| country: | Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Peru |
| location: | Galapagos Islands |
| departures: | 2008: 25 Sep, 23 Oct 2009: 8 Jan, 29 Jan, 26 Feb, 19 Mar, 26 Mar |
| price: | From £4875 (12 weeks) excluding flights, from £5670 including flights from the UK |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Travel through Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos for twelve weeks of Volunteer Projects, Spanish lessons and wilderness exploration.
Three phases make up this trip:
1. Learn Spanish
2. Explore from Andes to Amazon and from Lake Titicaca to the Galapagos Islands.
3. Work on a Galapagos conservation project.
Trip highlights
Three phases make up this trip:
1. Learn Spanish
2. Explore from Andes to Amazon and from Lake Titicaca to the Galapagos Islands.
3. Work on a Galapagos conservation project.
Trip highlights
- Travel safety course in UK before departure
Galapagos conservation and community development project in association with the Charles Darwin Research Station. - Three weeks of 1-to-1 Spanish tuition in Ecuador and Peru along with cultural orientation .
- Family stays in Peru (2 weeks)
- Take a little-known Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
- Watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu; the “lost city of the Incas”.
- Stay with Lake Titicaca island communities
- Offshore visit to the Ballestas Islands marine reserve
- Trek into the pristine wilderness of northern Peru’s Santa Cruz Valley
- Go surfing in the Pacific … and whitewater rafting in the Amazon!
- Five-day sail-trek abound the Galapagos Islands
- New friends and the time of your life!
a day in the life of a volunteer
Jatun Sacha Volunteer Project: Through out the day you will be clearing and maintaining plots of land of introduced plant species. This is the main concept of the project with an aim to regenerate the island to its original state, benefiting all those wonderful wildlife species. The project is completely self sufficient so you will also help to run the site itself. Activities may include helping in the kitchen and maintaining fruit and vegetable supplies from the surrounding the area. Through out your stay you will be educated on which plants are the bad and introduced species and the quite obvious effect they have had on the island. Some time is also spent collecting seedlings from specific well maintained surrounding areas. day-by-day itinerary
| Week 1-2: | Language School, Peru: Cusco. Family stays, Spanish tuition in the mornings and afternoons spent exploring Cusco and helping with the Amigos street children project. Weekend visits to the Sacred Valley for mountain biking and rafting. |
| Week 3: | Expedition, Peru: Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu. 4 day high altitude mountain trek through stunning Andes mountains to Machu Picchu. |
| Week 4: | Expedition, Peru: Lake Titicaca, Arequipa and the Nazca Lines. Living with islanders on Lake Titicaca, colonial splendour in Arequipa and a light aircraft flight of the mysterious Nazca Lines. |
| Week 5: | Expedition, Peru: Lima, Huraz and the Cordillera Blanca. Explore Lima, drive to the Cordillera Blanca in northern Peru and start the four day trek along the Santa Cruz valley. |
| Week 6: | Expedition Peru: The Cordillera Blanca. Trek to the 4700m pass at Punta Union |
| Week 7: | Language School, Ecuador: Quito. Spanish tuition in the mornings and exploration of the city in the afternoon, evenings are spent in the lively bars, where Salsa and Latin rhythms rule the airways. |
| Week 8: | Expedition Ecuador: Markets, Amazon jungle and river exploration. Otavalo’s Andean markets, Amazon jungle exploration and white water rafting on the river Napo. |
| Week 9-11: | Volunteer Project, Galapagos Islands: San Cristobal. Join forces with the Jatun Sacha research station to tackle some of the islands most serious threats. |
| Week 12: | Expedition Galapagos: Five day sail trek. An island hopping cruise around the Galapagos Islands, experience the wildlife face to face before returning to Quito. |
how this holiday makes a difference
|
This venture supports the Jatun Sacha project on the Galapagos Islands 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. All 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. |











