Volunteer opportunities

A great chance to experience life in a remote, beautiful Andean community, sharing your own values, skills and lifestyle with local people, and learning about theirs.
Accommodation with local families, usually after an introductory period in the community guest house.
Length of placement anything from a week onwards. There are 3 main types of placement: teaching, farm work, and ecology/conservation.

 Overall purpose of volunteer project: to provide a fantastic experience of authentic Latin America for volunteers, and to build the confidence of the local children and adults in their ability to enjoy a wide range of professions, and to prosper from sources of sustainable income that do not threaten their traditional way of life.  We'd like to slow down deforestation in Intag, and encourage local people to think twice about the long term effects of copper mining on the wonderful natural resources of Intag.

Cost: Teaching placements:$40 per week; Farm work/ecological placments: $45 per week.  (the difference takes into account the great benefit for local children that  volunteer teachers bring).  All money paid direct to the family that you are staying with.  Cost includes all meals and accomodation.  Note: these low prices assume a sincere interest on the part of the volunteer in local work: those wishing to visit Intag as ecotourists are directed towards the ecotourist section of this website.  A guide price for ecotourists on homestay visits to local families is $10 per day for meals and accomodation.

Other Costs: Most volunteers (not all!)  like to spend a day or two at the start of their placement in the guest houses of Ned, while they are shown around the area and introduced to the people.  A stay in the guest houses costs $20 per day for volunteers, to include  meals, accomodation and visits, and to help pay for the website and internet charges. We hope that volunteers understand the reason for this cost, which is important in order to keep the project running.

And: most volunteers like to buy their own sunday lunch in the village, $1.75 for a good 2-course meal.

Finally: A pair of rubber boots ( not always necessary for teaching volunteers who decide to work in the village school) Cost: $8.0.  Great for muddy paths, and protects legs from biting insects.

We offer help with Spanish, and  horse riding lessons free of change as part of the placement.

The one qualification that we consider essential is to be open to the unfamiliar (see heading "the intagtour philosophy"). Volunteers are expected to try to "fit in" with the local way of life. Potential volunteers need to be aware that Intag is a remote part of Ecuador, and that conditions here are generally  clean but basic: for example, warm or even cold showers are the norm here; food is good, but cannot rival the variety of modern "supermarket" cultures. Note also that this is a remote part of Ecuador: internet access is fine in the village of Cuellaje, but does not exist in the other parts of the parish. Please don't expect the same relatively luxurious living conditions as you would normally receive in rural Europe or North America - clean but simple accomodation is the norm.

There are no ATMs in Cuellaje (nearest ATMs in Otavalo, 4 hours by bus, so please bring enough cash to cover your costs until you are ready for a well-earned break in Otavalo).

There are no complicated application procedures, because every volunteer can bring something to the community, even if it is only taking 5 minutes to talk to a child. You will also need basic spanish, or the willingness to learn spanish. Volunteers motivated to learn spanish are usually astonished at their speed of progress.

Some volunteers commit to a placement before travelling, while others prefer to spend a few days with us, perhaps visiting local schools and families, before deciding if they would enjoy spending time in this corner of Ecuador. Both approaches are fine, this is a relaxed part of the world, where people are used to changes of plan. 

You can get an independent view of what it's like to work as a volunteer for Intagtour by visiting  our blog http://ecotouristadventure.wordpress.com

We encourage all volunteers to post comments on this blog, (positive and negative!) so that it is a meaningful resource for those considering a volunteer placement with Intagtour.

The archive section of the blog is recommended for the photos, and for the same reason we recommend volunteers to browse our companion website,  www.cloudforestadventure.com

Note: On the basis that most volunteers will spend a significant portion of their time in Ecuador travelling as tourists, we recommend that Intagtour volunteers enter Ecuador on a standard 90 day tourist visa, which is free.  Volunteers wishing to spend more than 90 days in Ecuador can buy an additional 6 month visa for $240 at the Quito immigaration office (10 de agosto y Carrion). For more info, visit  www.mmrree.gob.ec   telf: (593 2)299 3200. 

Some volunteers with a return flight from Quito avoid paying for a 6 month visa by leaving Ecuador a few days before their free 90 days expire, enjoying travels in Peru or Colombia, and then returning to Ecuador shortly before their return flight date. This is perfectly legal and a good strategy for those wishing to get to know more of Latin America.

