teachers | Cindy Casazza and Andrew Assini | Travel Blog

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Central America Caribbean

TravelBlog » teachers

teachers - Cindy Casazza and Andrew Assini

We are two social studies teacher who love to travel and hike. Along the way we especially enjoy meeting different people and witnessing different cultures even if it is only for a short time. Andrew loves replacing collision sports with adrenaline pumping activities while Cindy enjoys seeing natural beauty. Andrew developed a love of travel from his family and parents who took him to Civil War battlefields and the White Mountains to hike at a young age while Cindy enjoyed a trip to Italy.

Where we've been recently:

2005

New Orleans - 11 days and countless amazing restaurants, a gator farm, Hornets basketball games and good times with Andrew Loomis.

Maine - eating at the Clam Shack in Kennebunkport, flipping rocks in tidepools for crabs and lobsters at Gooserocks Beach, eating bigger lobsters and crabs elsewhere, reading/relaxing and spending time with mom, dad, grandmother and Alicia... beating grandmother and parents in Bocce Ball

California - 2 and 1/2 weeks hiking in Yosemite, then climbing the highest point in the lower 48 (14,500 foot Mt. Whitney), driving the next day to Badwater Basin and the lowest point in America (-282 feet)... Death Valley, Manzanar, Napa/Sonoma, eating San Fran, seeing Alcatraz and San Jose with Taibeen

2006

Utah- 11 days hiking and backpacking around Bryce, Capital Reef, Grand Staircase-Escalante, slot canyons, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley and Angel's Landing/the Subway in Zion.

Maine as always

Alaska and the Pacific Northwest - 3 and 1/2 weeks kayaking the Columbia Glacier, visiting Katmai, having many encounters with massive Coastal Brown Bears, ice climbing and glacier trekking, hiking to Harding Ice Field, Fishing, eating lots of salmon, witnessing Alaskan gangstas... :), cruising through Glacier Bay, seeing baby whales breaching, watching bubble feeding, going to a salmon bake, catching a silver in Seward, visiting Olympic National Park, hiking to most remote beach in USA (Shi Shi Beach) and the Hoh Rainforest Trail

Cross Country Drive - a month with Donnaruma, Glacier, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, baby mountain goats everywhere, swimming in Lake Ellen Wilson, Grinnell Glacier, more bighorns headbutting... Yellowstone, Shoshone Lake and geysers, Grand Tetons and backpacking the Teton Crest Trail, Devil's Tower, the Badlands, Grinnell, and Mt. Rushmore before visiting the beautiful city of Columbus Ohio and the Econo Lodge there...

2007

Arizona - 2 weeks hiking Havasu Falls, Mooney Falls and the Wave, visiting Grand Canyon and backpacking the Bright Angel Trail with Taibeen and Dr. Assini

Maine as always

Africa
Rwanda for one week- met awesome down to earth people, dinner with some of them, visited genocide memorials, stayed at a home, visited workplaces, schools and community organizations, drank banana beer, trekked to the 37 gorilla Susa Group and Kwitonda group...

Tanzania for three weeks, safari to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire and Lake Manyara NP, visited the Hadze bushmen and Mto wa Mbu, climbed Kilimanjaro via the Lemosho Route, Zanzibar, visited Stone Town and Chumbe Island

2007-008 Possibilities on the radar for teacher's convention, Christmas, Spring and Summer breaks... :)
Virginia-backpacking with Madden through the Shenendoah -likely in fall of 07
Florida?-Everglades NP-Christmas break 07
Canada?-Northeastern Canadian NP's ??? summer 08 Churchill for Polar Bears ???? fall 08
Peru ? -Machu Picchu- Choquequirao instead-Cusco-Peruvian Amazon ????? spring 08
Nepal? -Mt Everest Base Camp Trek???? time in Kathmandu and outlying areas ???? fall 08
Austrailia & New Zealand? - Milford Track, Routeborn Track, Great Barrier Reef, Duck Billed Platypus, Sydeny, wine country, LOTR sites, Rugby games, etc,etc ?????????????? summer 08
Egypt? South Africa? Botswana? Travel through Europe? o who knows!

5 Forum Posts Top Photos Blog Map

Blog Comments Search Blogs First Entry Latest Entry

Joined on: June 18th 2007
Last Login: April 8th 2008

Blog Entries: 7
Photos: 102

TB Code: [blogger=41153]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by teachers, order by Date newest first.

