The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life Part 5

More than 20,000 people live in La Cienega de la Virgen, a Cartagena barrio with no running water, let alone an infrastructure that can provide a good education. Mabel Penas, a social worker who started a school in this area with money from her own pocket, relies on the good hearts of volunteers to help her feed and educate a hundred children who attend Suenos de Libertad (Dreams of Freedom). For some of the students, the two meals they are fed at school each day represent the bulk of their diet.

As a volunteer with AFC, you'll distribute shoes and school supplies at Suenos de Libertad, teach English, plant trees, and update the library by building new shelves or painting the walls. At Villa Gloria, the other preschool where AFC sends volunteers, you'll teach English, help build a playground, and help stabilize this beachside school that suffers continuous problems with standing water during the rainy season. You might work on building or fixing fences or even constructing an addition to the school.

At Casa del Nino, the children's hospital, you'll interact with the young patients, dress up in costume to entertain them, and possibly paint murals or landscape the garden. Representatives from the Fundacion Cartagena Global will introduce you to children suffering from cystic fibrosis, and their medical team. In the United States, people with cystic fibrosis live on average to be more than 35 years old, but in Cartagena, the life expectancy for a cystic fibrosis patient is 14 to 16 years. Then, you will take some patients on an outing to the botanical garden.

AFC plans a full itinerary on this weeklong volunteer trip, equally balanced between working with children and partaking of Cartagena's rich bounty.

MUD IN YOUR EYE.

They call it the Volcano of Youth. Colombians who make the trip to soak in Volcan del Totumo, a volcano that spews warm mud, not hot lava, fill bottles with the ooze to take home. They swear by its medicinal properties.

Located between Cartagena and Barranquilla, this spewing cone of mineral mud is formed by decaying plant material and stands about six stories high. While there, most people opt for simply floating around in the thick muck that looks an awful lot like melted chocolate, and perhaps having a ma.s.sage. Locals provide bodywork and will also take pictures for you, among other services. Then you descend to rinse off the mud in the lake below (with the enthusiastic help of local women known as banadoras, or bathers).

There's a small fee to float in the soothing mud of Volcan del Totumo. An exfoliation scrub, ma.s.sage, or other bodywork while you're bobbing along is well worth an additional small fee, paid as a tip, or la propina. In fact, all the helpers at the volcano work for tips, but a tour from Cartagena-including ample tipping and sometimes lunch-costs about $30 to $40. A tiny price to pay for muddy bliss!

Founded in 1533 by Spanish conquistadores as a port to ship gold, Cartagena is a historical treasure on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Sir Francis Drake looted the city in 1586, stripping it of ten million pesos, a giant emerald, and the bells from the cathedral. Shortly thereafter, construction began on a fort, ma.s.sive walls, and ramparts 50 feet thick. Today, those 10 miles of walls-plus flower-filled balconies, courtyards, and the type of aristocratic residence that author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a part-time Cartagena resident, writes about-make this a popular stop for cruise ships. And because the city is situated right along the Equator, the temperature is a perfect 85 to 95 degrees year-round.

You'll visit the San Felipe Fortress, the historic Central District, the Gold Museum, and the major cathedrals. You can also soak in a volcanic mud bath and take dancing and cooking lessons. A one-hour boat ride will take you to the Rosary and San Bernardo islands, a group of about 30 islands that Colombia's government declared a marine national park in 1977. The Parque Nacional Corales del Rosario y de San Bernardo includes an environmental trail and an ocenario, or open-water aquarium, with dolphins, sharks, turtles, and a host of other reef creatures.

This AFC volunteer trip runs $1,200 for double accommodation at Hotel Costa del Sol, a four-star hotel on Cartagena Bay, and 14 meals.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Amba.s.sadors for Children, 40 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46204, 866-388-3468 or 317-536-0250, www.amba.s.sadorsforchildren.org.

GLOBAL EXCHANGE.

help campesinos harvest coffee beans.

NICARAGUA.

I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.

-Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States.

18 Coffee is the world's second most valuable traded commodity (petroleum is first), with 25 million farmers and coffee workers in more than 50 countries around the world.

And even though the United States consumes one-fifth of the 12 billion pounds of coffee produced each year, few Americans realize that the people who grow their precious morning wake-me-up often toil in what some observers have described as "sweatshops in the fields." What's even worse, amid a volatile market, many small coffee farmers receive less for their coffee than it costs to produce. Some years, farmers (campesinos) are forced into debt, which makes it impossible for them to break out of an endless cycle of poverty and also makes it difficult for them to provide adequate food for their families.

