LEAPNOW - LEAPYEAR South America Group

Group Travel in Central & South America - Fall Quarter

"...a journey to new places in the physical world can encourage a journey within to places where that mind has not been before."
- Laurens van der Post

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During past LEAPYEARs, we have taken the fall travel groups to Central America and to South America. For the coming 2011/12 LEAPYEAR we have decided to put together the best of our travel options in Central AND South America.

We start in Gautemala, the Central American country where indigenous people make up the highest percentage of the population - the majority of whom are traditional rural Mayan. The trip begins with several days of orientation and exploration, getting to know the country and learning how to get around.

Then we head westward across Guatemala to the highland city of Quetzaltenango, for two weeks of language immersion and homestays. Each morning you will learn Spanish one-on-one with a private language tutor for four hours, afternoons will be spent doing service internships, and you'll spend your evenings and nights with your Guatemalan host family. We make group excursions to local markets, to climb volcanoes, and visit rural coffee plantations. You'll also have opportunities to take part in cultural activities such as salsa dancing, backstrap weaving and local soccer games.

End your time in Guatemala with a yoga and meditation retreat at the foot of a volcano on spectacular Lake Atitlan, one of the most important spiritual sites in the Mayan world.

The group then travels to Nicaragua and settles into Granada, the oldest city in the country and a vibrant rainbow of Spanish colonial buildings. The group will take on a two-week service project with a local NGO and investigate the traditional local markets and Lake Nicaragua. During this time we also take a 3-day trek to two of the numerous volcanoes that literally form the “backbone” of the country.

Next, the group packs up and takes a quick flight down to Peru. There you continue your Spanish studies and homestays in Arequipa, a.k.a. “The White City” (La Ciudad Blanca) – named for the large number of colonial buildings made from a white rock brought from the many nearby volcanoes. As in Guatemala, here the group dives into service work in the afternoons, and has the opportunity to practice more dance and take classes with local artisans.

Following that, we take time to slow down and reflect at a yoga retreat in the peaceful surroundings of the famous Sacred Valley of the Inca Civilization.

Our pilgrimage culminates in a walking trek through the Sacred Valley, leading finally to one of the most sacred sites on the planet - Machu Picchu.

LEAPNOW reserves the right to make changes to the itinerary at any time in order to safeguard our students and respond to changing political or climatic conditions.

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