By teachers
August 19th 2007

Kilimanjaro - The Top of the Trip

Africa » Tanzania » North » Mount Kilimanjaro

Check In
Here we met everyone in our group and our three guides: Simon, Nemes and Genes. We also had our blood oxygen levels taken, and Cindy and I each had a 98 out of 100. We of course began a competition ov... [more]

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~John Muir NOTE: Once you get to the summit portion of the blog, watch the video to the left of Andrew and I at the summit of Kilimanjaro! If you are going to read this or watch any of the videos, make sure to watch the one entitled “The Top of Kilimanjaro.” Most of this is written by Cindy but I made sure to put in a few words in italics…. Our journey up the mountain began at the Keys Hotel in Moshi. We had hoped to update the [View Full Entry]

By teachers
August 12th 2007

Tanzania Safari

Africa » Tanzania

The vehicle
Our Popup-top Safari Vehicle and essential home for 10 days.

Tanzania : First Impressions and Safari WARNING: 1)Being in the US with unlimited high-speed internet this post is long. 2)The videos on the left are of the lion and elephant battles we witnessed at the Maasai Kopjes. As previously mentioned in the last post, on July 6th we departed from Kigali, Rwanda and flew to Kilimanjaro (the airport/region), Tanzania. Cindy and I both regretted that we didn’t have more time with the people we’d met in Rwanda. Greg, Jared and Herbert at Amahoro Tours provided us with great experiences and information every step of the way. After spendi [View Full Entry]

By teachers
July 12th 2007

Recap of Rwanda w/ Some Pictures

Africa » Tanzania » North » Ngorongoro Conservation Area

RECOVERED

After camping in the Serengeti for three nights, we took real showers and we are writing from the beautiful lodge we are at in Karatu, Tanzania outside of Ngorongoro Crater National Park. We’ve been “on safari” since my last entry five days ago, and we have many tales to tell from Tanzania. In this entry, we want to share more of our absolutely wonderful experience in Rwanda and put up some pictures of the trip so far. While the gorillas were amazing and a once in a lifetime experience, our favorite part of our stay in Rwanda was definitely the people [View Full Entry]

By teachers
July 7th 2007

Jambo from Tanzania

Africa » Tanzania » North » Arusha

I only have ten minutes before we leave for Tarangire National Park to see elephants. It would be impossible to describe how much we loved Rwanda and how meaningful of an experience it was in such a short time. The second day we were in Rwanda, we visited the genocide museum in Kigali. The museum has exibits on Rwanda's history, the Rwandan genocide, and other genocides. It contains information about the extreme torture used in 1994 as well as inspirational stories of those who stood up - unfortunately there was more tragedy than heroism. The most difficult parts of memorial were [View Full Entry]

By teachers
July 2nd 2007

In Kigali

Africa » Rwanda » Ville de Kigali » Kigali

Andrew and I arrived in Nairobi on Saturday, after two long flights and four hours in Amsterdam. Our experience in Nairobi was wonderful, minus Andrew getting a mosquito bite in the first hour and worrying about malaria... We slept under a mosquito net for the first time and had no trouble at the airport. The country of Kenya and the city have improved a lot in the last five years as the Kenyan government improved health care, education and economic opportunity for since 2002. We had a great conversation with our driver, Joseph, about the myths about travel to Africa - [View Full Entry]

By teachers
June 28th 2007

Almost Airborne

North America » United States » New Jersey

Tanzania Safari Route
Modified map of Tanzania, originally from: http://www.galtier.spps.org/printview/ Chimpanzees_at_Gombe_National_Park.html

Addition - 8/7/07 - You have already read this blog and I'm sorry it got sent out again! I am trying to retrieve our blogs as they all got deleted due to a problem with the website. New blogs about the last month of our trip are coming in the next few days. Cindy's Part I think I am going to let Andrew write all of our blogs from Africa because then you will get more detail than you ever wanted!!!! In Andrew's part of the post, he gives a loooong packing list (in case you get inspired to go to [View Full Entry]

By teachers
June 19th 2007

Getting Ready!

North America » United States » New Jersey

We have set up this blog so we can update family, friends, co-workers and students about our travel to Africa this summer. Between visas, shots, medications, reservations, training and a lot of research, we have been busy preparing for the last few months for our trip to Tanzania and Rwanda. Our goal is to blog about our experiences as internet access permits over the month of July in which we will be abroad. The short list of our itinerary is: visiting genocide memorials in Rwanda, going gorilla trekking in Rwanda, taking a safari in Tanzania, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and [View Full Entry]

TravelBlog » teachers