A land of ancient civilisation, vibrant colour, immersive culture and stunning landscapes, Peru is one of the world’s finest adventure travel destinations. Trekking the renowned Inca Trail to the heights of Machu Picchu should be on any explorers’ bucket list, but Peru is also home to a further 11 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 12 National Parks, providing ample opportunity … Read More
Backpacking South America: Your guide to crossing the continent
What currencies are needed to travel in South America? When you plan to visit several countries in South America you can, in a positive way, look forward to get to know a lot of different currencies. Not a single one of the local currencies is really well known around the world. Ever heard of the Paraguayan Guarani? The variety here … Read More
When is the best time to visit South America?
The enormous continent of South America is a well sought-after location for gap year travelers. As such, we often get asked: When the best time to join the South America Explorer program? However, in such a sizeable continent filled with a large variety of ecosystems and altitudes, this question can be a bit tricky to answer. During the first three … Read More
The Aftermath of Our Machu Picchu Trek
Stay up-to-date with this summary of the third week in South America, courtesy of the legendary Klara in Cuenca. This week we spent our last couple of days in Peru in a small town called Mancora along the northern beaches, very close to the border to Ecuador. We arrived Monday morning after an 18 hour bus ride from Lima with bags full … Read More
The Challenges of the Inca Toilets
Stay up-to-date with this summary of the second week in South America for our gap year travellers. On Jan 22 2017 we began our trek through the Andes towards Machu Picchu. A faint sense of apprehension hung in the air as we neared the mouth of our trail. The challenges ahead were all that were mentioned at breakfast, particularly that of the … Read More
Adapting to Excitement in Cusco
Everybody arrived in Cusco after a long journey. Although we all felt really tired we still were super excited to be here. 18 Gapforcers from 5 different countries ready to explore South America. We all were…
We’re Going To Miss Waking Up In The Jungle
After a fun weekend saying goodbye to Raul in Puyo, we headed back into the jungle for our final week, but this time staying with Estaban and his family in the Shuar Tribe.
On the first night we were given our Shuar names, I am now Shakap…
We Carved Our Own Spears
After the animal sanctuary, we spend a night in Puyo and the next afternoon we headed off back into the Amazon to stay with the Shuar tribe. As it turned out tribes aren’t what they used to be.
We were actually staying with an Amazonian community. They still lived quite basic, but not as “tribal” as we had imagined. We had access to electricity; we had a kitchen of sorts which we stocked with food from a nearby town (we even had a fridge!); there was a shower, yet it was so weak we still used the river to wash in…
Don’t Let The Zika Virus Stop You From Taking A Gap Year In South America
Anyone who has recently been considering taking a gap year in South America or travelling to any region of Central America or the Caribbean in recent months has undoubtedly been advised of the potential new health threat – The Zika virus. The Zika virus has made headlines globally due to its rapid spread. At first these headlines may indeed sound alarming, but what’s the … Read More
Meet Nibbler – Our Team Mascot!
We had a great start to the week with an awesome weekend in Banos. After our first week in at the animal rescue centre we were happy to check in to a hostel with a cozy bed! As soon as we arrived we saw signs for bungee jumps, rafting and mountain biking so we knew it was going to be an adrenaline filled weekend.
- Page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2