Arrival in Quito:  Volunteers may like to be met at Quito airport and/or to spend their first nights in Ecuador at the beautiful home of Chari Agea and Felix Castaneda, good friends of the intagtour project. Chari is an artist and acupuncturist, and Felix is a professional musician with the Orchestra of Andean Instruments.  Chari  and Felix are frequent visitors to Intag, and can provide detailed information on bus travel to the area. They are also wonderful cooks (mainly vegetarian) You can contact them by email (preferably in spanish) to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    Telephone:  2236667.  A stay with Chari and Felix is much recommended as a friendly, safe and informative start to your time in Ecuador.

Costs

15$ room and lodging, including breakfast
 3.50$ lunch
 3$ Evening meal
14$ Reception at airport and taxi journey to home, nighttime.
13$ Taxi travel between home and bus terminal, daytime

Teaching

A range of opportunities to suit your own interests and enthusiasms: We usually work with three local schools, to give volunteers a variety of climate and teaching style:
San Antonio school has 25 children aged 5 to 11. Profesora Carmen has especially requested help in the following areas; sports, English, music, arts, mathematics and dance.  Rosario school  (Director Profesor Tirson Rueda, assistant Profe Blanca) is a friendly, well organised school where English teaching is top priority for volunteers.  La Loma school (director Cecilia Alvarez) is an energetically run school which also places priority on English, and with an additionlal request for craftwork, and "any other skills/interests that the volunteer wishes to share". In general, although English teaching is the favourite, because children are so behind in this subject, there is almost no limit to the subject you teach, the important thing is your own enthusiasm and willingness to spend time with the children. Note that since 2011 we also work with Napoles, San Alberto, and La esperanza schools.

Cuellaje village school has 270 children aged 5 to 16. Here the priority is again English teaching, though here the emphashis is on english for tourism; and again, other subjects are welcome by arrangement with the head teacher.  

Finally, adult education within the community, teaching English and/or sharing other skills. Examples: sports, craftwork, cookery, mechanics, agriculture, health care: almost any skill or interest that you may care to share would be welcome.
A basic knowledge of Spanish is necessary for nearly all teaching placements, although an English-Spanish interpreter is available.

Please note that the long school vacation in this part of Ecuador is from mid January to mid April.  At this time of year, teaching placements are limited to vacation classes for children, and adult classes.

 contact the project coordinator direct at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

telephone (including national and international codes) 00 593 6 3017543

How to get to San Antonio valley and farm

The nearest town is Otavalo, which is about 2 hours north of the capital, Quito. Otavalo hosts Latin america's biggest textile and crafts fair every Saturday, and is well worth a stop-over.

From Otavalo by bus to the village of Cuellaje is a journey of about 4 hours along an unpaved road that winds its way through the mountains. There is one bus a day, which leaves at 1pm from Otavalo bus terminal, and is run by a company called Transportes Otavalo. On Fridays and Sundays there is also a morning bus (8am, recommended).

To make sure of a seat, buy tickets several hours, or even a day in advance. Note that weekends are especially busy times for this journey. The route is beautiful but tiring, and the morning buses are recommended to avoid the late afternoon mists. The cost is $2.60.

We offer to accompany visitors by bus from Otavalo. Please contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more details. Note that the Intagtour project does not own a car, and relies upon public transport.

2 Days: Culture and Cloud forests

Day 1: Local people and their way of life

8-9 am  Leisurely breakfast, accompanied by hummingbirds and clucking hens, followed by a short walk through the woods to meet your first guide for the day, who will show you the dairy farm and help you to hand milk the cows and make cheeses. Photo opportunities abound!

11am  Meet your next guide, who will take you on horseback (or on foot if you prefer) to a nearby organic vegetable farm.  After an excellent lunch served at the farm, skillfully prepared by Marcela Torres using organic, home produced ingredients, you will enjoy a really first-class demonstration of the pleasures and perils of producing abundant, quality food to feed the whole family.  We are proud to place emphasis on ‘hands-on’ practice rather than just demonstration, and are confident that you will thoroughly enjoy your visit to this farm.

2pm  Brief but fun-packed visit to the community trout farm, where you will take part in the organized chaos of sport fishing, Ecuadorean style!

3pm  A fine conclusion to the day`s activities; you are treated to a guided tour of the trees, birds and wildlife in the beautiful cloud-forests adjoining the guest houses, before returning to a supper of trout, grilled over a wood fire.