town of Comalapa, blasting reggaeton along the way. In Comalapa, we got dirty and pretty much stayed that way, channeled cumbia music into our feet to make earthen bricks, tussled over the pila and being the first to shower, got seconds and thirds (and fourths!) of Doña Antonia’s amazing home-cooked meals, began imagining Rohan’s voice to fall asleep (our Green Academy instructor), bonded over shared GI issues, and made Elliot skip around the room for his birthday. We let loose in pool and tried all the street food, put our design skills to the test with collaborative group green building projects, got swole from all of the tires we pounded, accidentally kicked Omar in the face in futbol, didn’t eat enough chocofrutas, made fools of ourselves playing Quidditch, and were treated to cob oven-made pizza by Matt. We also began asking important questions about the nature of service and what our role as volunteers and learners from the US in this space was.

From Comalapa, we went on to enjoy the comforts of Xela, where we met our first homestay families and Spanish teachers. We learned how to salsa (uno dos tres, cuatro cinco seis), two-stepped with Emma, listened to testimonies on the Guatemalan armed conflict and feminism in Guatemala, got our butts kicked in futbol by our Spanish teachers and other students we befriended at PLQ, and took our first ride in pick-up trucks. We spent a day yelling and sliding and slipping around Xocomil water park (RIP Elliot’s flip-flops), and ate way too many baked goods and paletas. We topped it all off by birthing two baldies: Emma and Matt, and by taking Saúl out salsa dancing for his birthday.

In Pachaj, we braved a new set of homestays, had arguably the best chocobananos ever, moved around a lot of dirt, impressed the OEs with our cooking (who knew radishes on tostadas could be so good?), witnessed a beautiful Mayan ceremony at dusk and put our best intentions out there, and began our trek! We left our blood, sweat and tears on the trail and traveled through beautiful corn fields, forests, and over rivers. We roasted marshmallows, steamed up in temascals, ate way too many carbs, and tried wild tomatoes and lemons. We went up & up & up and pretty much kept going, got soaked in the rain and basically ran down a mountain, showed off our talents & booties, and watched the world’s most beautiful sunrise over Lago Atitlán.

We landed in San Marcos and had many fruitful discussions about the culture of foreigners, meditation, and spirituality there. We soaked in the meditative time at Las Pirámides and learned about spirituality and metaphysics, swam in the deep blue waters of the reserve, acquired one swing too many, stretched our bodies in new ways through yoga with a bird’s eye view of the lake, and had an officially-Carpe mid-semester ceremony, complete with string bracelets, candles, and lots of love and appreciation.

In San Juan, we slowed down and spent time with our homestay families, sampled endless amounts of honey, kayaked in the lake, rode horses, tried on the traditional traje, and played lots of games at the school with our teachers. We lost (and found) our passport (again) and admired the local art bursting from the murals that blossomed around town and we even tried our hands weaving our own scarves using the traditional backstrap loom.

From there we kicked off Student Directed Travel, heading to Antigua where we were bombarded with the Semana Santa procession – and got stuck amid hundreds of purple-clad participants. We left our shit (metaphorical and physical) on Volcán Fuego, didn’t get enough sleep, cried over the sunrise, and moved on to Río Dulce, dirty but happy. In Río Dulce, we swam and treasure-hunted in hot springs waterfalls, trusted a random dude and explored caves, descended into the valley of the most sick we’ve ever been and surfaced again, were afflicted with “breadthroat”, soaked in the sunset on a beautiful boat ride down the river, splashed around clear blue swimming holes by the Caribbean Sea, scrubbed copious amounts of sulfuric mud into our faces for some self-care, and shrieked as we dove into the deep pools of an abyss of a silent and dark cave fit for Gollum.

We said our farewells and our gratitudes to Guatemala and all its majesty and, one plane ride later, found ourselves in the Costa Rican valley town of Turrialba, famous for cheese. We reveled in the lush greenery that surrounded us and our Spanish school in the mountains, were wrapped into the warmth and kindness of our homestay mamás, went to zumba class with Daniel and the local mamis – and then went again – and again, and tried zillions of new fruits and tastes at the local university botanical gardens (including the miracle fruit which makes sour things taste sweet!). We learned how to ball with Emily, brushed off our drawing skills with Jane, and put our cooking skills to the test in a class, making arroz con pollo and Easter specialty empanadas de chiverre. We explored love and all of its variations, had movie night and wouldn’t stop talking about Black Phillip, and went swimming in frigid waterfalls (no snakes, I promise).

In Mastatal, we were greeted by Javier’s sweet family and the endless afternoon rain. We sat meditatively watching it fall on a lazy afternoon, cleaned trails at the national park, learned how to make compost – lasagna-style, built medicinal plant beds, and let loose with a fun and funky dance class with Caroline. We fell asleep learning about the banana industry (TL;DR: one banana bad, variety of bananas good), explored climate change issues in Guatemala and Costa Rica and drew our visions for the future, celebrated not one, but two birthdays! We watched Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway slay on a tiny screen and made our own chocolate truffles at a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. We swam in rivers and waterfalls almost every day, prayed to the skin salve gods, learned how to coal burn spoons from Elliot, and gave hammocks a different purpose. We learned from Saúl how to sign our likes and dislikes (ASL is so cool y’all) and threw our hands up in the air in amazement.

We moved onto our final activity destination – Drake Bay! We greeted the Pacific Ocean for the first time at Sierpe and took a tumultuous boat ride to the bay where we arrived in a torrential downpour and sang our way up the hill. We dove headfirst into our scuba diving course, practiced our skills in the pool, and went out for our first dive day, clutching the boat sides for dear life. We breathed underwater as we marveled at sea turtles, sharks, octopus, stingrays, starfish, sea horses, eels, endless schools of fish, and lots of coral life (and took breaks to eat the world’s best piña and watermelon). We got sunburned and learned our lesson, watched the sky change from orange pink purple as we swam in the ocean at sunset, discussed the Madonna-Whore complex as Erin led us in dissecting “Black Swan”, reflected on the impact of tourism on the Osa Peninsula, and practiced throwing jabs as Hunter taught us muay thai on the beach. Finally, we gaped as we hiked through the wonders of Corcovado National Park, bursting with wildlife. We tripped across coatis eating orange-purple crabs and experienced four different monkeys: hearing the howl of the howler monkey, being peed on by the adorable squirrel monkey, following the amazing flight of the spider monkey through the treetops, and laughing at the white-faced capuchin. We saw tapir mama and baby snoozing in the mud, sloth mama and baby snoozing in a tree, a boa constrictor in repose, a basilisk lizard basking in the sun, a crocodile which looked like a log at first, a black iguana on the sand, wild pigs eating beans (FYI the pigs smell like onions), and met a tree giant which ate another tree (the matapalo).

Finally, we said goodbye to the natural wonders of the Peninsula and returned to the Central Valley, arriving in Grecia to close our semester out before flying home. We balled out at a Japanese restaurant where we sat on the floor (and eventually, rolled around in laughter) and were awed at the exorbitant amount of food Elliot stuffed in his mouth. We enjoyed a memorable morning of games and fun before having a closing ceremony mostly led by our final student leaders, Emily and Emma. After evenings of Pitch Perfect and a dance party (shoutout to No Scrubs) to lead us into the final early morning of our airport departure, we finally reached the conclusion of this wild ride of a semester.

Everyone came to this program for different reasons. Some wanted to push themselves, some sought knowledge, some reached for self-understanding, some just needed something new. Over these last three months, we have seen our group pushed to the limits – and then stretch some more, learn to love themselves and each other, ask for what they need, speak with strangers and explore new places and ideas, learn how to hear hard things, appreciate things taken for granted, and question everything that they knew. It was our hope to build a community that would comfort and push to the edge simultaneously, that would offer each person acceptance and a hand when they needed it, that would provide companionship on shared journeys and support on those more individual challenges, that would invite each person to be awake to the changes they could experience, and that would ultimately send each person off anew — closing the chapter on a grand adventure, but returning home with eyes wide open.

As we close, we think of a poem by Mary Oliver:

“Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”

-Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”

Wherever you are, we hope you remember the family of things we created together. It will travel with you wherever you go.

With love,
Soumya the Spontaneous & Ryan the Radical
(aka The French Fry OEs)

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The final week of the semester was one for the books on the Osa Peninsula. It started with an epic boat trip there along the Sierpe River

We arrived to the beautiful Drake Bay which offered daily opportunities for beautiful sunset swims

But the real reason we came was for diving!!!

The peninsula is one of the last protected wild rainforests in all of Central America, and as such, has some of the most incredible biodiversity in the entire world. We watched a documentary about tourism on Osa available free online called _2.5% _ because that’s the percentage of the world’s biodiversity that can be found there. But the documentary also highlighted the way the region is trying to boost their local economy through tourists in a way that avoids the dangerous corporatization of the industry Costa Rica has seen in particular in the northern Guanacaste region. We felt good to be supporting locally owned and operated businesses in all activities for the week — from diving, to staying, and eating! We wrapped up part 2 of the Carpe Diem Lesson on Ethical Eating by having a picnic on the beach with locally produced products.

Ethical Eating Part II: the sunset picnic

We ended the week with a trip to the truly spectacular Corcovado national park, which featured as many close encounter animal sightings as any zoo — but they’re all wild!

Walks along the preserved beach

A tapir!

Walking around the campus at Sirena Research Station

A spider monkey

Our amazing guide teaching about endemic trees to the region

We travelled back in the direction of San Jose for our last two nights, to the small town of Grecia where we had our final dinner/ despedida celebration and our closing ceremony led by our last leaders of the week Emma and Emily.

Japanese restaurant on the penultimate night!

Soaking up the last hours together like we would cherry blossom season

Despedida celebrations

And after spending every day together for the past 11 weeks, now our journeys diverge. Check in for one more final wrap up blog by Soumy and Ryan soon, hasta entonces Maya crew.

Bucket hats to send us off in style!

The post Osa Península + Despedida appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Buenos dias todos!
With less than a week less of this epic adventure, let’s look back at what the previous week brought!

We begin at the lovely permaculture farm, Villas Mastatal, and learned about the importance of working with the earth’s ecosystem, how to make compost, and how to plant almond trees, while getting to experience the power of Costa Rican rain storms!

Next it’s off to Drake Bay for sun, sand, and scuba diving!

Hasta la próxima!
-Erin and Jane

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Hello friends! Hunter and Maddie here for the weekly blog We started the week off in Turrialba finishing up our Spanish classes.

Mastatal represents one of our final weeks here in Central America. For most of us, the past 3 months have represented a time of hardship and new experiences, and from that, a time of growth. Everyone here has learned and grown whether it be some new and useful spanish, or some dance moves. More importantly, we all learned something new about navigating a new social group, that being our travel companions, in the crucible that is this semester. As we go forward in life, in our individual professional careers or our personal lives, our experience here will serve us well in each of our pursuits. To each other, we have been sources of strength, inspiration, and at times serious annoyance and irritation. Truly, we have become a family to each other.

We’re excited to enjoy these last 2 weeks together! Thanks for tuning in to our bussin blog. Your favorite blogger baes signing off,

Maddie and Hunter

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Hello and welcome back to your favorite blog. This weeks installment features the thrilling adventures of the most lovable student group living out their self proclaimed travel dreams. That’s right, we planned everything from volcano climbing to relaxing on the Caribbean. Using boats, cars, airplanes, and our own feet, we have truly traveled far and wide this week.

While our student directed travel started in Antigua, the first real challenge was climbing to the peak of Acatenango.

After only a few hours in Guatemala City, our flight to Costa Rica left early the next morning. An easy 1.5 hours in the air took us to San José where we departed for Turrialba, the home of our final Spanish school and beloved host families.

The post From Montaña to Mar appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Student Leaders Saul and Caroline coming at you one last time. This week after our relaxing retreat weekend we took a boat to San Juan where we took Spanish classes in the morning and activities like bee tours, horseback riding, kayaking, and enjoying the beautiful view of the lake on a beach.

