Update from Kenya

A letter from Crooked Trails participants from the lastest trip to Kenya! Wouldn’t you love to be there with them? Our Kenya schedule is amazing, lots of activities and an amazing homestay with our Maasai partners in the village of Merrueshi. It is the experience of a lifetime.  Check our our Kenya schedule here.
Jambo,
We really enjoyed our time in Merrueshi.  We [...]

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Volunteer Update from Nepal

Namaste everyone! We are back from a great volunteer Crooked Trails Program to Nepal. There were  8 of us altogether 7 women and one man who went to Chandani in the Kavre District to build a lower secondary school. Right now the kids are crammed into rooms with as many as three classes being offered [...]

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Crooked Trails Premieres Bhutan April 2009 Itinerary!

Our Executive Director Chris Mackay has just returned from a site visit to Bhutan. We hope you enjoyed the featured article on her visit posted here.
We are excited to announce we will be offering two programs to Bhutan this year; one in April centering around a homestay and cultural tour, and one in October where [...]

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Bhutan: Where Ancient Meets Modern

by Crooked Trails co-founder Christine Mackay
Since my recent return from Bhutan, people have been asking me what I thought of this lost Shangri La. My reply has consistently been: “It’s not like any country I have visited before”. Where else have the rulers decided that Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross [...]

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From the field: working up a sweat in the Andes

Story and photos by Crooked Trails participant, Thomas Buford
Greetings, my name is Thomas Buford and I have the privilege of telling you about a trip to Chinchero, Peru, that I shared with fourteen extraordinary people.  The trip, which lasted twelve days during November 2008, was a partnership between Crooked Trails, Seattle Works, and the Young [...]

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From the field: WWU students visit Washington’s native Makah

In October, Crooked Trails brought a group of students from Western Washington University’s Recreation department to the Makah reservation in Neah Bay to look at community-based tourism. Here is WWU student Kayleigh King’s firsthand account of the experience:
As ecotourism students, an essential part of the educational experience is first-hand interaction with a community in need [...]

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From the field: a family vacation to remember

This summer, Eric and Susan Lansverk wanted to take daughter Emily (16) and son Peter (14) on a family vacation that they would make a lasting impression. So they skipped Disneyland and worked with Crooked Trails instead to design a custom itinerary in Peru that focused on a meaningful connections with the locals during a [...]

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Weaving a New Experience onto the Backdrop of Daily Life

by Crooked Trails participant, Sarah Mackay
 
I was one of the fortunate travelers to join the Crooked Trails Family Program to Peru in August. We were a multigenerational group of nine that included a grandmother, her grandchild and twins; all of us with the hopes of exploring and getting to know Peru.  We took a train, [...]

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