After a beautiful excursion through the pristine wilderness of the Himalayas, we’ve stopped in the rolling hills of Darjeeling for a few days of rest. We’ve found great food, atmosphere, and an amazing abundance of tea in Darjeeling. However, tonight is our last night here and we’ll be moving onwards to Rishikesh for a week long yoga retreat in the morning. There is no stopping the powerful Shanti crew from exploring Northern India. Stay tuned for more blog posts and updates. We don't have time to tell you all about the adventure, but hopefully these pictures help to tell the tale!
Update from Esperanza! Podcast #3
Hello friends and family!
Andrew is here this week with our third podcast. We have just left Nicaragua and have headed into Costa Rica, and we're going to tell you a little bit about our adventures!
Sophia and Nancy building a mandala to end our yoga retreat
Our finished mandala
One of our family dinners at the beach house
Peru, here we come...on a Zip Line!
For the most part, our week was relatively quiet. Everyone had Spanish lessons, either in the mornings or the afternoon, depending on skill level, which left half the day to roam free and explore the city of Arequipa. The real height of our trip was the weekend trek the group chose to do, through the Colca Canyon. As we learned, it is one of the largest canyons in the world, several times the size of the Grand Canyon.
We started the trip by waking up at 2:30 in the morning; To make sure everyone could be ready for the 3:30am, 4 hour bus ride to the top of the canyon. One of the highlights of the trip was a stop on the way, at a vista point. It gave us the first view of the canyon as a whole. The views were fantastic, and we saw giant, wild condors. From there we moved onto the actual trek. We met our guide, Remi, who was incredibly experienced in leading these exertions and very knowledgeable about the (slash his) local culture and belief systems in the Peruvian Andes. The first day was mostly downhill stumbling, slipping, and hiking. We went for 4 hours until lunch, and another 2 hours to reach the oasis we were staying at for the night. It was a beautiful area but the group was tired and most of us went to bed relatively soon. The second day was breathtaking- the view of the valley at sunrise was amazing, but breathing while up hiking up hill at altitude also makes breathing challenging. The second day was difficult; we hiked for about 4 hours. But, we ended the experience with thanking the mountains for our safety and visiting some amazing hot springs to ease our tired muscles. In truth, the pictures are the most effective way to describe our experience, it was challenging but the entire group was psyched to take it on.
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Shiva Group: Holi Guacamole and Camel Safari
April 3,
This afternoon the Shiva group has arrived to Udaipur and was promptly treated to a filling and delicious Thali plate lunch by the wonderful Rishi Ji (I may or may not have fallen into a food coma while creating this post). We just completed our village home stays and teaching English to and all girls’ school. I would say that both went pretty smoothly. Teaching English was fun even though some of us hit rough patches with grabbing the students’ attention. Otherwise it was all good! After an hour of class we all joined together outside to play shuttle cock, Frisbee, and listen to James and Mike serenade us with their various musical instruments. Blanca and Travon were definitely the stars of the show. Blanca had the first grade girls eating out of the palm of her hand and I could hear squeals of delight coming from the classroom that Travon was teaching in. All in all the entire group was loved not only by the students but also the staff. To cap off the three days of English classes there was an epic dance party last night. Everyone was dancing, sweating, and having a blast even though the room was practically a sauna (I just want to put it out there that Preston and Haley M. had some killer dance moves).
The village home stays were very interesting. I will say that it was challenging to communicate with our families seeing as they spoke no English and we speak very little Hindi. Lana had a hard time trying to explaining her fire dancing staff to our host family, and I have to say that it was pretty funny. It was really awesome to get a perspective on the living situations of families in India in a village compared to the hustle and bustle of our city home stays in Jaipur. We slept under the stars and rose early to help our families with their daily chores before going to teach later in the morning.
This morning, we awoke early to scale the neighboring mountain. It was very steep but ultimately rewarding with the beautiful view from the top. It was just a little taste of our soon-approaching Himalayan trek. Tomorrow we are headed to Mcleod Ganj for our last home stays with Tibetan families!
March 26
A lot has happened this past week and a half and like a toddler with a tower of Legos, I’m about to break it down for y’all. After a month and some time we’ve finally been through our first desert city here in India which was Jaisalmer and boy did it get hot.