More student directed travel fun coming soon

Until next week,

Saul y Caroline

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Maddie and Matt here! We’ve had a jam-packed week with lots of fun and lots of aches. We started off in Pachaj working on reforestation with the Chico Mendes foundation.

After 3 days of physical pain and exertion, we got to rest and relax in beautiful San Marcos! The town is known for its aura of spiritual healing and hippie culture. We learned about metaphysics, yoga, and meditation, and overall relished in some rest and relaxation. Here is the Las Piramides we practiced metaphysics at!

Last but not least, we took a dip in the Lake to escape the heat. Now we head to San Juan for Spanish classes and educational activities. We hope you enjoyed this weekly blog, and that you agree that we are clearly the most baller bloggers in the group. Hasta Luego! -Matt + Maddie

PS” Hunter and Ryan up to Shenanigans on their successful passport run to Guatemala City! Hunter promptly lost his new passport in the van on the way back, but we have retrieved it yet again

The post Trees, Treks, and reTreats! appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Buenos Dias Todos! This is Erin writing to you from the lovely city of Xela where the gang has completed a second week studying with some amazing Spanish teachers and partaking in adventurous activities. Let’s look back at some of the highlights!

It’s been a great week of Spanish learning and group fun….now onto Pachaj….until next week folks!

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Buenos Dias Todos!

It’s Caroline and Jane this weeks student leaderz. The city of Xela has offered its new guests a whole world of fun. Spanish classes, hot springs, waterparks, mountain climbing, and a nauseating amount of bussin’ baked goods. Spending five hours a day at a school might sound like a bore, but our time at PLQ has truly been special. We’ve improved our speaking skills, but our education has gone further than just conjugation. A female veteran shared her experience fighting for indigenous Guatemaltecas, a conference on mining brought us insights, and fútbol was so epic it left some people sore for days.

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Hola! This is Emily and Hunter with a lil help from Emma. We are writing to you from Xela! Here are some highlights from the past week.

It was sad to say goodbye to Long Way Home and the beautiful people we met there, but we are all super excited to have (minimal) access to hot showers and to begin exploring Xela and taking Spanish lessons!! Hasta luego!

The post A Long Way From Home appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

¡Hola chicos!

Somos Saul y Emma! We’re the student leaders for the week, and also trying to practicar nuesto Español, entonces este mensaje will be in Spanglish.

Us writing this blog with some company…

We arrived in Comalapa from Antigua on Sunday afternoon to this beautiful volunteer house at Long Way Home:

The buildings are all made out of recycled materials such as old tires, trash, eco bricks (bottles filled with more trash), and glass bottles.

Starting Monday, we’ve been working from 7:30am – 4pm (with breaks and delicious food made by Antonia), learning about green building and putting our new knowledge to work. Here are some pictures to show you what we’ve been working on!

Learning about systems that help us make use of human caca y pipí for fertilizer, irrigation, etc. We also learned a lot about how different materials regulate temperature differently, and different strategies for building sustainable, comfortable, and reliable homes/classrooms.

Emily working hard or hardly working? Just kidding Emily trabaja muy duro and NEVER forgets to bring her PA!!! (Positive attitude) Here she is pictured compacting a tire for a new volunteer house. Discarded tires filled with soil and trash are one of the common materials used to build sturdy walls. 2000’s beats keep us motivated on long and sunny days, and the blisters are worth it when we get to see our progress at the end of the week!

Emily, Soumya, Dani, Linda, and Maddie mixing cobb (arena + tierra + paja + aguo) for the first time! Cobb is another common material used for building.

Outside of working, we’ve been adjusting to a new lifestyle (cold showers, compost toilets, hand washing clothes, etc.) and exploring the town of Comalapa. We started the week off with a group workout!

Hunter not understanding the exercise, Emma laughing at him, Saul giving up?

Tricep dips!! Saul caught slacking yet again.

Long Way Home only uses compost toilets. After going number 2, you have to dump 3 cups of sawdust in the toilet to cover up your mistakes (comida de la calle o demasiado frijoles).

A colorful Guatemalan cemetery.

Tortilla making!

The post Muchas llantas, tierras, y carretillas en Long Way Home! appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Written By OEs, Soumya & Ryan

Hola from Antigua! Soumya and Ryan here, sharing about our first few days as a group. We landed in Guatemala in the wee hours of the morning and made our way to the outskirts of the beautiful city of Antigua. At the peaceful Earthlodge retreat, we dove into getting to know each other through games, lessons about safety and cultural norms, nighttime gatherings in the temescal (traditional Mayan steam room), and a hike through the hills that surrounded us. Every morning we woke to the sunrise over the beautiful volcanoes and at night we enjoyed watching lava explosions from afar. Finally, we forayed into Antigua and the students got to explore the city on a scavenger hunt!

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The MAYA group has arrived safely in Guatemala! They are on their way to Earthlodge, where they’ll be spending the next few days for their orientation. They are ready to have a rest, some breakfast, and then dive into getting to know each other, the program and Guatemala. We look forward t their updates – they will post an update about their orientation early next week.

All the best,
Carpe Diem HQ

The journey begins as we arrive to Earthlodge!

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Dear family and friends of the Spring’22 MAYA group,

We’re happy to report that all the MAYA students have arrived safely to LAX and are ready to head to Guatemala! They’re happy to finally be together as a group and are looking forward to all the adventures the next few months will bring. And we’re looking forward to following along on their journey! We’ll post another blog here tomorrow morning once we’ve heard that they’ve arrived safely. In the meantime, here’s their first group photo!

All the best,
Carpe Diem HQ

The post ¡Vamos a Guatemala! appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Written By OEs Soumya & Ryan

Hola Grupo Maya! Soumya and Ryan here, your Overseas Educators for the next three months of adventure in Central America! Here in Portland, we are getting into the Carpe Diem headspace, preparing for our semester together with training days full of logistics, games and movement, and lots of good food. As we get ready for our trip, we have been enjoying getting to know each other and connecting with the rest of the Carpe community. We’re excited to get our hands dirty learning how to sling cob to build a wall, spotting sloths in the treetops, and eating more tortillas and beans than we thought was possible!

We’ve had the chance to talk over the phone one on one with all of the students soon to form our Maya group, and we’re beyond excited about what each and every one of y’all will bring to our traveling community. There’s a wide variety of motivating reasons for taking this trip, but there’s also a shared eagerness from all members to learn Spanish, learn about Guatemalan and Costa Rican culture, and — importantly — learn from each other. We have all the fixings to form a really supportive fellowship together!

We hope that you all are finding time to connect with friends and family, taking time for yourselves and reflecting on your hopes and dreams, and finding that perfect balance between too much and just enough to fit into your backpack. These next few weeks will be a whirlwind and we can’t wait to meet you all in person on February 23rd!

Hasta la vista!

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Written By Soumya & Matt

Your OE Soumya here [Matt providing the emotional support], surrounded by lush green plants and a distinct lack of eight Carpe students, writing this from breezy San Jose, Costa Rica. As we celebrate the end of the end, we look back to the beginning of the beginning…

We hopped off the plane at LAX with our dreams and – 60 liter monster backpacks. We learned each others’ favorite ice cream flavors for the first time and landed bleary-eyed at 5 am in Guatemala. It was a wild ride from there. In Antigua we got our first taste for the culture and people, tripping over cobblestone streets and learning that as a group we loved to play games & sports – we could always count on Ian to get us going with a game of Sharks & Minnows and Ava to obliterate us in Assassin. We searched for Matt’s Dr. Pepper in vain and adopted our team mascot, Lil Turk the turtle.

Before long, we were ushered into the Chocofrutas-loving arms of Omar, Long Way Home’s amazing Volunteer Coordinator in Comalapa where we stomped endless cob, perfected our baseball throw as we built walls, learned about arte naif and painted, met a kitten who stole our hearts, ate so many tortillas (hay mas tortillas), played round after rousing round of Celebrity with the LWH community, celebrated Ana’s birthday with a bang (literally), and learned Spanish working alongside the construction teams.

From there, we hit the streets of Xela with full force. We saw Eli bested by a Xelapan dragon bread-eating competition, scrounged the racks at the Megapaca for hoodies for our newly shaven heads, rode in the back of pickup trucks for the first time, heard testimonials from ex-guerrilla members, celebrated Kaeley’s birthday with so much chocolate, and practiced our Spanish (and played soccer with) incredible teachers at our school.

Our journey took us to Pachaj, where we stayed in homestays for the first time and tried on the traditional traje, planted protected trees, observed a Mayan ceremony, and spent an hour wondering if we were about to get clobbered in soccer by the much superior local teenagers. We put on our packs and trekked (some of us for the first time ever!) through idyllic maize fields and woods, crossing creeks and rivers, sweat our hearts out in the temescal, basked in a glorious sunrise over Lago Atitlán, and luxuriated in hot showers and delicious organic food upon arriving in Tzununá.

We got inspired by Bitcoin, waded into the lake in a storm to plant tule, explored tucked-away waterfalls, built a pond, redesigned our lives according to permaculture principles, and had a fast & furious night of karaoke, giving Adele a run for her money. Then we hit the brakes and headed to El Paredón for some much-needed days of rest & relaxation where we fought those big waves and learned how to surf (some of us crushed, some of us got crushed), played endless rounds of Dutch Blitz and befriended the local barista.

Onward we went – we shouldered our packs to hike the much-talked-about Volcán Acatenango (elevation: 13,044.62 ft.. but who’s counting?), rubbed our eyes in disbelief at the lava explosions we witnessed from Volcán Fuego, marveled on the stunning but chilly sunrise summit, and retreated into the comforts of soft beds and treehouses and smoothies back in Antigua, where we stretched our sore muscles in yoga.

We pivoted in our semester as we arrived on Halloween dressed as each other in Costa Rica (shoutout to Maya Eli), spotted our first sloths from our Spanish classrooms, dove into frigid waterfall pools, brought all the smoke in the best cooking competition Turrialba has ever seen, reflected on responsible travel and learned about mindfulness, and added the best moves to our dance repertoire as Elberth the zumba instructor taught us how to shake it – in salsa, merengue, cumbia, samba, and bachata (our hips don’t lie).

We left the leafy hills for the warm, open coast of Playa Camaronal, where we ate enormous quantities of gallo pinto, released hundreds of baby turtles into the ocean as the sun set, and witnessed turtle mamas lay eggs by moonlight and rehomed them. In Mastatal, we propagated plantain plants, made lasagna compost (not the edible variety, unless you’re a worm), and harvested coconuts and made the traditional cajeta dessert. We put on the best talent show our host Javier has ever seen (complete with not one but two demonstrations of “the Worm,” a very squeaky Kaeley, and an alphabetically accurate rap), and left Villas with a gorgeous mural honoring Lil Turk spearheaded by the multi-talented Ana and Alesh. In one of Costa Rica’s many beautifully-carved out soccer fields, Flan led us into our last game of futbol and we left it all out on the field.

Our final adventures took us to Quepos, where we donned scuba gear, learned how not to hold our breath underwater, and got really good at signaling “OK” to each other as we spotted starfish, baby eel, lobsters, and pufferfish and explored the coral reefs. We surprised Soumya with a birthday scavenger hunt that culminated in throwing her in the pool with lemons, played a final round of Fishbowl featuring our favorite memories, and celebrated the end of the semester with piña coladas.

Through it all, we moved through the world with humor, humility, and curiosity. While our time together has come to an end, these adventures and our memories will sustain us as we integrate the changes we’ve experienced into our lives back home. Though we are spread across time zones and regions again, remember: our community is a home now.

Esta es tu casa. Te esperamos.

