Gapping Alone?

A mygapyear alumni shares her story & review of Rustic Pathways

One of our gappers shared some insights with us about her experience with Rustic Pathways. More relevant to this post is her decision to join a tour group alone.  How you want to spend your gap year, either locally or globally, is a tough and personal decision.  Many individuals that we work with are travelling alone for the first time with out family or other friends; therefore, it is a can be smart plan to go with a trusted tour organization.  There are thousands out there - this is why it is so important to read reviews, speak to others who have gone on trips with them and work with  people you can learn to trust - like mygapyear! There are lots of perks going with a group; for example, you will meet people from all over the world.  It is a great way to plan future trips and experiences.  There is often a balance of group and personal time.  Our gapper shares more reasons below for taking a gap experience with a group. Please enjoy the wonderful write up from our gapper and her trip to Peru! 

I have been back from Peru for nearly a month now but with the trip and the country still fresh in my mind I wanted to take the time to put down in words how pleased I was with the month Rustic Pathways organized for me. Going into the trip, I was definitely a little apprehensive---I was the first mygapyear client to travel with Rustic, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. And to be fair, the first few days were tough: it wasn't clearly stated on the Rustic Pathways website, but I soon found out that because I was doing the April trip (the third month in which they offer gap trips) I was actually joining a group that had already been together for the past two months. As opposed to being in the same boat as everyone else, I was one of only a few "newbies" to the group, and that was definitely a challenge---not only was I in a new country, but I also had to deal with the fact that everyone already knew each other!

In a way, though, I'm glad I went into the trip not knowing that everyone would already be friends, because if I had known that beforehand I might not have gone and I would have missed out on one of the most exciting months of my life! The trip was an adventure/volunteer excursion throughout the Andes inPeru, and I found it to be the perfect mix of exploring, volunteering, free-time, and relaxing. We started the trip around Cusco and Ollantaytambo, a place known as the "living city of the Incas", and it was the perfect introduction to the country's background and culture. We got the chance to live with and learn from local families, but also didn't miss out on the main tourist attrations the country has to offer---Machu Picchu, the Andes, Lake Titicaca, and more. I wouldn't have changed a thing about the itinerary.

I also really liked the fact that our group was smaller than most gap trips are---there were only eight of us (plus the most fabulous guide!) in total, and we really got to know each other really well. At times it was hard to deal with everyone---sometimes people didn't feel like working, or other times half the group wasn't feeling well---but that is only to be expected, and our guide couldn't have dealt with things any better. I also found it hard at times being the only Canadian in the group---Rustic is an American organization and everyone was from the States---but it proved to be a good conversation starter on more than one occasion! And for the most part the group did get along really well, and I have made friends that I hope to keep in touch with in the future.

The trip was definitely worth the cost and if I had the chance, I wouldn't hesitate to travel with Rustic again. I feel as if I really got to know Peru as a country and had the chance to help out a lot, and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

WHAT ABOUT TAKING A GAP YEAR?

Welcome back, readers.  This is the final posting in our three week series.  We have explored myths about gap years, what happens to an individual's academic journey and finally, we want to share stories from some of our current gappers.  Below is an entry from a gapper who is travelling in South America.  Our clients have traveled all over the world and Canada.  Blogging is a great way to say in touch with family and friends while abroad.  mygapyear values the unique opportunity blogging can add to an individual's gap year experience.  It is a great tool to capture learning, stories and a fun way to stay in touch with family and friends. 

Part Three:  What could you do on a gap year? 

Blog excerpt from a current blogging gapper!

Hey all—

I am proud to say that we have all returned safe and sound to civilization after two amazing weeks in the Amazon. All a little dirty and smelly, we can't help but be proud of all the hard work we’ve accomplished. 

Our first week was spent in the small village of Campo Cocha and our second week was spent just up the river volunteering at a rain forest reserve run by the Arajuno Jungle Lodge. 

In Campo Cocha, we lived with local families in quite rustic conditions. These local families were Quichua, the indigenous people to this region. 

Our mornings were spent working and spending time with our families while our afternoons were spent running a "kids camp" for all the children of the village

Standing in the Buttresses of the ¨Tree of Life¨

. The work that filled our mornings included: collecting cacao and opening the fruits with a machete to collect the coco beans inside, chopping wood, fishing, collecting yucca and plantains, panning in the river for gold, and much more. 

After a hearty lunch of some variation of yucca and plantains, we set off to go to the center of the village to run the kids camp.  Some of us had to walk as far as a kilometre and a half (about one mile) each way. 

