Gap year & Travel News

“Hey Leapers! My name is Claire Brady. I am from Minneapolis, Minnesota and I am a student at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where I am studying Government and Environmental Studies. I have studied Spanish for 8 years and have spent time living in Luque, Paraguay as well as Xela, Guatemala. I am currently learning [...]

Hi from sunny Ecuador to everyone in the office! Our first week in the Rainforest consisted of gathering huge palm leaves, learning to fold them in a rather intricate way, and using said leaves to thatch the roof of the newest addition to the cultural center in the Tsachila community of Búa. We also had [...]

A week has already flown by and the Ecuador Leapers have settled into the hostel that will serve as their home for the next two weeks in the beautiful colonial city of Quito. Last weekend´s activities included climbing the shaky spire of the Basílica, roaming the colonial streets of Quito´s historic center, enjoying local blackberry [...]

Hi Alice, Just wanted to give you a litte update. The leapers spent two weeks working in Jakera Club and found it challenging but rewarding. They did sports classes in Jakera club, and are also starting to turn our large teachers binder into a more formal typed up version so it is more user friendly [...]

Hi all! The past week was packed as we took on the project of renovating the local play-park which had fallen into bad condition and was unsafe for children to play on. With much sawing, hammering, chiseling, and a new paint job, we recreated it to look and feel brand new! We added on a [...]

Hi Guy and everyone else in the office, We finished up the cabin! Yeah! And just in time for some tourists who stayed the night in the cabin the same day we finished it. This last week has been a whirlwind of work with hammers flying (not literally, don’t worry) and saws cutting, as well [...]

Hi, I’m Alex  – I’m in my second year studying History of Art at University, after taking a wonderful gap year with The Leap! My Gap Year began with The Leap in January 2009 when I jetted off to Ecuador (in South America) for 10 weeks on a team project. I spent some the most [...]

Hola everyone at The Leap! Since our last blog we have had a very exciting time here in Playa Colorada. It started with a big group of us from Jakera heading to Puerto La Cruz to watch the Caribes de Anzoutigue vs. Leones de Caracas baseball match which had an amazing atmosphere and we all [...]

These are some of the new faces working out in Ecuador to make sure you get the most out of your gap year experience. Lucas Emmerson is the volunteer coordinator at Yanapuma Foundation in Ecuador. His main responsibility is organizing the volunteer and group placements. In 2007 he completed his studies in International Development with [...]

To all of my wonderful friends in the Leap office in the UK, Thank you so much for the wonderful message on your website and for your emails of goodbye. You all beat me to it. I don´t really know how to express to you all how much I have loved working with the Leap [...]