Your OEs,
Soumya & Matt

The post ¡Hasta la proxima! appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Written By Ana & Flannery

Hello Everyone! Ana and Flannery here to share some stories. This week started off with an early rise and dark car ride to Guatemala City. With our last street lit hours in Guatemala we celebrated Halloween by switching clothing with a partner. This consisted of colorful pants, iconic sweaters, many laughs and countless double takes.

Eventually arriving in Turrialba Costa Rica we started to explore the beautiful accommodations that gave us the feel of our own space. There is an equipped kitchen, rooms with plenty of storage space and forestry that provide many beautiful sounds. Not to mention consistent rain and the occasional sloth. We were able to explore the town on multiple occasions and were greeted by people’s kindness, a glorious array of snack options at the Grocery store, and delicious food such as Casadas and Ice Cream.

Since we had a hostel all to ourselves, we decided to spice things up in the kitchen with a cooking competition. We all split into pairs, planned a breakfast and dinner, and then headed to the grocery store to put our plans into action. After rolling through the checkout with two towering carts of groceries we taxied back to our home to begin the competition. Because we all seem to be competitive people our meals were filled with surprises; ice cream every night, spicy honey, fancy beans, and the list goes on. Safe to say we ate to our hearts desire at every meal, however there can only be one winner (or in this case two). The curriculum was a five point system, the categories were: Creativity, Taste, Presentation, and X factor (miscellaneous). At the end of the week, while we ate sushi at “Wok and Roll” a restaurant in Turrialba, Soumya announced the winners. With a delightful breakfast sandwich of english muffins, beans, eggs, fruit salad displayed artfully in half a coconut and a smoothie Maya and Ana took first place. Dinner was won by some delicious stir fry made by Matt and Soumya’s homemade sticky buns. This week we’ve begun another round of competition, good luck to all the competitors!

This was also our last week of formal Spanish classes for the rest of the trip. We split in two groups led by our amazing teachers Krista and Avi. Each morning at 8 o’clock Spanish class begins and for 4 hours (with a break at 10, and often shortstops to view sloths in the nearby trees) we strengthen our Spanish skills by learning about pretérito perfecto, el cuerpo, animales y más. We have all improved greatly throughout this last week and will surely be sad to leave our teachers.

Later in the week we went on a Nature hike led by Andres, a kind knowledgeable guide. We were not entirely prepared for the 11 mile, 6 hour, hike but had fun nonetheless. There was a refreshing waterfall, nice views, and tasty sugar cane. A good introduction to the natural resources Costa Rica has to offer. We also met Elberth this week during our first, but not last, zumba class. Elberth taught us how to zumba, samba, bachata, and salsa. He’s coming back this week for another class because our group enjoyed the class so much. Thanks for tagging along! We miss our loved ones at home and are savoring the last few weeks. See y’all soon!

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Written By Ava & Alesh

Hola chicas! It’s your student leaders, Ava and Alesh updating you about our epic student directed travel week! Leaving the beautiful town of Tzununa at Lago Atitlan, our adventure began with a 4 hour bus ride to the riverside docks of the Acome river. As we stepped out the bus onto the banks of the mangrove forest lined river, we were instantly hit by a wave of heat and humidity. With the only alternative route to El Paredon being another two hour drive, we chose to pile onto an old wooden barge which would take us to the river docks of El Paredon. Sitting low in the water the barge ventured past the thick mangrove forests teeming with wildlife, before arriving at El Paredon. Donning our heaving backpacks, we slowly made our way through the sparse but lively community. After a short walk, we finally reached our home for the next few days: the El Paredon Surf Camp.

The Surf Camp is a quaint and rustic oceanfront hostel situated on black sand beach of El Paredon. Complete with grass huts, outdoor showers, and an abundance of lush vegetation and tall coconut palms, we truly felt as if we were in the tropics.

After the long day of travel, we all haphazardly threw our belongings in our rooms and ran down to the ocean to receive our reward for the long day, a beautiful sunset swim. We spent the next hour being pushed and pulled by the waves and bodysurfing back to shore. If you’re hoping to cool off in the water, well good luck, it is about 85 degrees.

We began our first full day here in El Paredon with an 8am one-on-one surf lesson. Many of us had never surfed before, making the experience even more entertaining with the mental and tumultuous waves and currents. Regardless of the conditions, all of us loved our time in the water.

The rest of our days in El Paredon were quite relaxing with few planned activities. We spent the subsequent days in hammocks, playing Dutch Blitz, and creating fires on the beach. After a chill three days in El Paredon, we said goodbye to all those we had become friends with, and headed to Antigua to do a less relaxing activity. We would be hiking up Acatenango, one of the three volcanoes surrounding the city. From this volcano, we would get a great view of Fuego, one of the most active volcanoes in all of Central America.

Spending the night in Antigua, we woke up early the next morning to shuttle over to the supply center of CA Travelers, the organization which would be guiding us up the mountain. Once at the supply center, we received all of our food we’d need for the trek, as well as any necessary equipment.

Taking a large van over to Volcán Acatenango, we began the trek at around 11:00am. The first two hours were nearly completely uphill with no switchbacks or flat area. This was the most difficult part of the trek, so thankfully we got it out of the way first. About two and a half hours in, we sat down to enjoy the lunch that had been provided to us. Once we were all finished, we continued up the mountain stopping occasionally to rest our legs and regroup. Five hours of grueling trekking later, we made it to the base camp where we’d be spending the night.

As the sun set, we enjoyed breathtaking views of Fuego intermittently erupting every 15 to 20 minutes. As it got dark, the clouds began to roll in leaving only the faint glow of the lava visible through the thick mist. The communal fire was a magnet for interesting conversations with our fellow trekkers coming from a variety of different places around the world.

Kept awake by the resounding booms of the volcanic eruptions, we were eventually able to catch glimpses of lava and rock being blown high into the air and cascade down the sides of the mountain.

We woke up at 3:30am early the next morning in order to summit the volcano. After an hour and a half of climbing and slipping up the scree covered mountain, we made it to the top. From the summit, we had an amazing vantage point over much of Guatemala. From the summit we could see many of the places we had traveled, from Lago Atitlan, to the beaches, to Antigua and Guatemala City. After a freezing 45 minutes at the top, we quickly ran down the loose volcanic rock and finally arrived back at camp to eat breakfast. Once done with our meals and with our bags packed, we descended down the volcano in only 3 hours. Arriving at the base where we initially embarked on the trek, the same van picked us up and returned us to our Hostel where we met up with the others who had chosen not to hike the volcano.

After a brief wait, we boarded another small shuttle and took a quick ride to Earth Lodge, a beautiful hotel and yoga resort in the outskirts of Antigua. We had much time at the Earth Lodge to relax and reflect upon what we had experienced so far in our travels through Guatemala, and how we hope to move along through our future journeys through Costa Rica. We spent two nights at the Earth Lodge before packing up our belongings, and preparing for our early morning departure for Costa Rica!

The post You Can’t Fight These Big Waves appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Written By Maya & Ian

Hola from Lake Atitlan! Students leaders of the week here: Maya and Ian here for your weekly update of our exciting adventures. This week’s adventure began early at 4am with a trek up to a lookout spot over the beautiful Lake Atitlan to watch the sunrise. Students fell in love with the sight of the lake and were eager to trek down making our descent to the lake. The students finished their 3 days of trekking at the welcoming lake side city of Tzununa where we stayed at the Bambu guest house. At the Bambu guest house we were spoiled with freshly grown food from the nearby farms throughout the week for meals, beautiful views from our room balconies, and hot showers. The week consisted of waking up to a tasty breakfast where the students then headed up the hill to Atitlan Organics where they helped with permaculture at Duck Willow farm. The work consisted of making a pond to help improve the landscape. After work, students headed back to the Bambu for a yummy lunch. After lunch, the rest of the afternoon consisted of lectures till dinner by the one and only Shad, founder of Atitlan Organics. Students learned about permaculture principles, bitcoin, earth sciences, and cosmovision. After dinner there was usually a structured podcast we would listen to about permaculture or play some games. The students were treated to a temescal during the week as well to help us all relax.

There were numerous times throughout the week students got to walk down to the lake for a swim, also various hikes to find hidden gems like waterfalls with caves inside . One day we all took tuk tuks to the neighboring city where we got to go paddle boarding and plant tul which is a natural plant that helps filter the lake. Another excursion students got to do was take a boat across the lake to Santiago and Quixaya to explore a local market and another fascinating permaculture farm. After the tour we got to go swimming in natural pools for a refreshing afternoon. This week was filled with lots of learning, outstanding views, and hands-on work. The students are now ready to say farewell to Lake Atitlan and begin their student independent travel week which begins at El Paredon.

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Written By Kaeley & Sophie

¡Buenas tardes from Pachaj! It has been a busy, yet absolutely wonderful, week. During our time in Pachaj, we had the privilege of experiencing Guatemala’s lifestyle through living with host families. We also had the privilege to serve this culture and these people by helping to protect their forests. To finish up the week, we had the incredible opportunity of exploring more developed versions of the forests we worked on by going on a three day trek through the Pachaj countryside. It has been a great week; we are so excited to share it with you.

Coming from an intensive week of Spanish class in Xela, we all had enhanced knowledge of the Spanish language. This knowledge became very handy in our week of living with and becoming part of the families of indigenous people of Pachaj. As we continued to develop our Spanish speaking abilities (over breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night family parties), we gained profound bonds with our host families and their culture. It was an eye opening experience that none of us could have ever expected.

During our week with host families, our group spent time between meals (tortillas) at a reforestation cooperative called Chico Mendes. The Guatemalan government does not have many laws in place to protect their native wildlife, and as a result, many companies from other parts of the world are reaping the benefits and destroying native ecology. Fortunately, the people of Guatemala value their forests immensely and take a stand against these companies. A leading force in this movement is Chico Mendes: the cooperative we got to work with. In Guatemala there are specific species of trees that are illegal to cut. Chico Mendes uses these laws as their gunpowder, planting trees that are protected under law inside pre-existing forests. During our time with Chico Mendes, we helped the cooperative plant over 3000 trees to protect the forests around Pachaj. It was an honor to be a part of this work and to know the impact we made towards Chico Mendes’s cause. To put it in the words of our supervisors: the amount of trees we planted would take the cooperative’s current staff one month to do themselves. It was an extremely serene and rewarding experience.

To end the week was something the entire group was pretty hyped about: THE TREK! Hiking into the mountains that silhouette Pachaj’s township we passed towering versions of the Fir and Cypress trees we planted in the days before. We followed our local tour guides to some of the most beautiful places I’d say I’ve ever been. After many trees planted and many miles walked, we ended our trek and our time in Pachaj with a beautiful sunrise hike on Rostro Maya (The Mayan Face.)

It was quite a blessing to spend so much time this week out in nature. We had an incredible time in Pachaj.

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Written By Ava & Ana

Hola a todos!

Our new adventures in Xela started with new student leaders, Ava and Ana! After our bittersweet adios with the Long Way Home family, our group unpacked our bags and settled into our new cozy hostel located in downtown Xela. As we began to explore our new home we were quick to discover Xelapan, a marvelous bakery filled with dozens of delicious pastries and breads, which became a staple after-school stop.

Our mornings started with our lovely chefs, Teresa and Irma cooking us all a diverse and delicious breakfast. After rushing to get our bags packed for the day, we caught a glimpse of everyday life in Xela on our way to our school, PLQ (Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco). Although five hours of one-on-one learning seemed daunting to the group, we were introduced to our individual teachers and welcomed with open arms into their tight-knit community. With everyone in our group learning at different levels of Spanish, we valued that each teacher were able to skillfully work with our individual learning styles.

Our days at PLQ typically ended with one of several organized activities through the school. After we finished class, we gathered to listen to guest speakers tell their personal experiences with migration, as well as sharing a unique life perspective as a former member of the guerillas. To balance a full day of school, we squeezed in the back of a pick up truck and held on to each other as we ventured into the Southern part of Xela for a partido de futbol!

