Take a Gap Semester Abroad in South America

Peru:

Join our staff in Cusco, Peru. For the first two weeks, you’ll have daily Spanish lessons and tours of the local sights. At the same time, you'll join community events to teach and care for disadvantaged families. You can help with renovation work for classrooms and local facilities. 

After two weeks, visit the magnificent lost city of Machu Picchu! After several days of hiking and exploring ruins, your group will travel to depart to the Amazon Rainforest.

You'll travel to Puerto Maldonado. From here, take a boat ride deep into the Amazon Rainforest, where you will live and work at the Taricaya Conservation Project. Care for animals, support their release programme and help with farming and maintenance. You'll also conduct research and collect turtle eggs from riverbanks.

Your Conservation Work In The Amazon Rain Forest Will Focus On: 

Data Collection

By observing and recording details about the species you see during surveys, you’ll help us better understand how to protect them. This type of work can include: 

• Bird censuses conducted from a canopy platform
• Collecting video footage using camera traps
• Recording data on species characteristics during trail hikes

With the help of your work, we produce a technical report every year to demonstrate our environmental impact. The data for these reports comes directly from our volunteers’ daily observations. Thanks to this work, Taricaya is increasingly recognised internationally as a research centre. It has contributed a number of important research papers at international conferences, especially in the field of ornithology.

Animal Release Program

At Taricaya, we run an animal release program. This work involves our project partner, Animal Defenders International (ADI). ADI confiscates illegal pets or circus animals, including Amazon rainforest monkeys. We then rehabilitate these rainforest animals at the rescue centre, and release them into the wild if possible. These are usually endangered species like scarlet macaws, whose populations are steadily decreasing in the Amazon. 

You’ll help with feeding these animals and doing general maintenance. This includes tasks like cleaning enclosures or repairing fences. Although this may sound like menial work, it’s a chance to get up close to beautiful wildlife, while also helping prepare them for a life of freedom. For animals raised in captivity who can’t be released, you’ll be helping to give them the quality of life they deserve. 

Breeding Program

You’ll also help with our turtle breeding program and do things like patrolling riverbanks for turtle nests, collecting the eggs, and incubating them at the centre. This protects them from poachers. When the eggs hatch, watching hatchlings scurry across the sand making their way to water is a heart-warming moment! It also makes a huge impact on the populations of these species in the wild. 

You’ll also help with catching and breeding endangered butterflies. Our butterfly catching methods are completely safe and leave the butterflies unharmed. We can then house them in optimal conditions for our rainforest animal research, help them breed, and study their behaviour.

Pilot Farm

We have a pilot farm where we work on developing and perfecting sustainable farming techniques. We then teach local people about sustainable farming to reduce the negative impact of farming in the area. Your role is to tend the crops and help us raise awareness about sustainable farming. Sustainable farming will make Amazon Rainforest reforestation much easier.

We also run a mahogany program. We grow mahogany trees close together and study them. This particular rainforest habitat project shows local loggers that this is a cost-effective alternative to cutting down trees from the rainforest. We are also able to share the timber from these trees to use in production. You will help with maintaining the plantation and taking measurements.

Raise Awareness

We work to raise awareness about conservation on both a local and a global level. Through research and publications, Taricaya provides groundbreaking data that draws attention to the work we’re doing in the Amazon rainforest and its ecosystems. You’ll be involved in collecting this data and contributing to large-scale research work.

You can also help with raising awareness about conservation in local communities. For example, you could run a recycling competition in a local school. Or you could conduct a workshop on the small things people can do to combat climate change.

Learn more about our Animal Rehab in the Amazon Rainforest 

Galapagos Islands:

You'll fly to San Cristobal and support the Giant Tortoise and Sea Lion Conservation project in this unique location. Our partnership with the Galapagos National Park gives us exclusive access to the wilderness Darwin once studied. The work is hands-on, with the added benefit of learning from expert conservationists. You’ll do things like:

• Monitor and survey wildlife, including Giant Tortoises at a breeding centre, and sea lions and birds out in the wild
• Help control invasive animal species that threaten the indigenous wildlife, which is critical for environmental stability
• Eradicate alien plant species and help local plants thrive
• Support the community by participating in beach clean-ups and raising awareness of how people can protect animals and the environment

Learn more about our conservation efforts in the Galapagos Islands

During your final two weeks here, you'll also have the chance to volunteer with children on the island. Help children learn through play, run educational games and teach English. You can also work with small groups of kids in the community for sports coaching.

Childcare

The biggest focus of our Childcare Project in Ecuador is ensuring that young kids learn the skills they need to thrive once they start school. We work in overcrowded and understaffed kindergartens, giving teachers extra support in the classroom. In addition to teaching Early Childhood Development, our volunteers also teach basic English and encourage the kids to practice good hygiene. 

Children learn through play, so you can do things like:

• Plan and run educational activities, games, and arts and crafts
• Teach songs and rhymes so kids can practice and remember the English they learn

You don’t need previous experience working with kids, we’ll provide training, workshops, and resources so you’ll have everything you need to do the work. 

Read more about supporting Early Childhood Development in Ecuador

Teaching & Sports Coaching

On your gap semester abroad in Ecuador, you’ll be able to add real classroom and sports coaching work experience to your resume. If you’re thinking about pursuing a career as a teacher, this is a great way to test the waters before putting in the time and effort to qualify to teach.  

Our Teaching Project has a lot of variety. A big part of your experience will be teaching English to school kids, but you can also participate in a program where you teach adults. 

Sports coaching takes place at a community sports club, and you can teach sports like soccer and basketball, and do activities like Zumba. You’ll work with small groups of kids. 

Read more about Teaching and Sports Coaching in Ecuador