We ran the kids camp by doing a different theme of activities (arts, sports or science) each day. Whether it was painting wacky pictures with water colours, kicking a ball around a soccer field with 30 very enthusiastic and energetic little ones, or having slime fights, the kids always had us laughing and having a great time. 

After being exhausted from hard work in the mornings and chasing after kids all afternoon, we would return back to our host families to help prepare dinner and spend time together. We happily collapsed into our beds every night for a much deserved sleep. 

            A week flew by, and after a tearful goodbye with our families, we boarded a small motorized canoe and travelled up the river, deeper into the rain forest, to the Arajuno Jungle lodge for a week of ecological conservation work. 

Upon arrival, we discovered that our lodging was not nearly as rustic as our experience in Campo Cocha village had been

 Another Woman of the Village

Comments!

. Tom, the former Peace Corps trainer who owns and runs the lodge, had outfitted the beautiful hardwood and thatched roof buildings with nice furnishings, including a hammock for almost everyone in our group, a TV with a selection of DVDs, a stereo, and an ipod player --  all completely run by solar power. Even his water system was run by rain water he collected in reservoirs. It was truly an ecologically sustainable palace. 

However, pleasant lodging aside, our work was just as physically demanding as it had been in Campo Cocha. Tom, who works tirelessly to restore the Yellow Spotted Turtle populations of the river, had us chopping up bamboo with machetes, planting bamboo on the riverside and hauling bags of sand from a beach up to his enclosure of Yellow Spotted Turtles to provide them with sand to lay their eggs in. With four and a half hours of work every morning, we were all thankful to have our lazy afternoons of curling up in a hammock with a good book. 

            But now our time at the Arajuno Jungle Lodge has ended, and our time in the Amazon rain forest in general, and we are off to the bustling markets of Otavalo. It’s hard to believe that our time in South America is almost over and we’ll be seeing you all soon.

But until then—

Hope all is well back home.




Thank you for joining us on our three week exploration of taking a gap year.  Next week, we will begin a new series.  Please join us as we explore the foundations of  successful gap years.  

Gapper Reflection on the Impact of his Volunteering

Saturday:
I left costa rica at 930am. The bus ride was long and seemed to stretch for hours. It took about 2 hours to reach the border. After an hour to the border of costa rica, and another hour at the border to nicaragua I finally began my travels through nicaragua. It was overwhelming being back. Even after only being here a week, it was enough to make it feel like a second home. I had forgotten how truly beautiful nicaragua was, how welcoming and friendly the people are, and how it truly made me thankful for the opportunity to return so soon.

Upon my arrival we talked for hours about my experience between nicaragua and costa rica. I met her two dogs Quien and Rudo and the turtle who lives in her backyard. Bonnie is a saint, she moved to nicaragua and started bridges to community with a few others. She has never looked back. She's an inspiration to everyone. It felt so good to be back amongst companions who felt as I do towards the people of nicaragua.

Sunday:
This morning I awoke and went to see my sponsor family. They were overjoyed to see me. They said its rare for volunteers to come back and visit so they were truly grateful for both myself and what I'd done and coming back to see the final product. Julio, the father of the house is going to stop by bonnies tomorrow to talk and hang out.
In the afternoon adelia and I went to see the Ipica show. Its a horse parade. They march and dance their horses up the street to music it was really cool.
For dinner we went to grenada and ate at a fusion resturaunt, I'd remembered it from our experience in january. Then the power went out, yet again haha hurricane factor. So we played yahtzee in the dark haha it was lots of fun.

Monday:
Today I got to work on a house, it was the starting with digging and cement foundations only worked about an hour by the time I got there, but it was fun none the less. I really enjoyed it. I got back in time to help mix cement as well as organize the piles of wood.
 I missed the crew so it was good to see them all. After I got back I had a few things to take care of and then my sponsor julio came by for a few hours and we exchanged words of home, as best we could. Taught each other different words and talked of the pronounciatin similarities in certain words.
Its my last night here and I'm really going to miss it. Its truly magnificent place. Full of life and hope. I was once again told that I was an angel sent by god, that left me speechless. I am unable to truly grasp
the depth of the emotion they must feel. To me it was fundraising for a family I wanted to help, no major task really, yet for them its life altering.

Nicaragua is never far from my mind. It truly changes the way you view reality and at the same time being here can bring you true happiness. Coming down to build a home and raise money had us regarded as angels, to this day they still prayer for us. Imagine having such a great impact on
the lives of a family that they are speechless in their gratitude and when words come out they make you speechless with pride.

I am going to miss it the second I leave :( I'm not looking forward to leaving.