The rest of our week was filled with open afternoons giving us the independence to explore the city. With lunches at local empanada stands, various restaurants, and of course, Xelapan, our taste palates were invigorated! A delicious group lunch was shared at a wonderful Thai restaurant to celebrate Kaeley’s 20th birthday, along with a chocolate cake, and per tradition, a beautiful rendition of Feliz Cumpleaños!

With continued structure in the mornings, we relished our open afternoons, especially the several excursions to MegaPaca, a massive clothing store, for last minute purchases of puffy jackets for our upcoming trek, and warm hoodies for newly shaven heads. Our final Spanish class on Friday was filled with mixed emotions, following our graduation speeches, a lovely buffet of food, and bittersweet goodbyes with our newly befriended teachers.

Our last day in Xela turned into a last minute excursion to a 16-slide water park approximately an hour and a half outside of the city. The humid weather down by the coast made for a perfect day filled with adrenaline inducing water attractions as well as relaxing tube time in the lazy river. This much needed day of pure fun left us exhausted but so excited for our next stay in Pachaj. Adios amigos!

-Ava and Ana

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Written By Alesh & Flannery

¡Buenas tardes desde Comalapa! Your student leaders Flannery and Alesh here! It has been another jam-packed week filled with many new and exciting activities. Alongside our daily commutes to the school for work and Spanish classes, we have begun to further explore the area and learn about Guatemalan culture and lifestyle.

We began the week by trekking into town to eat pupusas, churros, and other delicious Guatemalan street food. Promptly after filling our stomachs with food, our athletic skills were tested in a feisty game of basketball.

Early Saturday morning, we piled into a small van and made our way to Iximche, an archaeological site where the beautiful Mayan city of Iximche once stood. As we made our way around the site, we learned more about the Kaqchikel Mayan history and culture. The remnants of buildings may not be as massive or impressive as elsewhere, but they serve an important purpose: to continue the legacy and history of Mayan and Kaqchikel people everywhere. Later that weekend Tony Péren (our host father’s nephew) guided us in a lovely painting class accompanied by upbeat Latin pop.

Later in the week, we were all surprised by a culture night orchestrated by our host organization, Long Way Home. Among the many activities, we danced to live marimba music, drank authentic mocktails and witnessed a vast collection of breathtaking art (many of which some of us are bringing home).

Thursday began early in traditional Guatemalan fashion with celebratory 6 AM fireworks in celebration of Ana’s 18th birthday. After singing feliz cumpleaños, we ate pineapple pie and the sweet sweet innards of a clobbered piñata.

As the week came to a close, we encountered a bittersweet goodbye with our new best friends, Omar, Julie, Tim, Laurie and Adelaïde. We exchanged woeful hugs and appreciations, and were on our way. After a longer bus ride than expected, we were brought to Xela where we are excited to begin immersive Spanish classes and explore the new surroundings. We miss everyone at home and hope you are all doing well!

With love,

Alesh and Flannery

The post Long Way Home week 2! appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Written By Maya & Eli

¡Hola desde Comalapa, Guatemala! Maya and Eli here. After an exciting four day orientation filled with volcano sightings and nightly lightning shows, the group said farewell to the beautiful town of Antigua. The farewell was followed by a scenic two hour drive through the Guatemalan countryside to get to our new destination, Long Way Home in the colorful city of Comalapa. We were met with a welcoming smile by Omar, the volunteer coordinator, as well as the host family including local artist Roberto Perén. Roberto is part of a bustling local art scene here in Comalapa, which is home to about 2,500 artists. The evening consisted of a delicious dinner and a tour of Roberto’s art gallery.

The next morning we trekked into town to see Comalapa and learn more about the city. We did so in typical Comalapa fashion by viewing murals that depicted the history of the city. After viewing two more art galleries and playing basketball in front of historic Cathotlic Churches, we made our way to our worksite: Escuela De Los Héroes. Here we got to know the area where we would be spending most of our time over the next few weeks. We also learned about green building and permaculture.

This past week consisted of working with local construction workers learning the unique form of sustainable architecture. Students were pushed out of their comfort zones once again working with a language barrier along with getting our hands and feet very dirty. The group learned many things including how to mix cement, hammer nails, and make cob which is a mixture of soil, sand, straw, and water. Perhaps even more important was the learning of how to reduce trash production and give trash a second life as a material vital to the construction of a school.

In the mornings, students take turns preparing breakfast foods such as eggs, french toast, pancakes, watermelon, bananas, cantaloupe, pancakes, toast, etc. The first meal of the day is a communal and wonderful way to improve cooking, cleaning and people skills. After a long day of work under the Guatemalan sun, the students shower and head right back to the same school to improve their Español skills in small, two hour classes. Classes consist of games, taking notes and conversing with their teachers about life in Central America.

As the sun sets over the beautiful, green hills, students retreat back to the Long Way Home volunteer house. Here they enjoy creature comfort in the form of loving dogs named Rocket and Britney as well as a brand new addition in the form of an adorable baby kitten named Balam (Kaqchikel for “jaguar”) who was saved from the streets of Comalapa. The nightly ritual consists of authentic Guatemalan cuisine and exciting discussions between students and Overseas Educators filled with laughter and stories. On Wednesday, students attended a class on traditional Kaqchikel weaving and even tried it themselves. They were taught the stories and methods behind the clothing that date back thousands and thousands of years.

The students end this week with sore muscles and big smiles, eager for another week of construction and hablar en español!

Thank you for following our journey…
Now signing off, ¡Adios!
Maya and Eli

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MAYA group reporting in from Antigua at the end of a busy program orientation! We’ve hit the ground running here in Guatemala. Our days have been full of group games, orientation sessions, and getting to know one another. Our base has been the Purpose Hostel, a beautiful little place with an awesome terrace where we have loved watching nearby Volcan Fuego erupting on a regular basis. It can be a bit distracting to be having a group meeting in the evenings and suddenly see the red glow of lava off in the distance!

We’ve eaten most of our meals in the home of Dona Violeta and her son Fernando, who have been extremely friendly hosts and cooked some great meals for us – the local staple of pepian seems to be the favorite so far. We’ve had some fun excursions as well, including hiking up to a mirador (viewpoint) looking out over the town, and playing Sharks and Minnows in front of a church dating back to the 16th century while the local wheelchair basketball team played a match nearby.

Today the students were finally set loose on their own to complete a scavenger hunt around town. It pushed a few of them out of their comfort zones – asking questions in Spanish to strangers, navigating with the use of a real paper map – but was an exciting afternoon of exploring and learning more about the city.

Tomorrow we’re off to our next stop, the sustainable building project of Long Way Home in San Juan de Comalapa. We’re looking forward to working hard, getting dirty, and taking Spanish classes in the afternoons. We’re ready to continue the great energy we’ve started our program with!

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The post Safe arrival appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

We’re happy to report that the MAYA students have all safely arrived to LAX! They are finally together as a group and are looking forward to starting this adventure together. We’ll post another blog here tomorrow once we hear that they’ve arrived safely in Guatemala. Buen viaje, MAYA group, we look forward to following along on your journey this semester!

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Hola everyone! Soumya and Matt here, your Overseas Educators for this semester’s visit to Central America! We’re here in Portland finishing up some final logistical preparations, but we’re excited to soon be all together in the land of tortillas, toucans, and volcanoes!

As we approach the start of this semester, we are both feeling all the usual emotions: excitement, nervousness, anxiousness, joy, restlessness, just to name a few. We expect all of our students are feeling the same. These are perfectly normal and once we’re all together in Antigua in a few days those pre-program jitters will quickly become a thing of the past as our group bonds and grows together.

We have a great semester ahead of us, one that will see us trekking past indigenous Mayan towns, learning about permaculture and sustainable building, getting SCUBA certified, swimming in volcanic lakes, conversing in Spanish, and eating more rice and beans than you can imagine.

We are also excited to be able to all spend time as a group, learning from each other and sharing new experiences after the challenges of the last year. We will be 11 amazing individuals, each with our own unique backgrounds and views, each bringing an important piece to the whole.

We invite anyone reading this blog to continue to follow along on our adventures over the next 11 weeks, and in the meantime, “Pura vida”, “Buena onda” y “hasta pronto!”

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Written By Rachael & Adam

Hola! This is Rachael & Adam your OE’s checking in one last time. What a trip it has been! We have been honored to guide this group through these last two months. We formed a thoughtful, joyful, & capable community together and we are so thankful for each one of our students.

We embarked on this journey at the end of what has been a strange and rough year for most of us. We met in the jungle of Chilamate for a mask-clad two weeks of name games, nature hikes, river afternoons, and some pretty heartfelt discussions. Highlights: lazy river floats, becoming way too fascinated with ant culture and community, Audrey & Cece’s relay race. We gleefully unmasked and hugged each other when we received our negative covid results and became a pod for the rest of the trip.

Our next stop was Turrialba for two weeks of Spanish school. With the instruction of some wonderful local teachers we became a group of conversational Spanish speakers. Highlights: a glorious crossdressing Purim celebration complete with Hamentoshen orchestrated by Alma, a group talent show that truly showcased our weirdest abilities, and a refreshing hike to a stunning waterfall.

We sadly left our teachers and hostel home and moved on to the next adventure: Rancho Mastatal. We fell in love with this community where we learned to ferment foods, make soap, harvest and build with bamboo, and make earthen walls with mud, sand, and hay. We survived many a terrifying insect encounter, got our butts kicked in ultimate frisbee, got nice and dirty, gorged on homemade chocolate, and bonded with the apprentices learning about permaculture and sustainable living. Many eyes were open to different ways to exist in this world. Highlights: group capture the flag, tasting all the strange and wonderful fruits, Demi Lovato coming back to life (due to errors in Spanish comprehension we thought she died for several days).

We left Mastatal bright and early and headed to the coast! Specifically Cirenas community on the Nicoya Peninsula. We were overjoyed to be greeted by the warm Pacific ocean and gleefully threw ourselves into her; the perfect medicine after a long car ride. This foreshadowed a week of stunning, beach sunsets. We worked on permaculture projects in the morning; making compost, planting trees, etc, played in the ocean in the afternoon, and participated in turtle patrol at night! Our first night we saw a large Olive Ridley turtle who laid 110 eggs. Highlights: An amazing dance class, sand castle building contest, and a truly one of a kind lip synching contest.

From Cirenas we embarked on what turned out to be a hectic and chaotic travel day which our crew of expert travelers met head on with good attitudes and better dance moves. We eventually arrived in Orosi, from where we are writing this blog, to close out the semester.

This has been a special two months and we feel truly honored to have created this lovely bubble with these smart, thoughtful, and dynamic people. In a scary and uncertain time these students have made me feel faith in younger people to meet the world’s challenges and figure out what needs to be done. So thank you for letting us guide your children/ friends/siblings! They are wonderful people and we look forward to seeing what they do in the future! We wish our students nothing but the best as they move forward with college, with traveling, with wherever their path takes them. We encourage everyone to remember the times spent with friends, the times they surprised themselves, the hard times and the amazing ones. We end this semester with a reminder to our students: to continue to step out of their comfort zones and continue to question themselves and their surroundings with a critical eye and open heart.
Hasta pronto!

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Written By Alma & Maggie

Sunday was our first full day at Cirenas. We awoke to the briny ocean breeze and the hilly permaculture campus, littered with tree debris disguised as biomass. Haunted by a clan of walking skeletons, also known as a group of stray dogs, and a friendly cat whose name is still highly contested, scholars do not agree (we are scholars thank you) we had a lovely breakfast. We took a morning stroll accompanied by the scorching sun and the omniscient Caelynn. We eagerly grabbed various alien fruits from what could have been zone 1 or zone 6 (just permaculture jokes) of this pristine permaculture farm. Both disgruntled and delighted faces glowed after every sampling. Veronica, our resident produce lover, had a huge grin. However, don’t be fooled by the miraculously juicy nature of the cashew fruit— hideously pronounced by Rachael as cah-shoo— our uncultured American palates were left desiccated by the astringent properties of a once enticing fruit.