We finally got see how a gingerbread man/woman in an oven feels like but aside from the heat this place was neat. There was this giant fort and inside of it was a market area which was super cool. While in this town, we got to go do the camel safari which consisted of venturing many old historical landmarks and of course riding camels! After riding camels, we got to play in the sand dunes and while some of the group chilled out in the sand, some others were throwing a frisbee and it was absolutely a blast! And not to mention, right before we all laid in a circle around our camp fire under the stars, we got to celebrate my 19th birthday and share a birthday cake in the desert which surprisingly for riding on a camel was still in one piece and was very beautiful!
The morning after we had rode the camels back and this time the camels were going faster than usual which made for a very bumpy but awesome ride back. From there, we made our way to Jaipur where we are having our first home stay experiences with locals here. We were also able to go see a Bollywood movie that was super dramatic and full of plot twists that made for an eventful first day here. Fortunately for us, we were also here for a holiday that happens once a year called Holi!! This was a very interesting day and was definitely a bright one. We all got to throw colors and paints at each other and run the streets putting colors on other locals. There’s still paint in a lot our scalps and it was just an incredible day. There’s a lot of little details within these days but these are just a glimpse of the many adventures we had and there will definitely be pictures later! Til next time.
From Guatemala to Nicaragua
March 17
Last week we were at an amazing eco-hostel and sustainability project called G-22. It was started by architect Alfredo Maul when he returned to his home country of Guatemala from studying and working abroad. It focuses on staying sustainable in an ever-changing urban environment. He uses many innovative practices like composting organic waste and collecting rainwater, even reusing use sink water to wash dishes and flush toilets. Alfredo used many activities to show us how wasteful the average American is when it comes to water consumption and electricity usage. We as groups were given the equivalent of three dollars to buy exotic fruits for a picnic. This tested our critical thinking skills and made us only spend what we really needed to. We also spent a day learning about coffee production in Guatemala and cleaning up trash from the coffee farm. Alfredo showed us the project he was working on for the coffee farm owner – he was building him and his family a new, sustainable kitchen and bathroom to replace their current one which was more wasteful. This was only one of the inspiring projects that Alfredo took part in. We also went to a botanical garden like none other we had seen. There was more variety of species then we had seen in our whole lives. We had respective bro and girl time which builds great bonds and was a lot of fun. The boys went to an adventure park and had a blast. Guatemala City is beautiful and everything is so inexpensive. We went to a beautiful museum displaying many priceless Mayan artifacts. It was amazing to see relics from a people who hadn’t been around for years and years. Later that night some of the group prepared dinner for our great leaders to show how much we appreciate them and for all they do for us. Our amazing host was the guest of honor. If you didn’t buy the groceries for dinner you helped prune the plants and turn the compost at the hostel showing our appreciation for Alfredo and the time he is dedicated to our group. We all had to wake up at 3 AM to leave the hostel the next morning. We arrived at the airport at around 345 and we were Nicaragua bound. After 10 hours of travel we arrived in sunny Nica.
March 21
WOW. We are about halfway through now. everyone is having the time of their lives. we just got back from a short stint in playa gigante. our first stop in the country of Nicaragua! it is very hot here much hotter than everywhere we have been so far the struggles have just brought us together more and helping each other through homesickness makes us all feel more like family. we are all getting closer whether we like it or not and the end is getting closer weather we like it or not.
March 30
Hello from Matagalpa. We traveled from our student directed travel weekend in Granada on a 3 hour bus ride to Matagalpa. The climate is a lot cooler here than it was in Granada. We have been here for about a week, studying at the spanish school. It is a little bit different because we are not doing one on ones, instead we are with smaller groups based on our level of Spanish. We get to school at 8 and finish at 12. We have three meals with our homestay family. We then usually have activities planned for us in the afternoon. We had a cooking class, a talk on the history of Nicaragua and we went to the market. Matagalpa is a nice sized town with a lot of action happening throughout the streets, however, we are here on Semana Santa which is easter weekend and from Thursday to Sunday the streets are usually empty and most stores are closed. Our group is getting together to throw a festival tomorrow for Easter. Getting ready for that. Hope everything is well back in the United States and Canada. Hasta Luego.
From Thailand to Cambodia: So Tired, but worth it!