Blogging Gapper from South America

After our two day stay in La Paz, we set of on our journey to Rurrenabaque and the Amazon Basin. Our flight left La Paz at 7 a.m and landed in Rurrenabaque an hour later. When we landed we were surprised to see that there was no terminal, or building for that matter, rather there was just a landing strip and a few jeeps waiting to take us to our hostal. The rest of the day was spent exploring the town of Rurrenabaque, a small town located in the Amazon River Basin. The town was beautiful and surprisinly had more internet cafe´s then it did restaraunts. After having the balance of the day to walk around and explore the town, it was off to bed to get ready for our adventure.

We left Rurrenabaque early the next morning and drove for 3 hours to the town of Santa
Rosa, where we had lunch. The boat launch was 10 minutes away from the town and that is where we would begin our journey. The boats we travelled in were long, skinny and wooden, with a motor on
the back. They sat eight people in each, with a guide steering each boat. After loading our bags, we started heading down the river and immediately started to see animals such as Alligators, Tropical Birds, Monkeys and Capybarras, which are the largest rodents in the world. We boated for about 2 hours and then stopped and were given a chance to go swimming with the Pink Dolphins. The Pink Dolphins are fresh water river dolphins located in the Amazon River systems in South America. The dolphins were very shy and we really only saw them when the came up for air, but a few times a dolphin popped up 5 meters in front of you. After about a half an hour of swimming, we got back in our boats and headed off to our cabin where we would spend the next two nights. The facility we stayed at was very simple, it had a big cabin with ten beds for the boys, and a cabin of six and two for the girls. There were two bathrooms, a few showers, and a dinning room and kitchen. Each bed had a light blue mosqutio net attached to them, which succesfully kept out the bugs and gave everyone there on little sleeping oasis. Before dinner, we went back in the boats and went about ten minutes down the river to another cabin to watch the sunset. It was amazing to watch the sunset over the entire jungle, truly one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. As soon as the sun went down, we headed back to our homebase and had dinner, and the minute dinner was over, I climbed into my sleeping oasis and was out in a matter of seconds.

The next day, after breakfast, we went to hunt for Anacondas in the Pampas. We walked for two hours through tall grass, swamps, bushes, and hopped through fences before arriving at the area where the Anacondas were. The guides made us spread out in a long line that covered most of the area, and told us to walk slowly ahead and alret them if we saw any movement.We walked for about twenty minutues and were about to head to another area when a few people from another group yelled that they had found one. The entire group ran as fast as we could to see the snake. The Anaconda was 3 meters long and looked quite scared with thirty plus people taking pictures of it. We marvelled at the snake for a while and then started our long two hour trek back to our boats. We went back to our base and had lunch, followed by a three hour siesta. In the afternoon we went back to swim with the dolphins some more. After another half hour of swimming we went back to our cabin, had dinner, and went off to bed.

The next morning, there was an optional trip to go watch the sunrise in which most of the girls went and almost none of the boys went. Next on the agenda, after breakfast, was fishing for pirhana´s. Some of the group were very good at this, catching upwards of 7 fish. Other struggled catching only two (myself, one being about 3 inches long). After our morning fishing we went back to our base, packed up and headed back Rurrenabaque and to get ready for Copacabana and PERU!

Stay classy everyone,

Dalton

Where are Gappers going?

If you were taking a gap year and wanted to travel - where would you go?

For our Gappers, South America is a popular destination, as well as Spain and France. Other areas of interest are Costa Rica and India, Vietnam and Thailand. Favourite cool things to do are learn a language by living in the country with a homestay family or in your own apartment ( French or Spanish top the bill), volunteer teach, work in an orphanage, or save endangered animals like sea turtles.

At  a recent gathering of Gappers, some returning Gappers shared these travel tips:

Money :
• budget well, research costs of things ahead of time, then add extra for unexpected events
• don’t carry wads of money with you - just what you need for the day plus a bit extra - leave rest safe in your room
• contact your bank before you go to find out if you can use debit and/ or credit cards , and to let them know you are travelling ( so they don’t cancel the card thinking it might be stolen!)
• note down and take with you all your bank contact information - so you have it when needed

Safety:
• know your surroundings, know who you’re with
• safety in numbers, don’t let your guard down even when you have been in a place for a while
• trust your gut instincts, including being open to unexpected possibilities or adventures
Language barriers:
• you can get by with gestures and hand movements and a few words. 
• Once you are there for a while - you get better at the language, 
• try preparing cue cards with pictures and words of common things to show people what you need!
Other tips:
Have fun! Always expected the unexpected

So where did you go on your gap year? What did you do? Can you tell us about your experiences or share any words of wisdom?


Jules at mygapyear