We soon dove in to our project, a primary requisite being physical exertion. Our sprightly bodies cut banana stalks, retrieved kitchen scraps, and delicately sprinkled horse manure like an aged parmesan over compost, best described as a TV-dinner lasagna. Your beloved children wielded machetes trying to channel the once popular game, fruit ninja, only to invoke images not dissimilar to the flailing swords of medieval reenactors at a Renaissance fair. In the trees above our composting endeavors, we witnessed a revealing yet thrilling dance from our primate kin, howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya). Again proving our so very human limitations, as some of us attempted to imitate the sophisticated vocal cry of our simian forefathers.

Like our good friend Niki Minaj once said, “Let’s go to the beach…beach…let’s go get away” and that we did, for our first oceanic outing of many. The Cirenas beach is a large swath of unobstructed sandy, salty, umami delight. Also serving as the roadway for Costa Rica’s elite class of ex-pats, their loud motor vehicles, and salt water crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus).

Maggie and Rachael engaged in a game coined “Fight Back”, embodying the western propensity to conquer our dearest beloved, Mother Nature. This took the form of gleefully galloping towards ten-foot waves, willfully ignorant of their own mortality. This is what the youth would call getting absolutely decked by gnarly waves, a tradition that would continue for the remainder of the week leaving both individuals with the lingering sensation of a four car collision.

After a long afternoon at the beach, a remaining overzealous and drained group of students pondered the treacherous fifteen minute walk home over mountainous terrain and the cabins of nature’s first assaulters, turtle egg poachers. Adam fearlessly, blinded by the comfort of his Chacos, stomped his odious foot a mere inch from the maw of a notorious, as seen on Discovery channel, Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor Linnaeus).

All safely arrived home, unsheathed of our formidable sand coating, we showered and changed group roles for a relaxed social gathering of the Ages. Your beloved, newly assigned bards were joyous at the possibility to jest only to be interrupted by an enormous grasshopper, candidly evaluated as the size of a “regular rodent”, launching itself into Maggie’s hair. The loudest scream was expelled from our own Tyler, an avid amateur chiropractor and a sufferer of hyperhidrosis, as he fled from the scene. The true heroine of this saga was our statuesque Veronica, who leapt to fling the calamity causing chaos critter from Maggie’s locks (except it was no critter, only a monster from the depths of the jungle). This event prompted the start of our new insectoid odysseys, which we ignorantly hoped had come to a crunchy end when we left Mastatal.

Bug Checklist Day 1: Dive-bombing cicadas (which accompanied a hot bowl of chicken soup in the days prior, after a forceful drowning from Tyler). A demonic crab, the Usain Bolt of decapods.

On Monday, we began with what were told was a hike of the surrounding jungle only to embark on a three hour long nature slog. Goddess Caelynn, the omniscient, led us through the sacred practice of ethereal tree identification including Guanacastes, Cebas, and Mangroves. We stopped for a leisurely snack break feasting on a nest of termites described as “woody and crunchy”, a reliable snack for exclusively those lost or on guided nature slogs. Our feet and mouths crunched and munched through what was confusingly addressed as both forest, jungle, and permaculture guilds. A spirited and spiritual conversation about spirit animals commenced.

Spirit Animal Consensus listed below
Cole- Moose, Alma- Anteater, CeCe- Red Fox, Adam- Falcon (or a gadfly if question posed to Maggie), Veronica- Mountain Goat, Hank- Wombat, Tyler- Red Kangaroo, Rachael- River Otter, Maggie- Undeclared, Sasha- Snow Leopard, Macy- Swan, Balkhiis- Elephant, Mia- African Wildcat, Audrey- Blue footed Booby

Much to Rachael’s subsequent chagrin, she was too entrenched in the spiritual discussion to see a premier viewing of our ex-pat sympathizing friend, the salt water crocodile (Crocodylus porosus).

As we continued on our walk, in classic anteater fashion, Alma indulgently licked her fingers of Taki dust causing an inability to carry her most prized possession, the Pickle Rick bucket hat. Valiant and heroic friend, Hank, from Evanston, Illinois, donned the cap and bore the shame, as seen below.

After an arduous walk and a bewildering spiritual dialogue, we returned to find our encampment shared by an unexpected group of Brits. We decided to head to the beach and this excursion featured more aquatic foolishness from the likes of Maggie and Rachael and the discovery of a weakness in our own valiant, heroic, Evanstonian, Hank. Despite passing the comprehensive and challenging two minute swim test, he was unable to swim amongst the giants without swallowing one million cubic tonnes of brackish, acidified salt water. A campaign to resolve this shortcoming ensued only to be met with our first loss of the evening.

Refreshed by a good smacking from the sea and for some of us a hearty pint of ocean, the party returned to the stronghold only to find out that the power had been stripped from the people and kidnapped by the crown. This meant dinner in the classroom for your fearless crew.

Despite our explicit intentions to maintain distance from the Brits, our fearless leaders Sasha and Balkhiis, were consternated and flustered upon our group’s timely arrival at the nightly turtle brigade where we found our unfortunate British compadres. Luckily the unsavory taste previously left in our mouths vanished at the sight of our dear Tybalt. Tybalt, a ninety year old beauty and birther of hundred and ten, not to be confused with her leatherback counterparts, was splayed in a shallow, sandy cavity only minutes away from the turtle hatchery. Nearly blinding her with our humanistic hubris, the most disgusting of traits, and strapped with our six-hundred lumen headlamps we stumbled across her three-foot long shell, speckled with barnacle growth and wisened by her near century in the ocean. Tybalt (Lepidochelys olivacea), despite her Shakespearean namesake, only revealed herself to us, the bumbling, foolish, bald-eagle emblazoned statesmen. Intruding on this intimate moment, only shrouded from her awareness by a supposed birthing trance, we gazed as her eggs plunked into the nest she had dug with her long, matronly flippers (see picture below).

Tybalt only realized our presence after the creation of a decoy nest, a mere stone’s breadth away from where her young lay. We escorted Tybalt on her arduous journey to shore with its many reprieves, on the effervescent, tide-washed, moonlight-dappled beach, interrupted by the strobing of Adam’s obnoxiously promiscuous red headlamp. Storm clouds brewing above us, the red lights of the British approaching, our legs began to tire after a forty minute birthing exhibition. As the rain began to pour we quickened our pace to the fortress sporting the only appropriate source of amusement, British accents.

Bug Checklist Day 2: Hermit crabs porting fancy hats made of shell that Alma is envious of. Nightmarish gnats that search for facial cavities and phone screens in the dark of the night.

Your authors took extensive notage on the week’s events, however there is a glaring hole in the records for Tuesday. These were replaced by a gracefully written rampage detailing the perpetuators of turtle extinction, which we will spare you of.

On what must have been a lovely, breezy morning that we have no written recollection of, we voyaged once more to the hatchery. We were expected to continue our precedent of manual labor, much to the exceeding joy and vigor of Veronica, Maggie, and many more. Unlike the Brits’ adopted post-Industrial era child labor practices, our full team of legal adults set to work replacing the termite infested drift wood, the walls of the hatchery. When asked to define drift wood our ingenious colleague, Tyler, responded with “wood that drifts”, and indeed the wood did drift when forcefully ripped from its long standing home. This altruistic process, the beginnings of our week long sunburn saga, was immediately devalued by the creation of micro-plastic from cutting plastic containers into the shapes of amorphous, unrecognizable chelonians. The aforementioned sunburn saga was put on full display when Alma donned Athenian robes, also known as dirty bedsheets, to dinner (see pictures below).

Bug checklist Day 3: Though we were not in Area 51, the homeland of our dear Maggie, we were greeted by wriggling fleshy alien lifeforms. These five inch long, mucous secreting, lilac hued, meaty caterpillar adjacent beings writhed in the sand beneath our feet.

On Wednesday, we took a siesta from our dear friend Emmanuel Labor for a relaxing cooking class bombarded by green plantains, pronunciation unclear. We unfurled plastic gloves onto our phalanges to shuck the durable rind of the starchy fruits. Our own self-fancied intellectual, Cecelia, reminds us daily of the great American hero, Henry Ford, who once taught us of his prolific invention, the assembly line, the most efficient of practices. And much to our intellectual’s dismay salsa dancing commenced, not the most efficient of practices. Wet and sticky with plantain juice, Audrey, Maggie, Adam, Anita, and Latricia joined socially distanced hands in a culturally appropriate dance.

A bout of homesickness washed over our American mouths, as the taste of fry oil from the empanadas and plantain fritters reminded us of the mainland and a diet we consumerists cherish and adore. Languoring from the fete of fried food and a late lunch, Audrey, Macy, and your authors loitered in the trenches peacefully socializing when we were accosted by an unfamiliar face asking, “Do you grow food here?”. We were confused by both the wording of this proposition, its jabbing tone, and the late-20s short man who accompanied it having found our hidden oasis in an ex-pat filled jungle. We soon found out that Maggie’s primal amygdala or lizard-brain was correct in its suspicions of an insidious chap. He returned to the trenches after conversing with the Brits finally making his intentions clear; he was “looking for finger limes” a plant native to Australia and a favorite of our dear theatre loving Macy. Maggie’s lizard brain, prompted by this man’s acute lack of knowledge of the fruit she was so superficially familiar with, scowled, “You might be in the wrong country.” This deeply upsetting encounter began to bridge the gap between us and our parliamentarian brothers and sisters. As human tendency would have it, we had found a new common enemy, the Other.

Bug Checklist Day 4: Freakishly fluttering and omnipresent sky rodents, also known as bats, terrorized our heads, and to no one’s surprise—intrusive cicadas.

Despite our hefty note-taking from Thursday, nothing of note really happened. In two words: dirt, beans.

Bug Checklist Day 5: Kamikaze battle, torpedoing towards fan. Birds, that is.

It is Friday, and our shovels hit the infertile bedrock, like a rubber mallet to a mountain. Goddess Caelynn has returned with biblically vague instructions on how deep to dig our tree trenches, the original sin preventing us from doing a satisfactory job. The assembly line could not save us. Many calamities occurred including wasps, swarming ants, and a squealing clan of wild horses gallivanting through our fresh plantings, which invoke the likes of the gardens of Versailles. In a last hurrah of British aristocracy, the departing British traipsed through our proletariat tree planting and waved their ever sincere goodbyes.

In honor of our recently departed British compadres, we took a holiday from manual labor and Hank took artistic liberty to paint the Jamaican flag on macro-plastic formerly known as waste. However, the idea of waste is a human construct.

After an uneventful afternoon at the beach, featuring Audrey’s frolicking in the sand and some rather intensely primitive mud-fighting instigated by mentor, overseer, and law enforcer Rachael and consented to by Maggie, we were enlightened to our evening activity, salsa dancing. In preparation, we ate a carbohydrate and triglyceride heavy meal of deconstructed chili.
Our chili dinner and subsequent Zumba class in Turrialba flashed into our minds, a collective memory of gargantuan gaseous gastrointestinal problems. Nevertheless, dancing commenced. Assaulting the eyes of many, Mia and Maggie flailed with purposeful entropy enveloping the very serious yet somehow lackluster rendition of salsa performed by Adam and Rachael.

Bug Checklist Day 6: Meet Enemy Bird, no scientific name needed. You should take this very seriously. This is a WARNING. Enemy bird begins his nightly squawking just in time for your head to hit the pillow. Wherever you are he is right outside your window… waiting.

We were well-nerved of our Saturday activity by the time it rolled around. Beach cleanup day, bring water. A game that may have sounded like a treasure hunt, but the market-value of the treasure was rapidly devalued by its ubiquitous nature. Cole struck gold, as his Appalachian ancestors once did, when he found the Costa Rican cinderella’s slipper, a pair of ratty Crocs (functional only with duck tape), in a sandy cove awaiting their prince charming. He was initiated anon into Maggie’s club of one, the Croc Gang.

