These children made me stop in my tracks when I was hiking through the remote villages in Guatemala—I can just exactly picture my three nieces and nephews in that same exact position and shooting those incredibly sweet grins (well, that baby’s not grinning, but the girls—too cute!). Part of what I love too are all […]
It a moment that pretty much fully resembled the temper-tantrum two year olds throw, I stamped my foot, emphatically shaking my head at the taxi-driver attempting to charge me fully double the fare I know my ride should cost. “No, no, no. Ridículo. Yo sé que este precio es absolutamente ridículo!”, I rapidly spit out. […]
At the sound of the fireworks Xela and Guate City jogged onto the field, the entire team nearly wholly obscured by the smoke billowing across the slick and grassy football (soccer) field. Some were the pretty and colorful fireworks you’d expect but the vast majority of the fireworks were actually more akin to a huge […]
It’s the warmth and sheer, innocent love that emanates from children that draws me back to volunteering over and over again. My first ride to the guardería, or day care center, took me 20 minutes outside of Xela and into the significantly more petite town of Llanos del Pinal, a small village nestled under the […]
One of the stories that is most often “wow-ed” at from my round the world trip is my time volunteering teaching English at a monastery in Nepal. It’s really quite fortunate that people are so interested in stories of my young monks, because I love talking about them! Volunteering in both Cambodia and Nepal are […]
As I glanced up from my task of delicately descending the roughly cobbled steps I noticed a group of six Guatemalan teenagers below thrusting small cameras and cell phones in my direction. Giggles and huge smiles on their faces, this group was clearly excited over something far bigger than just the presence of this sweaty […]
I have a secret confession to make right now. I really like Antigua, Guatemala. And I feel like I shouldn’t because the town seems so tourist-purposed and overrun by westerners; Antigua is such a marked contrast to the dangerous and grittier reality in nearby Guatemala City. When I mention to other travelers I spent a […]
The chicken bus bumped to a stop in front of the Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm and I got my first glimpse of the expat lifestyle for Emily and Lorenzo, an expat couple that have created an entire non-profit movement in the region toward sustainable farming. The farm is about 15 minutes outside Antigua and fully […]