Our final days of Thailand flew by in a daze of heat and adventure. After and exhausting day of long bus rides and an overnight, 11 hour sleeper train, we finally arrived in Ayutthaya at 5am from Chiang Mai. We then stumbled to our hostel, with the help of three Tuk Tuk’s, confused and tired. After settling in and a quick nap, we started our long day of adventure throughout Ayutthaya. We started off renting bikes and riding to the ancient ruins – and it was incredible. The ruins, which were originally built in 1374, were once known as Wat Maha That, a royal temple which housed Buddha’s relics. In 1767, during the fall of Ayutthaya, the Burmese invaded destroying the city’s most prized and beautiful buildings, leaving us to ponder why and soak in the intensity of it all.
The temperature was significantly hotter, some 676 km south, than it was in Chiang Mai, but we kept trudging along to see more sights. We biked to a giant reclining Buddha on the outskirts of Ayutthaya, which was fascinating and lacking tourists (which is always a plus). We grabbed lunch before the group decided to split up, for some of the group was feeling intensity of the heat, while others pushed on. Half the group went off on their own adventures throughout the city, exploring day markets, street food and just enjoying the air conditioned hostel (which truly is a luxury when every day is at least 100 degrees). The other half (strongest ones) headed to a few temples and ruins basking in the history and beauty, before heading back. At night we hit a night market, consisting mostly of a large variety of foods. We sat by the river enjoying pad Thai, dumplings, mango & sticky rice, and the cool breeze. Our day in Ayutthaya was one to remember.
The following morning, we packed up all of our bags and hit the road. We took and sweaty yet laid back train into Bangkok. Upon arriving, the mood was immediately set for how our next three days would be; vibrant, crazy, and very hot. With little struggle to find our hostel, we made ourselves at home before hopping on a boat to explore the city. Gliding atop the Chao Phraya River by water taxi was exhilarating for us all. Jumping off a half hour later at Tha Chang, the huge amounts of people from all over the world was both overwhelming and exciting. We enter a temple call Wat Po, one of the grandest in Bangkok. It was stunning, with hundreds of golden Buddha’s, amazing architecture, and towering pillars embellished from top to bottom with sparkling stones. After roughly and hour of enjoying the temple, we set on our way walking through Bangkok. The city is HUGE, nearly 1,600 square kilometers (a great deal larger than NYC, for comparison). This being said, we only covered a very small ground, but it was amazing none the less. After the sun became lost in the horizon, we decided to engage in two hours of chaos, bright lights and shopping. Kahoson road in the tourist hotspot in Bangkok, and we loved it. Elephant pants galore, scorpions on a stick and loud music – a nice change of pace from our down and dirty volunteer work just days earlier. After the excitement settled down, we walked back to our hostel for a long night of rest.
Friday morning we woke up, sweating profusely. We hopped on another water taxi to go to China Town . Most of us agreed that the market here wasn’t too different than a Thai one, except perhaps this one was situated in a maze of alleyways. Soon after, we walked no more than one minute down the road to a soaring sky scraper and decided to go to the very top. We entered a 360 degree viewing room, completely empty. It truly put into perspective how large Bangkok is, with a population of 9.1 million, the city spreads out as far as the eye can see. We hung out, sitting in comfy chairs, air conditioning, and sipping on our 95 baht Cokes (quite a bit more than the 20 baht ones we’ve grown accustomed to). After regaining the motivation to move we left, heading for some more relaxation at a park. Arriving just as golden hour was we got to people watch and chill out. Worn out by the heat we barley managed to make it to another, less eventful night market by the water, before heading to the hostel for the night.
Our final day in Bangkok was a free day where the group split up. Everyone except Chris, George, Phone and David (who went mall hopping throughout the business district of Bangkok) went to the Museum of Contemporary Art for the morning. It was stunning; five floors of art of every variety, causing silence and solidarity throughout the group (a rare thing). It was intense and though provoking, saturated in the history of Thai culture. Afterwards some of us stopped at a market for some street food, while jumped on and off boats all afternoon, loving the spontaneity, and others just relaxed.
All in all it’s safe to say Bangkok is incredible and everyone enjoyed every minute of roaming around the vast city. But our five weeks in Thailand were unimaginably amazing, and we were ready to see what Cambodia had in store.
