First Day at a Guatemala Orphanage


The warm sun shone through the hostel's curtains and onto my face as I woke up reminding me I wasn't in Canada anymore. The night before we had arrived in Rio Dulce at about 10 o'clock after a 5 hour bus ride. My gut tightened with anticipation as I wondered what the first day of volunteering at Casa Guatemala would be like. After packing up and grabbing a quick bite to eat at Hotel Backpackers, the hostel we were staying at, we got into the small motorboat that was going to take us to the orphanage.

Climbing aboard I thought I saw something glinting on the captain's belt. Looking closer I...

Magma Hike

Today our work in a nearby orphanage was canceled, so we decided to take an excursion to a volcano. When we signed up we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. So that morning we started out walking to the bus pickup spot, completely unprepared. Looking back I realized that out of the three of us doing the four hour hike, I was probably the least prepared. I was only equipped with a small lunch and flipflops which I would not recommend.

After a 90 minute shuttle ride we reached the base of the mountain. As we stepped out of the shuttles we were instantly surrounded by kids selling everything from marshmallows you...

Right now we have just returned from one of the most exciting adventures of all time. CAVING!


After walking on some old forest trails in the scorching sun for about 5-10 minutes with Baymount Outdoor Adventure we stopped to take a break and put on a layer of light pants and a wind breaker to keep our clothes underneath clean. Even if this made it quite a bit hotter at least it stopped us from doing so much mosquito slapping. Quickly after that we started the last 2 minutes of are journey which ended up taking 5 because some people in are group did not like going down steep hills but at last we were there.
As we walked up to the mouth of the cave we could already feel the cool air drifting out. After a few minutes...

Hey Aaron hows it going?

Right now I am in Ontario, a super fun province. Earlier this week we picked up a really nice hitchhiker named Patrick, he was on the side of the road as we were exiting the Terry Fox memorial. He plays guitar and has a French accent because he grew up in Montreal. He can speak English because lived in Toronto for a few years.

So what are you guys doing over in B.C.? Is it still cold because if it is hot and sunny I am going to be so jealous!! Over here it has been raining with tons of wind (so cold!) and because it was hot in BC when we left I thought that was how the rest of Canada was. Just imagine me in shirt, shorts and flip flops in the rain. so I went to Value Village and got...

May 30, 2009 Day: 1 Jaeden Schafer
Today is like no other before why? because we are going to cram 8 people into one big RV and start our 9,000 km trek across the great north CANADA.

Today we are going to try to put a few km in between us and point zero Victoria British Columbia.

This morning we all woke up excited about the big day when we would start off. In reality it was not until 5:00pm that we were putting the last few things in the RV. We did not make it out the drive way until 6:00pm. Even with all this going on I still learned that those first few km are always the hardest. Just before we ran out the door my ipod went through the wash. My ipod that I just spent six months saving up for.
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