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Name: Cecile Derny
Gap year project: Culture & Language Experience in Ecuador / Galapagos Island Giant Tortoise Volunteer
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Dear Matt and Alicia,
As promised, I'm sending you my feedback about my experiences in Ecuador.
The contact with Real Gap Experience before I left:
I felt very well welcome as soon as I contacted you. You always answered my emails quickly, giving me all the information and assistance I needed. The pre-departure package I received by mail was well written. I already had experience abroad and I appreciated the culture shocks information for example. I also very much appreciated your flexibility on planning and organizing my trip; I could choose the dates and options I wanted.
The departure:
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Week 1 in Quito: (July 30th to August 06th)
I had a pretty long trip (26 hours) because I changed flights many times. But when I arrived In Quito at night, somebody from the school was there to pick me up. So everything went ok. The host family Mother was extremely friendly and had everything ready for me to sleep. She was used to host students from all around the world, she has been a host family for 14 years!
The day after, she accompanied me for the first time to the school, where I met Patricia and her sister Miriam. I had Spanish lessons for four hours each day and they had been very useful to improve my Spanish speaking and understand skills.
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The teacher was very nice and he showed me about the old town and Quito too. So I felt ok that week, not having any problems. Miriam also really helped me for everything and she was very friendly and patient. She offered for me to stay in a host family in Santa Cruz (Galapagos) for my last week of holidays and organized everything for me.
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Week 2 - 4 - “Giant Tortoises project” in Isabela: (August 07th to August 26th)
The trip to reach the island was such an adventure: I left Quito at 07.00 of the morning and arrived almost 10 hours later!! Taxi, plane (with a stop in another town), Pullman, boat, jeep, another boat and finally another jeep to arrive to my host family's hostel in Isabela. But Miriam had explained everything to me before and I arrived without any problem; my host dad was also there in the harbour to wait for me. |
There were 5 other volunteers the first week. I enjoyed everything in Isabela. I won't explain everything I did otherwise it would be too long, but I loved walking, snorkelling, relaxing, bird and wildlife watching, etc… Puerto Vilamil is a very small village, very calm, with very friendly people. There is not much to do in the evenings but for me it was perfect. The landscapes and the beach are wonderful. The host family was very nice and were really accommodating when it came to food, I'm a vegetarian and I never had any problem with the food, all three host families knew it before I arrived.
The project with the tortoises:
For a positive experience on this programme, I would recommend the following things.
1. The students have to be really interested about animals and tortoises issues
2. The student should have a little experience on working with animals, or at least to know what to expect
3. The student should speak or at least understand some Spanish
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If one of these three conditions is missing, it's ok anyway to participate to the project of course, but the student may not enjoy his/her experience so much.
I love animal protection projects so I really was interested about the centre issues and I really believe that this is the only way they have to protect this species. Everything that I had to do with tortoises was interesting. Actually I was sometimes disappointed about working only in the morning, I wanted to stay there all day. The hours of volunteering were from 8 to 12 of the morning. |
But the most important thing for me has been to be able to speak with the staff members (they didn't speak a word of English). They really care about their work, there were three: the veterinary Byron, the director of the park Fernando and another employee Oscar. I had so much fun with them, we laughed so much and with the jokes and positivity, even the difficult works can become fun. By speaking with them, I could interact, ask questions and through them, I really got involved about the centre issues.
Being curious also helps them to understand that you care. But then I also was very lucky because the period was good and they offered me to work with the eggs (they do it once every 6 months) and with the wild tortoises in some refugee in the mountain (they go there once every year). When I left, I just wanted to cry. I loved this project. I took hundreds of pictures of the tortoises and I created a strong friendship with the staff members. Actually the voluntary work was the best part of my Galapagos experience.
Week 4 Santa Cruz: (from August 27th to September 1st)
Santa Cruz is bigger and the language school in Quito had only one host family contact in Puerto Ayora, so we were pretty many volunteers there and the house was very dynamic. I guess this host family was the best of the three I met. So friendly and fun because younger, with children too. This week was a week of holidays, so of course I really enjoyed it and I visited many places.
Thank you for everything. Through Real Gap Experience, my dream became true.
Hugs
Cecile
 Further information on the Culture and Language Experience in Ecuador
Further information on the Galapagos Islands Giant Tortoise Volunteer
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