Overview
Calling all adventurous spirits! This amazing and varied placement gives you the chance to experience three wildly different environments and four incredible volunteer projects in Eastern Venezuela, making a real difference to the lives of it’s indigenous communities.
Travel with the whole team from the white sands and warm Caribbean waters of Playa Colorada, onto the lush pineapple plantations of Caripe learning Spanish along the way for the ultimate Latin American experience.
Starting at the coast, you will spend your first 4 weeks working on two volunteer projects – renovating a famous palm-fringed beach called ‘Playa Melisa’ located on the beautiful island of Arapito, and running an after-school fun club for local kids.
Then move upland onto Caripe for your final 2 weeks, where you’ll help to restore mountain trails and breathtaking bat caves whilst working on a reforestation project to protect indigenous tree species.
To brush up your language skills and help you on the projects, 10 hours per week intensive group Spanish lessons will kick off as soon as you arrive.
How you help
Helping Who
Mochima National Park and Guacharo National Park , local communities
Helping How
Playa Colorada, Conservation Project 1
- Assist with educating the general public and promoting environmental issues.
- Restoring existing beach shelters.
- Clearing and tidying up the beach including near-by reefs.
- Building and controlling the use of rubbish bins.
- Creating a public footpath from the beach up the hill to a view point.
Playa Colorada, Community Project 2
- Work with the Jakara Club to create a two-week, after school, timetable of activities for the children of the community.
- Help to teach kids English and sports, health and hygiene.
- Organise games for the younger children focusing on team-play and inter-personal skills.
- Run classes on marine conservation awareness.
- Teach English evening classes for adults in the community.
Caripe, Conservation Project 3
- Plant trees and clear walk-ways in marked land areas.
- Promote reforestation in local schools and community centres urging the locals to take care of their environment, and understand the dangers of bad practice.
Caripe, Ecotourism Project 4
- Working within the National Park Guacharo you will help front a massive clean-up operation focusing on the capital area of the park, including the main cave ‘Cueva del Gaucharo’ and its surrounding areas.
- Clean footpaths inside the cave.
- Clear garbage in and around the area.
- Reclaim an overgrown existing footpath from the cave to a near-by waterfall.
During all four of the above projects intensive group Spanish tuition will be available – at least 10 hours/week, 2 hours each day Monday to Friday.
Your base
Your Team
Maximum of 25 volunteers per team and a minimum of 2 per team. Anyone aged 18-27 can participate. During the day you’ll be split up into project groups of about 8-10.
Accommodation and Meals
At the coast you will be staying in a gorgeous beach-side lodge with a variety of private sleeping quarters and shared shower and bathroom facilities – but the hub of the Lodge is the dining and recreational area which includes a popular bar, great for relaxing at the end of the day! Accommodation in Caripe will be in a basic Hacienda.
You will eat locally produced food which will generally be rice or pasta based with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Meat will usually be either chicken or fish. Vegetarians and other special dietary requirements are easily accommodated.
Weather
It is always hot and humid with temperatures constantly in early 30’s with high humidity although it cools down at night. July – November: Rainy season – tends to rain briefly in the afternoons.
Wildlife
At the coast you will see pelicans, terns, boobies, frigates, dolphins and large iguanas. Fish such as swordfish, various tuna, striped mullet and sea bass abound, and in the lower depths you can observe red snappers, groupers, grunt and reef sharks. Up country there is an abundance of birdlife and you might be lucky enough to see giant anteater, jaguar, giant otter, foxes, and a huge variety of monkeys and sloth.
Time In/Out
Time In
The whole team will fly out together to Barcelona International airport and be transferred by jeep to a Caribbean Lodge on Playa Colorada in the heart of Mochima National Park.
Activities take place 5 days per week for 6 - 8 hours each day with weekends free. Project hours are normally 8am to 3pm.
6 week programme: First four weeks are spent at beach carrying out projects 1 and 2, final two weeks at based at Caripe doing projects 3 and 4.
Time Out
You're weekends are free to travel.
Top Trips
Get your adrenaline kicks from learning to scuba dive and kitesurf or take a kayak into the bay to snorkel and paddle alongside the dolphins (and occasionally whales) that skip around the Caribbean. Visit the incredible scenery of the Angel Falls and Orinoco Delta. Go climbing at the professional wall at Playa Colorada for expert tuition and then test your newly acquired abseiling skills at a nearby waterfall...
Costs/Dates
Dates
2012 for 6 weeks
2nd July
2013 for 6 weeks
1st July
Costs
Up until 31st August 2012
£1982
Up until 31st August 2013
£1982
Includes:
Selection and briefing on all aspects of the scheme
24-hour emergency back-up, management and support by UK team and in-country Placement Manager, with reliable communications and infrastructure.
Safety and induction course on arrival
Barcelona Airport pick up and transfer to and from the placements. Transport between project phases.
Donation to the project communities – currently £80, will go directly towards materials for the projects you are working on.
Park fees whilst carrying out project work.
Spanish lessons
Not included:
International flights, internal flights (not applicable), travel insurance, visas (not required for 90 days), medical expenses (reclaimable through travel insurance), soft drinks/beer etc. Volunteers will be responsible for any independent/weekend travel expenses e.g. food and accommodation whilst away from the placement location and any excursions not listed above. We are happy to arrange flights through STA Travel who are well known for offering good value.
Donation To The Community
Included in the cost of the scheme is a donation set at the level indicated above. The donation is sent directly to the communities who will decide in conjunction with your host what it is to be spent on. It helps, alongside other funding, to pay for the materials they need to continue project work. This will be done in a transparent way ensuring you leave a lasting legacy. Given the average monthly wage is approximately £80 per month the donations do actually go far and in the past Leapers have paid for second hand computers, first aid supplies, children’s clothing, developing health care etc.