March 16th-20th
As we say our goodbye’s to Bangkok, we tiredly wake up at five in the morning to catch our bus to Cambodia. Unfortunately, we wend up having to wait in the bus station for the next bus that leaves at 9:30am. Some of us try to sleep, others enjoy walking around and buying snacks. We finally board the bus and it takes about four hours to reach the boarder. Arriving and getting off the air conditioned bus and feeling the gust of heat was an overwhelming feeling. We walked across the boarder and getting ours visas for Cambodia. It all went by so quick; filling out our paperwork, but bribing Cambodian officials with 100 baht each. As my experience went walking into Cambodia, I can see the poverty and how the struggles are mostly environmental. It’s heartbreaking to see and actually pass by it. Afterwards, we were taken to the tourist bus station which was a bit sketchy and gave a bad vibe. Nevertheless, it was our only option to get to Battambang. The bus ride was about two hours. We finally arrived, exhausted and hungry to our destination around 7 pm.
The organization we would be working with this week is PTD (Ptea Teuk Dong) meaning coconut water house in English. PTD is an organization that deals with education, social inclusion of underprivileged children and environmental issues. Monday and Tuesday we started on our service project. We spend our morning hours demolishing a building, so that a new hut could be built for the growth of oyster mushrooms. While we’re getting used to the 100 degree weather, our first days are filled with sweat and determination. After lunch, we split into two groups and go off to the classrooms to teach lessons to the children. All of these children are from around the area and come to PTD to learn English free of cost. The lessons we taught included teaching them to brush their teeth (it was great talking about the importance of brushing teeth and the kids were provided with toothbrushes to take home), and a Lego activity. The kids were so hyped about the Legos that they emptied the buckets with great excitement, and were building in no time. Another activity was Playdough, the kids were very creative and were into making animals. Last of all, the literacy activity was teaching kids words and antonyms.
Wednesday morning, we wake up to our regular routine – working on our service project, but instead of teaching we went to tour Battambang. We were excited to finally venture off outside the walls of PTD. Our first stop included visiting a house where rice paper was homemade, and learning that this women had to make around 1,000 rice papers a day to sell. Secondly, we go to a fish market where there’s fish on the ground and they chop off their fins and tails and in half. It smelled very bad.
Our final stop was at a temple. There was a memorial for those lost during the Khmer Rouge Regime. The temple was used as a prison during that time and a torture chamber. Around the memorial told the story of how the Khmer Rouge came about and all the horrors they inflicted upon the Khmer people. It was heart wrenching and intense. Hundreds of skulls were encased to show the reality of what has been done. The man who drove our Tuk Tuk recounted to us his story, living through the Khmer Rouge. This was truly touching, hearing about the saddening story of him losing his family, and feeling nothing but emptiness and darkness for a long time, before meeting his wife and starting a family. This brought to light the gravity of how the Khmer Rouge affected the people of Cambodia. Over 3.3 million people of 8 million in Cambodia were killed during only a few years.
This experience was heavy and opened our eyes to how lucky we are and privileged. The Khmer people are so strong and their past has certainly shaped their life now. They are survivors, and to be among them is a privilege, and we can all learn something from our short stay here in Cambodia, and at PTD. We are so grateful to have this opportunity – and everyday, we seize the day.
-March 21st-March 24th
Esperanza - Podcast #2 an update!
Hello friends and family!
We are sorry that it has taken us so long to get out another podcast. But luckily we have a wonderful catch-up written and performed by two of cast members: Sophia and Andrew!
We will be sure to get out another podcast before we leave Bona Fide next Saturday.
As a farewell to our lost family members, we'd like to leave you with these last two full-group photos.
Shanti: Holi Week (Festival of Spring, Indian style!)
Last week in Kolkatta was incredible. As always, every week here in beautiful India has been a completely different, challenging, unbelievable, yet fascinating adventure. Since arriving in Kolkota the past Sunday, we have been volunteering for Missionaries of Charity. An non-profit organization established by the great Mother Teresa a couple of decades ago. It has been an amazing , eye opening experience for us all. Caring for both children and elder citizens with mental and physical disabilities. We have been exposed to many unfortunate realities of life. Realities not many people in this world get to see first-hand. We volunteered in many of the houses of this organizations by helping in many ways: Entertaining fellow patients in any way possible, helping them with their daily needs, teaching them various stuff, and many, many other things. Aside from serving as volunteers, we got to explore this wonderful city. We saw our first Bollywood movie! It was quite interesting haha. Very confusing yet very entertaining (it was completely in Hindi aside from some English frases and no subtitles). We also visited many temples and got to see one of the biggest flower market in all of Asia. Kolkota has treated us like royalties, leaving us with nothing more to ask for.