Lost without an assembly line, we persisted. Walking what should have been a twenty minute stretch of shoreline over the next two hours and returning to the hatchery with eight full bags of garbage, leaving many pieces of trash strewn behind. Our booty plundered for and acquiesced, we posed for an awkward photo.

Our movie night suffered blow, when the supposedly trouble-shooted projector refused to project our Subsequent Movie Film.

Bug Checklist Day 7: With the velocity of 10 m/s at an angle of 60 degrees above the horizontal, Macy tossed a massive stick bug into Maggie’s face. If the bug crumpled into Maggie’s face 8 seconds later, how far away was Macy standing?
Answer: 40m

Saturday rolled over into Sunday. We mumbled along the beach for an hour-long trek, fraternizing intermittently and slowly parching ourselves on the salty ocean air. Eventually we arrived at the fabled snorkeling destination.

One could say we embarked on the best snorkeling experience any of us have ever had, grasping at a glimpse of every species of fish the Pacific has to offer, leatherback turtles (Gucci vulgaris) and bull sharks (Bullus sharkus), healthy reefs and happy ocean life. Scenery reminiscent of Nemo’s reunion with his father in the esteemed film Finding Nemo. Reality disappointed us more than it could possibly disappoint you. We caught sight of maybe three water vertebrates, a smattering of dead coral, and exited the water no better versed in the local sea fauna or lack thereof, knees lacerated by sawtoothed, metamorphic rock.
Additionally, our sunburn saga followed us here too, and largely took the form of Markion (our uniquely-named covolunteer at Cirenas) and his ruby red back, though honorable mentions would include Cole, Macy, Veronica, and our very own dermatologist’s daughter and assembly line enthusiast, Cecelia (sorry, Meg).

Lunch was a much awaited, pleasant interlude, as we ensembled to the beachfront restaurant and enjoyed tacos, casados, ceviches, nachos, coca colas, fantas and virgin margaritas.

As our magnificent beach day and reign as the authors of this blog, drew to a close, we wound down with a delicious meal cooked by the beloved kitchen staff.

A note from your authors..
I hope we have made this an undulating viewing experience. It was an honor to serve you.
Sponsored by the Merriam Webster Thesaurus App, which unfortunately does not yet exist.

The post Learning At Cirenas appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

After a long and rewarding week at Rancho Mastatal, we used our Sunday to regroup. We slept in until brunch at 10 a.m. and had the day to ourselves. In the evening, the group trekked up many hills to the next town to see the beautiful Costa Rican sunset. We watched as the sky grew pink, relaxing on the cliffside and taking many photos. After some much needed relaxation time, we were all ready to begin another busy week.

The next day, we had a lesson from Jacob on fermentation, in which we learned how to make our own kimchi, which we got to try later on in the week. We also learned that you can literally ferment anything that is edible. We spent the morning peeling, grating, and measuring green papaya and salt to make the perfect mixture. Following an afternoon of sports on the field, we settled in for dinner with gratitudes from Audrey and Balkhiis,

Tuesday morning began at 7a.m. with morning “chores,” or shadowing, with the Mastatal apprentices, doing work like making water kefir for lunch or splitting wood for the various stoves, and, most well liked, sifting cow manure with Adrian at the Bio-digester, which is the plumbing system that turns human and animal waste into methane gas for the ranch to use for cooking. After breakfast, we worked with Nick and Ali on a natural building project: making wattle for a new “wattle and daub” structure going up at the ranch. We split into groups, the first group sawing bamboo into two meter pieces and then splitting it with machetes into thin strips. The second group cut these strips to fit into the interior of the walls and used a staple gun to fasten them in. With our extra time, we completed our dorodangos, which are billiard-like balls made of clay, sand, and straw and polished into a shine. In the afternoon, we took a trip down to the nearby river, where the group spent their time throwing the frisbee around in the water, swimming in the rapids, and tanning on the rocky beach. As per the CDC recommendations, after ten full days of being at the ranch with no COVID symptoms, we were able to come together with the apprentices and full-time ranch staff as a community, mask free. That night, we joined hands in a gratitude circle and ate at the same table.

On Wednesday, we completed the latter part of our wattle and daub project. We rotated in small groups, finishing stapling the bamboo strips, sifting dry clay and mixing it with water. The next group used their feet and mixed the clay, straw, and sand together. The last group used the mixture to plaster the walls. We messed around with painting each other with the clay to the accompaniment of dance music, curtesy of Veronica. Later that day, with the newly integrated community, we were able to have a “friendly” game of ultimate frisbee. We learned quickly that our enthusiasm could not stand up to Tim and the ranch staff’s years of frisbee experience, and we got our asses handed to us, to put it lightly. After an experimental curry dinner made by the ranch’s food scientist Constantine, we were treated to shaved ice for dessert, naturally flavored by fruits grown at the ranch.

Thursday morning brought us our last day of shadowing and our second to last day of class. Tim lead us in a discussion about the overall themes of our classes at the ranch thus far and how to connect them to the state of the world at this time. Throughout the past week and a half, we’ve learned the importance of being producers, rather than consumers, of our own products as much as possible, and Tim reiterated this, connecting it to climate change and our impact going forward. He showed us a book of the 100 most impactful ways to combat climate change and we held a discussion on possible big picture solutions. We transitioned to a competition in which we had to make fires and boil water as fast as possible, so as to gain a time advantage in making the best tortilla for our OEs to judge. Some groups used the chocolate purchased at La Iguana to make bribes for the judges, but in the end the most delicious tortilla won out. In the afternoon, we made our way to the river for the last time and played a game of volleyball at the field. Following gratitude circle and dinner, Cole hosted a ping pong tournament, in which he beat Maggie in the championship (rigged?).

We had our final class on Friday, once again with Tim, to reflect on all of the things we’ve done and skills we’ve learned over the past two weeks. To jog our memories we played fish bowl, a game similar to charades, using terms from the different elements of the ranch. Then, to conclude our class, we discussed the ways in which we will integrate what we learned from the ranch into our lives and futures back home. For lunch, half of the group ventured down the the local restaurant to indulge in their Friday special, arroz con pollo. Then, some of the group got a head start on packing for the long journey ahead. Following a heavy downpour of rain, we made our way to the muddy field for a highly anticipated game of capture the flag, Carpe Diem versus Rancho Mastatal. Audrey wrote and selected bios and walk-out music for each of us to “intimidate” our competition. The muddy field ended up being too much for some, as multiple people, including one of the authors of this blog post, had to depart the game early due to injury. For our last dinner, the ranch threw us a make-your-own pizza party, which was followed by an impromptu dance party to close out our final night in Mastatal.

We were sad to wake up early Saturday morning, leaving all of the fun memories, people, and fantastic food behind. After a delayed departure due to a flat tire, we missed the first ferry, and arrived at Cirenas in the Nicoya Peninsula as the sun was setting. We are looking forward to the everything that the next two weeks will bring us, from more permaculture to possible sea turtle egg hatching.

The post Week 2 In Mastatal appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

It was a beautiful, sunny, and humid, yet melancholic day leaving Turrialba last week. We were leaving behind our Spanish teachers and beautiful balcony that allowed us to see perezosos (sloths) during class almost every morning. We were leaving behind Fernando’s amazing cooking and the kitchen that enabled us to cook exquisite meals. Most importantly, we were leaving behind the living room where Zumba sessions occurred. However, we were very optimistic for our new destination in Mastatal. During our car ride, we played a hysterical game of group superlatives. We later stopped by to eat some delicious beans and rice with fried plantains, with fresh pineapple or guayaba juice. After that, we made a quick restroom stop at a gas station occupied by new, furry animals called Kuadies, which are very similar looking to raccoons. After our interesting interaction we were back on the road to Mastatal.

After a couple of hours we finally arrived to our new home for the next 2 weeks. It was beyond what words could describe. The showers and toilets have an open wall where we can see the beautiful banana trees, bamboos and so much more wild life. I don’t think there’s anyway of getting closer to nature than that. We are surrounded by incredibly high mountains covered in greens. There are two restaurants and a massive soccer field. We may not be surrounded by much, but boy is there a lot to do! As per usual, we have the pleasure of hammocks and a bamboo swing by us. Let’s not forget to mention a yoga platform and many other buildings made from sustainable resources. The food is beyond our wildest dreams, consisting of nourishing food straight from the plants around us. As we walk, we can grab bananas, starfruits, or even miracle berries, which can change our tastebuds so that even the most sour of foods become sweet. The beauty about being surrounded by an eco-friendly environment is throwing banana peels into the forest knowing that it’s not littering, and it’ll decompose back to the earth. One thing we never forget here is to drink water! It is very calor (hot) in Mastatal.

There are so many things to do here at Rancho Mastatal. Tim O’Hara, one of the founders of Mastatal explains how a “long series of journeys and events takes us places. We make choices based on our events and experiences.” With all of his life experiences and journeys, Rancho Mastatal was born after his time in the Peace Corp. Rancho Mastatal intends to educate apprentices, interns, and students on the importance of many valuable things in life: growing food, community, natural building, conservation and so much more. O’Hara mentions how he “see’s greater hope with students.” The world is very complex and exporting knowledge is the greatest thing being offered to us, specially here at the Rancho. We wake up early in the morning to do “chores” every other day. The chores consist of gardening, working on ground zero (in the kitchen/home), nursery, water kefir, and more. We also have classes midmorning to learn about sustainable living. Throughout the day we choose what sports we want to play (normally soccer, ultimate frisbee, or even swimming in the nearby waterfall!). Before or after dinner, we tend to host meetings where we share gratitudes or other useful information about the coming days.

In the mornings, the group attends classes and hands on activities lead by the ranches core team about various topics. The first session we delved deep into was Permaculture, which means to grow food in the way nature intended, meaning all plants, trees, and animals working in a natural symbiotic way. We spent two of our mornings this week focusing on the foods Rancho Mastatal grows, the principles of Permaculture, and even got our hands dirty working out in the orchards. The group split up to help the ranch achieve their goal of clearing brush and marking one of their many bamboo clumps. Jacob, one of the permanent residents of Rancho Mastatal, taught us that bamboo is a major contributor to the success of their architecture and growing nursery, and showed us some of the biodegradable planters he made from the hollow culms.

In the middle of the week we shifted to focusing on natural building. We attended classes teaching us about various styles, such as bamboo, timber, and clay building. The ranch has all of these natural styles present, all made from the soil which we live on now, the trees we are surrounded by, and the bamboo the ranch grows. The group was excited to get to work as the scorching sun shined above our heads. We cut back brush on another, larger bamboo clump then proceeded to cut many of the towering pieces of grass down (yes grass, did you know bamboo is a grass?). After wrestling the long pieces out of the surrounding woods, we put the bamboo through an extensive treatment plan to protect it from insects and natural ware under the direction of Nick and Ali, two of the other permanent residents. The bamboo now will be used on a project the ranch is building currently as a structural beam or stud.

As an addition to using one’s resources around one’s environment to make various structures, the group learned how to make household products such as hand and dish soaps, shampoos, and conditioners. After a class about ingredients, recipes, and reasons of why to make one’s own personal care products, we got crafty and made dish soap and hand soap for the ranch. In addition we made natural face masks, hair masks, and exfoliants that were used at our “SpaStatal” day by the river, where the group soaked up some sun and had a spa day. So sorry parents if your kitchen turns into a chemistry lab once we return, the art to making soap and other products is quite the project but totally worth the mess.

