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Ecuador Rainforest Conservation - Africa and Asia Venture

Ecuador Rainforest Conservation

Gap Year Experience in the Rainforests of Ecuador

Fact:  An area of a rainforest the size of a football field is being destroyed each second - 2000 mature trees each minute ... every minute ... every hour ... every day - do the arithmetic!

Experience in Brief:

Conservation volunteering with AV in partnership with Rainforest Concern.  A ten week project including four weeks of volunteer conservation and environmental projects in the cloud forests and rainforests of Ecuador, with a four-day trek in the beautiful Quilotoa region at the end. (Ecuador Map>>)

Ecuador Rainforest Conservation  Dates & Costs

Intensive Spanish - 3 Weeks

You will spend three weeks at a Spanish language school in the Mariscal district of Quito before your main AV volunteering scheme begins.  This will really help you to get the most out of your time in South America.  Courses are run for groups of all abilities - from beginners to advanced - and you will be placed in carefully selected home stays to give you that total immersion, which will help you pick up more than just the language.

Spanish classes will tend to be held in the afternoons with visits and interactive exercises conducted in the mornings.  Our AV representative will also introduce you to the sights in Quito, which is a lovely, sprawling mixture of old and new - plenty for you to do, for sure! 

Induction Course. 

The Induction Course, which will tell you more about Ecuador and how to stay healthy and safe in South America, will be held during your first week at the language school.

Eco-Tourism in the Cloud Forest at Santa Lucia - 4 Weeks

After a three hour drive north west of Quito, followed by an hour and a half walk to a spot (at 2000 metres) that no vehicles can reach, and provisions and baggage have to be carried in by mule, you will arrive in Santa Lucia.  When you get your breath back, take a look at the view - it's incredible!  Impossibly steep hills and valleys, spurs and re-entrants, villages and farms, and all of it covered or surrounded by a deep green forest.  This is the cloud forest - your home for the next four weeks during your conservation volunteer project.

AV has joined forces with the community, to work in partnership with Rainforest Concern, and supports the efforts to save the rainforest here.  During your conservation volunteer project you will live in the volunteers' rooms within the tourist lodge that dominates Santa Lucia and work on a number of fascinating projects, which support the cooperative that protects the forest.  You might find yourself:

• cutting canes and making panela (sugar)
• helping to make shade-grown coffee the traditional way
  
• helping in the organic garden that provides most of the food for the volunteers and guests
• clearing paths in the forest that are essential for access, maintenance and bird watching (over 390 species, including toucans, tanigers, cotingas and the famous Cock of the Rock). 

At weekends, there'll be football and Ecuavolley - Ecuador's own version of volleyball - in the villages in the valley; sightseeing trips to Otavalo and its world-famous Indian market; a possible fact finding visit to discover how a community has been adversely affected by mining at Junin; and a big walk through the waterfalls! 

Independent Travel - 18 Days

After completing your Gap Year conservation project, it is now your chance to do some exploring of your own.  We will get you back to Quito, unless your plans take you in a different direction, and you will be free to follow your own dreams for a few days - with some other AVs, of course.  The Pacific, the Amazon, the Andes, the volcanoes, the Indian markets, the people...we don't think you're going to be stuck for things to do!  At the end of your free time, you will all meet up in Quito and head off on the group safari.

Trekking Adventure  - The Quilotoa Trek - 4 Days 

Now we reckon you might like to see some more of Ecuador's more remote and beautiful sights.  Thus, you will join a four-day trek of about 40km that will take you through some of the most unspoilt and unvisited parts of the country.  You will walk, ride (horses or bikes) and clamber to a high point of 3800m.  You will stay in basic, community lodges and visit one or two indigenous Indian markets along the way.   Check out  Andean Face for details.

Home or Continue?

At the end of this period, the scheme will formally end and you will be free to continue your travels or use your return ticket to fly home.

And Afterwards...

If you're like 99% of those who have been before you, you'll agree that it will have been the best four months of your life so far. You'll find leaving difficult ... and returning easy!  We say that "Once an AV, always an AV!" What this means is that you will be joining an exclusive club that will be there for you to help out if you ever get into difficulties and will always be pleased to see you again in Ecuador. As an AV, we hope your relationship with us will continue long after your initial time in Ecuador.

Ecuador Rainforest Conservation Itinerary

Ecuador Rainforest Conservation Dates and Costs 

Ecuador Rainforest Conservation Facts

Useful Stuff to know about volunteering in Ecuador

If you need some help and want to talk about your plans to volunteer, please Make an enquiry