Now we are up in the north in Sikkim, where we were able to participate in Holi, the spring festival of colors where people throw dye of many colors all over you in the streets. This was an incredible few days, we are excited to begin our trek in the greatest mountain range in the world: the Himalayas. Another great adventure awaits for us. Thank you India!
South America: Monkeys, Frogs, Turtles Oh My!
This week for our journey, we came to a quaint little city called Puyo and just on the outskirts of it is a little place called Paseo de los Monos. Paseo de los monos is a refugee camp for rescued animals (mainly monkeys) but there are other animals such as tortoises, parrots, pecardis (hogs with a white collar around their neck), a margay, a kinkachu, coati (supposely a mix between a fox and a bear but it’s more like a mix of a racoon and an anteater) and an oriente (giant like hamster). While at Los Monos, there was the good times and the bad times and as a team we prevailed with each hardship.
Every morning from 8:30-9:30am, 4-5 people helped the workers prepared the food for the animals. We chopped fruits ranging from pineapples to papaya, vegetables. How many times can you tell people that you helped feed cappuccino monkeys, spider monkeys, wooly monkeys etc, and tell the story of how Willy, a wooly monkey ate a hole into my shirt?!? We also helped build tunnels so that the monkeys that didn’t have a lot of space to move around, did have the space to move around. And at the end of each day, mainly the guys, went into the river for a refreshing dip to cool off a day’s hard work.
With that being said there were some bad parts that we as a group couldn’t overlook. The standard of living was not what we were used to and felt quite rustic. There were bugs, and there were nights when the water was shut off. Some of us got sick while we were here, which made us miss the comforts of home even more. Being at Los Monos made us realized how much we took things back at home for granted; clean house, cooked food, the amount of work we did, Internet connection and free wifi.
There’s a quote by Clifton Fadiman that goes like this “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” Yes it was a hard week, yes we were frustrated at the place, at each other, yes true colors were shown, yes we were trying and guess what – we did not give up. Through this experience we learned a lot about each other, to forgive each other, to be kind with each other and by not letting Los Monos drag us down, it strengthened our bonds as a team.
The week at Los Monos is already gone and behind us and we are at our next destination, Arajuno Lodge, near Tena. Continue to wish us well while we are in Arajuno!
India Shiva: Phool Chati Ashram
We just completed our week long yoga retreat at the Phool Chati Ashram lead by Lolita Ji. Our days lasted from 6am to 9pm and while at first the days seemed extremely long, as we got into the rhythm of the Ashram lifestyle things began to pick up and now looking back it seems a week wasn’t enough. We began our days with meditation and neti pot cleansing to clear our nasal passages which helped with our breathing. Twice a day we had yoga which was expertly lead by our seasoned yoga instructor Lolita Ji who through her patient, dedicated, and cheerful personality demonstrated the positive long term affects of the ashram way of life. It should also be noted that all our meals were made from the vegetables found in the ashram’s garden and were 100% vegetarian, but don’t let this fool you… the food was amazing!!! The opinion is unanimous, it is simply some of the best food we’ve ever had. Top that off with a constant flow of chai and needless to say our bellies were satisfied. After breakfast we went on mediation walks which involved exploring the local area while attempting to stay silent. A hike to a gorgeous waterfall and bathing in the Ganga river were just a few of the things we experienced on our walks. Another one of our a daily activities involved helping clean up and maintain the ashram. This was called “karma yoga” and up until I googled that phrase I thought it was just something they made up to make everyone go along with it without question. As the day went on we resumed our yoga and meditation. Between the two each and everyone of us were challenged in our own way. The meditation which called for us to focus and clear our minds required many of us to face internal issues that would other wise be buried deep within our consciousness. On the flip side yoga tested us externally by bending and twisting our bodies in ways that most of us hadn’t experienced before. Despite all the difficulties we encountered it can be said for sure that all the students gave their best effort and that we pushed ourselves to new limits. The Phool Chati Ashram was truly an amazing and impactful experience for everyone.
Here are a few photos from Varanasi!