Furthermore, towards the end of the week we went to a chocolate factory called La Iguana Chocolate. Unfortunately, it was not like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory in terms of facilities, but the flavors sure surpassed any chocolate we’ve had at home. We learned about the significance of ethical chocolate production, and how many big corporations are mass commodity producers, with their chocolate barely consisting of real cacao. Believe it or not, convenient chocolate bars tend to be full of saturation and many other components that aren’t healthy for humans. At La Iguana Chocolate, we learned and saw the process of how the cacao is derived from the fruit, then roasted and ground to make many delicious products. We even got to add flavors like vanilla, cinnamon, sea salt and many others. Our taste buds felt like they were in heaven, especially when the homemade brownie and hot chocolate hit home in our stomachs. Being on this trip made us realize how nothing tasted better than knowing where our food is coming from.

As we finished our first week at the Rancho Mastatal, spirits were high, while the long, hot days have put the group to bed as early as 9pm, which is record-breaking for our age. We had the “hump day,” or halfway point, of our trip this past Wednesday, and the group is excited for the second half of our program. As I’m sure all the readers know, the group is without wifi or cellular data while at the ranch so this blog is a week delayed. Thank you for taking the time to listen to what we have been up to this past week.

The post Time In Mastatal appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Written By Suzannah & Matt

Hola a tod@s!

Matt y Suzannah here, together in spirit if not in body! It’s been a crazy few days but we hope everyone is home (or in Xela) safe and sound. While our time together in Central America did not end the way we would have hoped, we want to focus on the great experiences we were privileged enough to have during our month together. We devoted a lot of time to learning Spanish, getting our hands dirty with permaculture practice, and soaking up the Guatemalan culture. We were both so impressed by how hard each and every student pushed themselves to learn and to step out of their comfort zones. It wasn’t always easy, but everyone has come away from this experience a different and better person, ready to face the challenges and uncertainty that the coming months may bring. We both miss each and every student but also treasure the time we had together and are excited to see all the things they will accomplish.

Some highlights, in no particular order:

So many games of Cabo.
Shad karaoke
Listening to stories of former guerillas in Santa Anita
Feeling the wind in your face as you ride in the back of a pickup truck
Exploring the markets, cobbled streets and Taco Bells of Xela
Learning about nahuals
Playing games and going on field trips with our Spanish teachers
Roof-top orientation in Antigua
Doing Spanish homework by candlelight when the power went out
Hiking to Cerro de la Cruz in San Juan and filming a welcome video for Serena
Dona Violeta’s cooking!
Getting orange-smoke-bomb blinded at a futbol game in San Juan.
Sliding around Xocomil waterpark
Two hours in the back of a pickup waiting for traffic to pass an accident
Late-night seances
Building epic forts at the Bambu

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Written By Liona & Ben

We started this week off with a spectacular welcome into the grand city of Xela. We met our host families for this week. We are no longer doing one on one classes however we are definitely getting our Spanish practice in by talking to our host families and our teachers. We have explored many places in Xela and visited many restaurants. While sitting down in an Indian restaurant, the power went out before we could order. We had our laughs and shared spooky stories. We explored the ice cream shops, the central park, and the mall. We also took a tour in the cemetery here. We learned about this popular tale about this women who has reappeared to try to return to her family. In the cemetery, there is also a popular grave where people come and write messages in hopes that they will have luck with love. Later in the week we had our second dance class. Everyone loved it and could not stop smiling. Even after the class ended, we still wanted to dance. On Friday we hiked up to see the view of Xela and were nicely escorted by the police. We can now all joke that we were taken by the cops! At the top of our hike, we lived like kids again. We slid down these long cement slides, the monkey bars, and took wonderful pictures. A lot has happened this week! There is definitely more to say but we’ll catch you on all the happenings when we get home.

Liona & Ben signing out.

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Written By Ish & Dish

Saludos desde la escuela de la montaña! We’re now in the welcoming town of Nuevo San Jose where we’re back to enjoying more rice, beans, and tortillas with local families with whom we’ve been having our daily meals. We’re also back to learning more Spanish in one-on-one classes dividing us up between morning and afternoon batches.

While we were hoping for a bit of a laid back week, it ended up being jam packed with exciting and informative daily activities such as charlas (presentations) focusing on the history of Guatemala, current political affairs, and health within the community. We also hiked up to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, to meet a spiritual guide who taught us about our ‘nawal’ (traditional Mayan spirit or energy associated with your date of birth) and demonstrated a traditional mayan ceremony. We finally got to try our hand at making tortillas for our special Thursday Night pupasas which ironically ended up looking like the map of Central America (aka NOT perfectly round) but were still very delicious. To wrap up our week of Spanish school, we were confidently challenged by our teachers to a game of fútbol (soccer). Let’s just say they left that soccer field with nothing but a hard loss and more arthritis.

This was the week of riding in pickup trucks everywhere and beautiful misty evenings, of long nights playing card games and talking until the wee hours, of playing tag with kids in the community and marriage proposals for Ismael, of funny conversations with our families in broken Spanish and being stuck in traffic for 2 hours, of stocking up on midnight snacks and shooing off the sneaky cat trying to steal them, of making deep connections with locals and truly getting to know Guatemala.

Hoping everyone is doing well back home. Hasta luego!
– Ish and Dish

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Written By Catie & Andie

This week we stayed at the wonderful Bambu Guest House in Tzununá. Although we missed our homestay families from last week in San Juan, everyone was very happy to once again be sleeping under the same roof. We have a gorgeous view of Lake Atitlan and the mountain ranges surrounding us. On clear nights, we have even gotten to see El Fuego volcano erupting in the distance across the lake!

Tzununá is a mostly quiet town except for fireworks that the locals insist on setting off at 5 AM. If we are lucky enough to sleep through the loud explosions, we wake up at 7:30 AM to chow down on the delicious breakfast that the staff at the Bambu prepares for us. Then, we usually make the dreaded uphill trek on the gravel road to our host’s farm, Atitlan Organics.

On the farm, we have worked hard moving rocks and digging trenches to form two ponds and planting native species, all while jamming out to good music. Between working the land and learning about the basic permaculture principles with Shad, we also have had the opportunity to learn about plants and compost at another nearby farm called Granja Tz’ikin.

While most of our time here was spent working hard and having fun, some of us went through the difficult but perspective changing experience of harvesting (killing) chickens guided by Shad. We also had fun in the water when we went kayaking on the lake and went on a short hike to a nearby waterfall. Our stay here was completed with a fun karaoke night where we all got to perform our favorite songs.

We look forward to bringing home our newfound knowledge of permaculture in order to create a more sustainable and healthy world. Our group will check in next week after completing our second week of Spanish classes. Until then, much love from this week’s leaders, Catie & Andie.

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Written By: Alissa and Rachel

Buenos dias from San Juan! Rachel and Alissa here to share with you the adventures of the week! We left Antigua on Monday morning and drove to Lake Atitlan. We got to enjoy a lovely boat ride across the lake to the vibrant town of San Juan. From here, we met up with our welcoming homestay families and went to see our new homes for the week.

Each morning after delicious homemade breakfasts, we all met at San Juan Spanish School for Spanish classes from 8am till 12pm. We held class outside and went on mini field trips to the beach, the pier, and around town. We then got to look forward to a fantastic lunch back home with our families. Some favorite meals include platanos fritos, pupusas, creative vegetarian tacos, and tamales.

In the afternoon or evening we met up for group activities. These included tours of chocolate making, womens weaving cooperatives, a honeybee sanctuary, and a medicinal plant garden and store. We also took two hikes, watched a moving documentary on Guatemalas civil war, and took a salsa class.

Top funny or awkward moments include Disha dropping her favorite ice cream, the water turning off in the middle of Rachels shower, Ismael finally catching a butterfly, and rambunctious little host siblings shenanigans. But, by far the most exciting event of the week was welcoming a new member to our group! Bienvenidos, Serena!!

Adios till next week!

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Bathed in sunshine and surrounded by impressive volcanoes, Antigua, Guatemala has served as our introduction to Central America. Laughter, exploring the city, trying new foods, playing games, sharing life stories, and orienting ourselves to our three months in Central America…our first few days in have been jam-packed with activities. Although it’s only been a few days, our group has started to take shape and inside jokes have already started to emerge.

Our base has been the cozy Purpose Hostel, and our meals have been provided by the lovely Dona Violeta and her son Fernando. Each day we walk two and a half blocks to their tiny comedor to sample such Guatemalan specialties as pepian, desayuno tipico, pollo amarillo, and chocolate rice krispies (ok, not so traditional on that last one). Dona Violeta has been amazing at accommodating all of our dietary restrictions, as well as giving us advice on things to do in town and putting up with our broken Spanish.

On Saturday we had to opportunity to split up into small groups and explore on our Antigua Scavenger Hunt. Have you ever had to ask someone to borrow their phone and make a phone call in a language you barely speak? It’s incredibly awkward. The scavenger hunt also gave some of us the opportunity to meet a few locals, observe a wedding, wander into the Spanish Embassy (!), and gain privileged access into one of Antigua’s posh gated communities.

Here are some of our thoughts on Antigua and Guatemala so far:

“I like the challenge of going out and exploring Antigua, and learning how to get comfortable speaking the language.”

“The color of the buildings really stand out to me, and I like how bright everything is”

“I could spend hours wandering in the streets”

“The locals are nice and I cannot wait to be able to speak to them”

“I didn’t know much about Guatemala, but I have already learned so much about the city and culture.”

“I’m enjoying everything Guatemala has to offer”

We are looking forward to our first week of Spanish and staying in homestays next week.

Hasta la proxima.

The post Starting Off Strong: Antigua appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

We’re happy to report that the MAYA group has arrived safely in Guatemala! After their overnight flight, they are tired but excited for the semester to come. They’ve checked in to their hostel in Antigua and had their first Guatemalan breakfast. They are going to take some time to rest and recharge now before diving in to the rest of their orientation. Stay tuned as they will start posting updates here themselves in the coming days. We are looking forward to following along on their journey!

The post Safe arrival in Guatemala appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

The MAYA group has gathered in LA and are getting ready to head to Guatemala! They are happy to finally be together and looking forward to the journey ahead. Stay tuned, as we’ll post another blog here tomorrow once we’ve heard that they have lande and made it to their orientation site in Antigua.

~Team Carpe

The post Off to Guatemala! appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Hola.

Matt and Suzannah here, hard at work, getting ready for our upcoming semester. We are less than a week away from beginning our journey together. We hope everyone is stoked for: tortillas, volcanos, turtles, camionetas and Spanish.

Enjoy your last few days before departure and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Hasta la pasta.

The post See You Soon! appeared first on International Gap Year Programs | Carpe Diem Education.

Hello friends and families!

This is Matt and Rachael, your OEs, writing our final semester blog post from the tropical paradise of Roatan, Honduras.

What a 3 months this has been! The time flew by and sometimes crawled. It feels like we have known each other forever and also like we were meeting in LAX yesterday. It is going to be strange breaking up this little family at the airport and carrying on without their daily presence.

We want to extend gratitude to the families and parents! You have raised some wonderful humans. We feel really blessed that I’ve had the opportunity to get to know them these last couple months.

We have studied together, shared one too many middle of the night wake ups, eaten lots of pops ice cream, occasionally pushed each others buttons, and learned a whole lot.

One of our favorite memories of this group is the first time we all played in the waves together at El Paredon, the Pacific coast of Guatemala. It was after a long, hot drive squished in a van together. We arrived sweaty and grumpy but the ocean worked its magic and a few short minutes later we were giggling like children and riding waves. We would move on to play in many waves and bodies of water together and it remained one of our favorite things to do with this group. There is nothing quite like swimming in warm, silky saltwater while the sun sets a brilliant orange behind you.

We have a group of Spanish speakers! Every single one of these people can have conversations in Spanish. They have formed good relationships with host families, friendships with Costa Rican teenagers, and navigated emergency bathroom stops, shopping for groceries at local markets, and had some in depth conversations about Guatemalan history and politics.
We got a jump start on Spanish learning by surprising us our first night at the mountain school by putting them straight into dinners with host families, lots of wide eyes and awkward chit chat. Complete with a graduation ceremony at the end of the week including Lukas’s rendition of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ in Spanish.

