The Italy Heritage Course reports:
Our class has been very busy. In Rome, we visited most of the popular ancient sites, including the Pantheon, the Coliseum, and the Forum. However, we also did some more unusual things, such as touring Ostia, visiting the Jewish Ghetto and viewing a Mithraeum (a worship site for an ancient mystery religion) under the church of San Clemente. Everyone enjoyed exploring Rome, in spite of the rainy weather. Yesterday, after visiting the catacombs, we made our way down the Amalfi coast to Sorrento. Today we explored the Greek Temples at Paestum and tomorrow we head to Pompeii. So far everything is going well and we are learning very much through these interactive lessons on Italian Heritage.

The Peru Heritage Course reports:
We are now in Nazca after moving down the coast.

In our last entry, we wrote about how some students were out sandboarding on the oasis. A few students returned saying it was the greatest thing they have ever done, while other students found the time spent in the pueblos jovenes more influential. We loved interacting with the other Elon group and look forward to seeing them at the end of the month in Machu Picchu.

We traveled in the morning to the town of Paracas. The neighboring city of Pisco was the epicenter of the August earthquake. Damage was visible in the area we visited, but our boat captain told us Pisco was totally devastated and he felt lucky to have survived. We traveled around the Ballestas Islands and witnessed close up what was once an important part of the Peruvian economy, the production of guano. The islands were covered with almost a million guano producing birds including the pelican and booby. We also saw close to a thousand sea lions and countless Humboldt penguins who migrate here to mate. It is the Humboldt Current, the cold water current that comes from Antarctica, which makes a rich environment for fish and birds, and therefore guano.

We left Paracas and stopped in Ica to tour a museum on the four coastal civilizations. At the museum the students were introduced to mummification, Peruvian style.

In Nazca we had an easy afternoon preparing for an early morning to do the overflights over the famous Nazca lines. Students were able to use the Internet to contact their parents but phone service here is confusing. Hopefully tomorrow they can call home from Arequipa. All the students took the overflights and saw the giant geoglyphs on the desert floor. Some of these, like the heron, are over 900 feet long. After breakfast the students had their first class in survival Spanish with Don Ernesto and their first environmental class with Don Daniel. Spanish covered basic phrases for hotel and restaurant use. Environmental class involved discussion of the pueblos jovenes, the possible origins of the Nazca lines, the guano industry and the Humboldt Current and its effect on the environment and the economy. After lunch we visited a series of aqueducts that have been maintained for over two thousand years. The aqueducts carry water from the Andes and still provide water for many coastal towns.

Tomorrow is a long bus ride, 12 hours, to Arequipa with several stops along the way. We will send more updates once we get there.

The Costa Rica Course reports:
We spent the past weekend at Turtuguero. This is the location where green sea turtles nest, and we were able to see one hatchling scramble to the ocean. We investigated the town of Tortuguero, explored the Tortuguero National Park for wildlife, and even held a championship soccer match, which the locals won 8 to 6.

The Tortuguero National Park outing involved a three hour bus ride followed by a 2 hour boat ride through various canals and rivers between Moin and Tortuguero Island, a 22 mile long strip containing a large nesting population of greenback turtles. We actually were able to rescue one "Lone Ranger" left behind in a nest and the group cheered when it finally made it to the sea. Additionally we observed many exotic trees/bushes/flowers and a host of local wildlife. There were crocodiles, tree frogs, iguanas, geckos, monkeys, fish, many species of birds, bats, and Caymans, to name a few. We learned much about the history of the area, its ecology, and what is being done to protect this beautiful natural resource. We had guides who knew the area well and had an astounding ability to spot a small lizard in a large tree from 50 yards! The area gets nearly 200 inches of rain annually but we were fortunate that it rained mostly at night and we had two beautiful days to explore. Dr. Brumbaugh said it was some of the best weather he's experienced there in many years.

The group is doing well. Other than a few stubbed toes/scraped knees we are all in great shape. After spending a great weekend in the Tortuguero National Park, we are settled back in San Jose for classes on Language and Culture. This afternoon we will go downtown to visit the National Museum.


The Cathedral Course reports:
We are in Florence and all is well.

The Brazil Course reports:
We arrived safely in Belo Horizonte (affectionately known as BH down here-- it translates to "beautiful horizon" due to the beauty of the mountain ranges surrounding the city). We are planning on watching the college championship football game together this evening. Tomorrow we will be visiting the city's important cultural and historical sites including some of the famous works by architect Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil's most famous architect that designed most of the buildings in the new capitol city, Brasilia, built in 1955-1960). His works in BH include an apartment building on Liberty Plaza, and a church and museum in the Pampulha Lake district. The students enjoyed the immense socio-cultural diversity in Rio, it's contrasts with BH, and are impressed with the natural and cultural wonders that make Brazil an interesting and exciting place to learn about. We've been having great discussions in our class meetings about what we have seen and done!