Starting a 6-month trip of South America, I'm looking for resources that suit my needs.
Hello all,
Beginning in January I will be traveling with my girlfriend through South America starting in Venezuela and heading south, looping around and coming north through Brazil. I am interested in creating a non-traditional experience with lots of volunteering, couchsurfing, WWOOFing, and perhaps some serious hiking. The goal is to experience as much of the continent without being too inundated by tourism while getting to know the volunteer and activism opportunities that are available.
I'm currently looking for resources regarding good places to go, volunteer and activist organizations that appeal to my tastes (I tend to be quite liberal in my activism), and suggestions or anecdotes regarding positive experiences!
We won't be afraid to visit Colombia or Bolivia (using caution when necessary, of course) and will be flying into Caracas fully aware of the crime issues that city has. Thank you for your suggestions!
Reply to this Hi Samuel, I don't really know what couchsurfing or WWOOFing is, but if you're looking to do some hiking while in SA then Argentina has some great options. The provinces of Jujuy and Salta (North West) offer fantastic landscapes for hiking. If you venture further south (not sure if you plan to go that far) then there are many services available to go hiking on the glaciers. Perito Moreno is one of the most well known for this. All professionally organised by local tourism companies and national park rangers to guide you.
I'm sorry that I can't be much help re. volunteer org's in Argentina but I'm sure they are plentiful in Brazil, Equador, Bolivia to name a few.
I hope you enjoy your experience.
Reply to this thank you for your help,
for those who dont know (i guess i should have clarified!):
Couchsurfing is a website that allows for people to network and offer free lodging during travel (on their couches. surfing is not actually involved.) and generally helps travelers find people they can relate to or talk to in order to get to know the area they are traveling in better.
WWOOFing stands for world-wide working on organic farms and is an international organization of farms and travelers who enter into agreements of 2 weeks or more during which travelers are given free room and board and in exchange work on the farms for their entire stay. Agreements vary, but overall its a revolutionary and intimate way to get to know the people whose countries you are traveling in.
I guess what we're looking for is less of a professionally organized trip and more of one that we can be more free-form in and find a way to "get away" from tourism and just TRAVEL.
We will be going as far south as we can (or want to, I personally am intensely interested in Tierra Del Fuego) but our itinerary may vary.
Thanks for all your help!
Reply to this Hi
Thanks for filling me. I now feel totally enlightened. I never knew these things existed, so thanks again.
Ushuaia and TDF are on my to do list aswell. I'm actually a Brit living in Argentina (Northwest) so if it's farm work you're after there are plenty of those here. And now that the farmer crisis is over (you may have heard that there had been a stand off between the farmers and the government that lasted 4 months over rises in export taxes) I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding what you're looking for. There are plenty of estancias here (farm houses with working land) in Argentina. I guess the best place to find out which ones are affiliated to the WWOOFing programme would be to check out their website or get in touch directly with the national federations here and submit them an email requesting information. (Knowledge of Spanish will help you enormously).
Let me know if you'd like me to pass you any details on this type of thing here in Argentina. Websites, email etc. (I'll do my best to dig around for you).
It's such a beautiful and vast country, you'll have an enlightening experience however long you stay!
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