From there we studied more Spanish, planted lots of trees (and met Auntie Cheryl, Hayden’s horrifying alter ego, who also showed up our last night for a game of mafia), trekked for three days in the mountains, meditated and yoga-ed, learned about sustainable development, surfed!, learned about permaculture (and did some memorable karaoke, shout out to Harrison), chilled at the pool and cooked together, and woke up at 3 am to fly to Costa Rica!

In Costa Rica we went straight back to Spanish school and it’s complement of multiple ice creams a day (stop it Lindsay!!! (she’s lactose intolerant)), to a turtle project where we patrolled the beach at night for mama turtles laying eggs (that Celia unfortunately kept calling the ‘turtle harvest’), visited another permaculture farm with more turtles including lots of babies!, and woke up at 3 am to fly to Honduras!

We have had our ups and downs and chaotic, difficult moments. I think we have all learned a lot about building communities and relationships. There are some very deep and loving friendships in this group. It has been beautiful to watch them form these strong connections to each other with lots of laughter and snuggles, and lots of support when they are struggling. Learning how to treat each other in community and relationships is a whole life’s work and they are all open-hearted humans who have taken on challenges admirably.

Here we are sunburned, mosquito bitten, exhausted and learning to dive! This week has had a lot of happiness and also some difficult challenges. It was awesome seeing students swimming like a school of fish over the reefs together. Plus some underwater dance parties!

We just got back to the hostel after lots of goodbye hugs and tears at the airport (though Matt didn’t crack) and are experiencing a bit of an empty nest and enjoying all the leftover snacks. Thank you to all the students for sharing this 12 week journey across 3 countries with us! We are so proud of you and can’t wait to see what you do next.

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As I’m writing this, we are heading into our final week together as a group after nearly three months of travel. Tomorrow, we leave Costa Rica, and I have to say that our last week here has been one of the most impactful, at least for me. Despite the many giant spiders I encountered and then willfully tried and failed to ignore (they remain seared into the back of my mind and continue to persist whilst I attempt to fall asleep each night).

We spent this past week with CIRENAS, an organization focused on permaculture practice as well as sea turtle conservation. The road to reach the somewhat (very) isolated lodging was one of our more adventurous drives, which is definitely something. But after stalling out a few times, we eventually reached our base for the week, a secluded clearing in the middle of the wilderness with a path leading directly to the beach, where the turtle hatchery was located.
For me, this week brought a larger lesson on the perfect duality of beauty and pain as it exists in nature. This was presented to me through our work with the baby sea turtles at the hatchery. Our first day working there was spent checking nests which had hatched recently to count the number of underdeveloped eggs and to check for any remaining stragglers too sleepy to emerge with their eager cohorts the previous night. That day, we had the experience of digging through sand only to discover tiny fins peaking out and beginning to wiggle as the babies used all their strength to pull themselves up, eager to meet the world. We watched as they woke up slowly and began to run wildly around their little box, stepping on each other’s heads in their quest to find the ocean. In the midst of all this beauty and excitement, we also found eggs that had not been so lucky, whose little babies had lost access to their nutrients and not made it to hatching. We buried them with some sand from their nest in a little baby turtle graveyard behind the hatchery. After doing so, we returned to the eager babies clamoring for their release and brought them to the edge of the water, watching as they ran as fast as they could, leaving little mini turtle tracks behind in the sand. We stood firmly planted as they ran up to our feet, climbing over our toes, or bumped into each other in confusion. Through all this bumbling, they never lost their persistence, and we watched as they were swept away by the water, their little fins experiencing the sensation of swimming for the first time.

This week, we again participated in night patrols, which consisted of spending nights at the beach and watching the hatchery. Cailin, one of the women we worked with, would bring a large mattress out onto the sand for us, so while she biked up and down the beach in search of mamma turtles laying eggs, we’d lay and look up at the stars while listening to the water in the distance. The night I participated in patrol, two nests hatched, so we were again able to watch the incredible wonder of the baby turtles as their little heads poked up from beneath the sand. As they fought for the surface, they moved as one collective unit, resting and moving in unison, rippling the sand above them.
Other notable events of the week would have to include the scorpion we found in our room, (a mother carrying all her venomous babies on her back, YIKES) as well as the afternoon spent making mud balls, which was one of my favorite activities. All in all, it was a thoroughly memorable week, made even more memorable by the people we were able to work with and learn from. So that’s a wrap on Costa Rica! Pura Vida.

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But that was not all, other daytime activities included exhumations of the nests to count hatched turtles and eggs, playing soccer on the beach, swimming in the beautiful blue water, getting ridiculous sunburns, and having lots of fun. If you were really adventurous, like Hayden and I were, you would attempt to climb up a big rock, home to a magnificent cave. Except, what you didn’t know was that the shallow water surrounding this great cave was infested with big bad sea urchins praying on the innocent (and yes, maybe stupid) children who dared to explore. We battled them for quite some time until they made us go crying back to Matt and Rachael with stinging feet.

By the end of the week, turtles were saved, the group was exhausted, sea urchin stings and sunburns were healed, and Eduardo confessed that we were the only group that he had actually made friends with. Matt thinks he says this to every group, but we know we are special. Continuing on with the adventure. We are headed to Cirenas to continue learning about permaculture, and hopefully save some more turtles.

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and know that I speak for the group when I say thank you all for providing us with this opportunity. We have made amazing memories and great friends already and have two more weeks to make more.

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After our six week adventure in Guatemala, we were finally able to make it to our first week in Costa Rica. Our first stop in this small Central American country starts in a small city called Turriabla. Smack dot in the middle of Costa Rica, Turrialba offers a whole variety of fun things for the gang to do. For the past few days the group has been obsessed with eating at the one of what feels a hundred Chinese restaurants that are littered around the Central Park area. The most popular of them all, named Nuevo Hong-Kong, is a fun place for the gang to devour tongue sandwiches, some odd looking wonton soup, and mountains of fried rice that could feed a family for weeks.

Besides the Chinese restaurants, the group has just finished their last day of Spanish school at a fun place called Spanish by the River. Spanish by the River is a cool spot hidden in the woods on the outskirts of Turrialba, where the group has (hopefully) extended their knowledge in speaking español (Spanish). In addition to the four hours of class each day at the school, the group was also able to see a cool sloth that likes to hangout around the school property!

Also instead of staying in hostels, the group has moved finally moved back to staying in homestays. This is our last time that we will be staying with a host family, quite sad. The homestay families in Costa Rica are a lot different to the ones we stayed with in Guatemala. Although still welcomed with happy smiling faces, it´s easy to tell that the homes in Costa Rica are a lot more developed, and a little less rustic. We have been told by many of the host families that their house is our house, and that we will always be welcomed to stay with them in the future. To all of the host families Carpe Diem students love you.

Just entering our 10th day in Turrialba, the students are getting ready to say goodbye to their host families, pack their bags, and leave for Nicoya. Turrialba has been a beautiful place to stay, and has been a really nice place for the gang to extend their spanish. Although the weather has been quite rainy for our stay, I am sad to say goodbye to such a welcoming and beautiful place. But it seems that’s how things go around here, right? As soon as we finally get comfortable and settled in somewhere, we are off to the next place. Adios Turrialba, you will always have a special place in my heart.

– Lukas Ridgeway

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Hello! Lucia here with what we’ve been doing for the past two weeks. First we spent a week in El Paredon where we worked with La Choza Chula, a sustainable development organization dedicated to improving the community of El Paredon. They funded a school and they provide employment to many people in the community by offering tours around different parts of El Paredon. La Choza Chula gave us tours of the mangroves and sea turtles and we took bracelet making and cooking classes with local women. We took workshops with La Choza Chula about sustainable development why it’s important to support people in need by creating infrastructure that communities can use to help themselves instead of simple charity. Another workshop we took was about the banana supply chain and ways that we can be intelligent consumers. We spent our afternoons playing in the waves, taking surf lessons and acclimating to Guatemalan beach life. There was an insane amount of mosquitos and humidity and an equally insane amount deet and smoothies to combat both.

After a pizza night sendoff with the staff of La Choza Chula, we headed to Tzununa, a community on the shore of Lake Atitlan. The Bambu was our hotel for the week and in my opinion earns the award for ‘Most Vegetables Available for Any Given Meal’ and ‘Best Views of Lake Atitlan From Any Balcony’. We partnered with Atitlan Organics for the week to learn about permaculture and more sustainable ways of farming and living. Our mornings were spent touring farms, planting beds, and learning how to make cheese. Our afternoons were spent in lectures with Shad Qudsi (yes you read that correctly) about the principles of agriculture and how even those of us city dwellers can use permaculture to improve our lives. Throughout the week we had other activities sprinkled in like visiting a permaculture community, shopping in a traditional Guatemalan market in Santiago, swimming in the lake, kayaking in San Marcos, killing and butchering chickens at Shad’s farm, and karaoke night.

Onto the next place!

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Adios!
– Celia

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Hayden here, writing about our time in Quetzaltenango! (If you can’t quite say that you can call it Xela instead) We’ve spent the last week there, in the second-largest city in Guatemala and the home of the biggest parades and parties in the whole country (according to the locals). The focus of the week was practicing Spanish one-on-one with the great teachers at PLQ, but we also had plenty of time to explore the city both inside and outside of classes. We ate burritos, street tacos, churros, ice cream, eggs, beans, and LOTS of bread all week long. My personal favorite is the fried Vietnamese empanadas that only cost 3 Quetzales (about 40 cents) each!

A few events from the week include:

– A long but very worthwhile walk to the MegaPaca, which is basically Goodwill but WAY better.
Many rides on the chicken buses, which are decommissioned American school buses that are decorated to look INCREDIBLE. (Seriously, google it, they are amazing)

– A trip to Xocomil, a huge waterpark an hour south of Xela with some very impressive waterslides. I managed to get a sunburn that had me whining for a solid 3 days.

– A visit to the public cemetery in Xela, where we saw hundred of colorful graves and the resting places of many intriguing people from the history of Guatemala.

– Thursday Night Fútbol, a weekly event with the Spanish school to play soccer on a nearby futsal field. Easily the most fun part of the school week, and I scored 3 goals!

Now we are in the midst of a week of service at the Chico Mendez Reforestation Project, which the next blogger will tell you about.

Adiós until next time!

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Hi everyone! This is Molly and Rachel signing in.

We spent this past week at La Escuela de la Montana, a spanish immersion school in a rural village in the mountains of Guatemala. The group was split into two groups, one with classes from 8am to 12pm and the other with classes from 1pm to 5pm. The classes were one on one and we ate our meals with host families, so we were able to practice our spanish a lot! We also learned a lot about the history of the town and participated in several activities throughout the week. These included guest speakers and we also took a cooking class in which we made platanos rellenos. There was also a newborn litter of puppies born at the school! Sydney parented them for the week.

On Saturday, we didn’t have classes so we took a day trip to Santa Anita, a finca near La Escuela de la Montana. There, we took a rigorous hike and got to see a few waterfalls. Lukas, Annika, Harrison, and Lindsay decided to take a dip in the waterfalls too. We also got to see coffee plantations and were taken to see how the coffee was made and packaged during the hike. We also spoke with a woman who is an ex guerilla from the internal conflict in Guatemala. It was both interesting and inspiring.

Today, we rode in the back of a pickup truck to Xela, where we will be spending the next week. We are staying with host families in groups of two and we will be taking another week of spanish classes at Projectos Linguisticos de Quetzaltenango. Today was Rachael’s birthday, so we spent the day in the city and went out for lunch. Good time!

Until next week! Molly and Rachel signing off.

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Hasta Luego!

-Celia, Annika, and Harrison

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