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Gap year expedition in Peru

country:Peru
location:Inca Trail, Peruvian Amazon
departures:2009: 5 Mar, 23 Apr, 12 Jun, 2 Jul, 6 Aug, 20 Aug, 10 Sep, 8 Oct, 1 Nov
2010: 4 Mar, 15 Apr, 22 Apr, 10 Jun, 1 Jul, 5 Aug, 19 Aug, 9 Sep, 7 Oct, 2 Nov
price:From £2195 (4 - 6 weeks) excluding flights, from £3145 including flights from the UK. Local Payment of £160
 
the amazing things you'll be doing
Travel around Peru, for four to six weeks of languages, projects and expeditions.

Three phases make up our trip:
1. Learn Spanish
2. Live and work with a remote Inca community
3. Explore one step beyond on the hidden trail to Machu Picchu

For Spanish speakers it is possible to join us at the start of week 3, omitting the two week language school.

Trip highlights

  • Spend 2 weeks living with a Peruvian family, an ideal introduction to this remarkable culture and an opportunity to practice your Spanish.
  • Enjoy 1-to1 Spanish tuition, tailored to your ability.
  • Join two community development projects: work with street children in Cusco and join the Quechua people’s fight to preserve the endemic Polylepis tree in the high Andes.
  • Whitewater raft in the Amazon jungle and mountain bike through the Andes.
  • Develop your expedition and leadership skills on an epic wilderness trek along a little known Inca trail.
  • Watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu; the “lost city of the Incas”. 
This is an all-inclusive trip, with full support and a range of services provided before, during and after the trip.
a day in the life of a volunteer
ECOAN Volunteer Project: Through out the day you will be working with locals constructing community centres for local families, mapping existing forests to provide ECOAN with accurate information about location and the size of these forests as well as planting Polylepis seedlings as part of the reforestation programme. This is a community dependant on the Polylepis tree, which in turn is a vital part of the Andean country side.
day-by-day itinerary
Weeks 1-2:Spanish Lessons: Cusco Language School
Weeks 3-4:Community Development Project: Live and work in the High Andes
Weeks 5-6:Wilderness Expedition: The Inca Trails
volunteer travel - what's it all about?
Are you are looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world.
Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.
how this holiday makes a difference
This venture supports the ECOAN Volunteer Project As well as our guides you are also accompanied by local guides and project partners. Groups are kept to a maximum of sixteen people, big enough to help the local communities, but not big enough to have a negative affect themselves.

Back in the UK we also have our own environmental policy and we believe this is where responsible travel should start, prior to departure. It is simple things that help and perhaps the biggest impact in the office comes from recycling paper, as a rule where possible we print on both sides of paper and it is not until it is completely beyond use that we then send it to be recycled.

All our development projects have been carefully chosen to satisfy several criteria. They are of definable and sustainable benefit to the indigenous community and allow us the opportunity to work in tandem with the host community. Funding for the projects comes directly from the Trust. For each person that joins us, we, as a company, give at least US $400 to the Trust. 100% of the money the Trust receives is spent on the projects.

Local people, Peru volunteeringAll development projects are over-seen by a resident Project Manager whose role is to co-ordinate the adventures, the funding and the project's objectives. We are committed to direct patronage within the local economies of the countries in which we operate. We pay local tutors to teach languages; accommodation throughout the adventure is in locally owned hostels or based in the project locations; and the entire expedition budget will be spent by the team at local "grass roots" level.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.

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