Gap year & Travel News

The 2 Ecuador Teams have now, in the spirit of 1990′s Girl Power, become 1 as the 6 weekers flew off for the next stage of their adventures and the hardcore 10 weekers (Hannah, Izzy, Harvey, Georgie, Ellie, Alice, Jessie, Mark, Keiran and Lou) headed for the hills/Andes for the final phase of the Ecuador [...]

Keep up to date with the goings on of our Ecuador project hosts here.

The Rainforest – Leaves, massages and more rice than you can shake a stick at… So we left Quito early on Sunday morning. We´d gone out for dinner the night before in a torrential downpour so a few of my clothes were slightly damper than I´d hoped but I was to soon get used to [...]

Sofie’s Team @ the Coast: Emily, Caroline, Eliza, Alexa, George, Catherine, Kieran, Emily, Georgie and Hannah Kauffman. Sofie´s group went to the coastal town of Mompiche for the weekend after their second week in Caimito. Alexa and Catherine decided to stay in Atacames as Catherine is having some trouble with a bank card and they [...]

Sofie’s Team @ the Coast: Emily, Caroline, Eliza, Alexa, George, Catherine, Kieran, Emily, Georgie and Hannah Kauffman. Hello! We’re all in Atacames at the moment where we’ve spent the weekend on the beach. Everyone’s fine and work at Caimito has been going well. The team have been working hard all week on the school building, [...]

Hello from Summery Quito! Just a quick message to let you all know that all 20 Leap volunteers arrived in Ecuador without any hitches. We’ve kept them pretty busy this week and depsite their combined jet lag all made it to the project briefing on Wednesday, went out for a delicious sample of Ecuadorian cuisine [...]

Hi everyone in chilly England…just to warm you up we thought we’d let you know it’s a sunny 27 degrees here in Ecuador! Sofie the team leader has been in touch to say that the team are getting on well in Caimito, their final phase (how has it passed so quickly!?) and they  seem to [...]

The Leap’s partner in Ecuador is Yanapuma, an NGO (Non-Government Organisation) based in Quito. Yanapuma Foundation is an Ecuadorian and UK registered charity working together with local and international partners to bring about lasting change for the people of Ecuador. Here’s a glimpse at their 2009 Annual Report by the lovely Andy Kirby, Executive Director: [...]

How can the first 3 weeks have passed so quickly! It’s hard to believe the Team’s first phase in the Andes is finished. As for the work they got done in Chilcabamba, the guys had a really good (and tough) first two weeks of digging holes and mixing cement….which has made for good bonding! They [...]

Hello! One week in and the January Ecuador Team (Will, Gemma, Briony, Chris, Flora, Sam and Yvonne) are doing well. They all arrived without any hitches on the Monday flight, on the Tuesday they had a Spanish class followed by a yummy Ecuadorian lunch and then I gave them the health, safety and cultural presentation [...]