Global Exchange is a San Francis...o...b..sed nonprofit that organizes socially and politically conscious tours, which they call Reality Tours, to more than 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Every December, it sends coffee pickers to Nicaragua to work at a fair-trade coffee cooperative, La Central de Cooperativas Cafetaleras del Norte (CECOCAFEN). Volunteers live with a family and work alongside the farmers to harvest the coffee, as well as learn about the global issues involved in coffee and fair trade.

Fair-trade practices give small farmers a seat at the bargaining table. It keeps them from being exploited by global corporations that sometimes insist they take the price offered for their coffee beans, even when it is clearly inadequate pay for their labor and their product. Instead, fair-trade importers offer small-scale farmers a minimum price per pound and provide them with credit and technical a.s.sistance. According to Global Exchange, "To become fair trade certified, an importer must meet stringent international criteria; paying a minimum price per pound of $1.26, providing much needed credit to farmers, and providing technical a.s.sistance such as help transitioning to organic farming. Fair trade for coffee farmers means community development, health, education, and environmental stewardship."

ONLINE COFFEE SHOP.

Okay, so you're not quite ready to travel to Nicaragua to pick coffee beans, but you are willing to put your money where your heart is. Global Exchange operates three brick-and-mortar stores (one each in San Francisco and Berkeley, California, and one in Portland, Oregon) and an online store that sell fair-trade products from 40 countries around the world.

The online store, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2008, offers such products as: mother-of-pearl boxes from Egypt crocheted necklaces from Argentina baby slippers made by Thailand's Lisu tribe finger puppets from a Peruvian village on the sh.o.r.es of Lake t.i.ticaca baskets woven by Zulu artisans sweatshop-free sneakers from Pakistan leatherbound journals from India laptop bags made by survivors of genocidal rape in Rwanda.

As for their fair-trade coffee shop, they sell a wide variety of coffees from companies such as Cloudforest, Dean's Beans, Equal Exchange, Global Giving, and Peace Coffee. They also sell Thanksgiving Coffee Company's Gorilla Coffee, which supports both farmer-owned cooperatives in Rwanda and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

Check out all the goods at www.globalexchangestore.org.

One of the most troubling issues facing millions of coffee farmers is the recent precipitous drop in global coffee prices. Since 1998, prices have plummeted 50 percent, leaving more than a quarter of a million Nicaraguans dest.i.tute. Many live in makeshift roadside camps and some are suffering from malnutrition as a result of the reduced income.

On this once-a-year Global Exchange coffee harvest trip, you'll not only pick coffee beans (a task that begins bright and early each morning at 5), but you'll help the families at the cooperative depulp, ferment, wash, dry, and sort the morning's harvest. Partic.i.p.ants must have at least basic Spanish language ability and be self-reliant people who are not afraid of challenging situations.

While the coffee you pick on this eight-day journey is important, your most important job-the place where you can make the most difference-awaits back at home. Being an advocate in your community for fair trade may include talking to the media, giving presentations, writing articles, and urging your local stores to offer fair-trade products. While they might cost more, knowing that farmers and craftspeople are being given a fair shake is worth a little extra expense.

You will experience life on an upe (coffee cooperative) in Matagalpa, a misty, mountainous region in the north of Nicaragua, and meet with community leaders. While you're there, you'll also get to visit such nature sites as the Yasica waterfall, hike the Poza Bruja Trail, and learn to cook typical Nicaraguan food.

The cost for eight nights' accommodation, all breakfasts and dinners, sightseeing excursions, the services of a translator, and transportation on a private bus runs $950.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Global Exchange, 2017 Mission Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110, 415-255-7296 or 800-497-1994, www.globalexchange.org.

GLOBE AWARE.

build lifesaving lorena stoves in a remote peruvian village.

SAN PEDRO DE CASTA, PERU.

There comes a point in a person's life when you start asking yourself, "What difference am I making in this world?"

-Gayle Harrod, Globe Aware volunteer to Peru.

19 Perched high in the Andes, 11,000 feet above sea level, San Pedro de Casta is a traditional Peruvian village. Its 4,000 residents eke out a communal living here by farming the terraced fields carved into the slopes of the surrounding mountains, just as their ancestors have done for thousands of years before them.

Unfortunately, many of them also still cook just like their ancestors did-on three-rock stoves that pour smoke through their homes and cause life-shortening lung and eye problems. Asthma, emphysema, and other pulmonary problems are rampant in many Peruvian villages, not to mention the devastating effects of deforestation and erosion caused by chopping down all the trees that provide the wood for the stoves.

The World Health Organization reports that cooking and heating on open fires or stoves without chimneys is directly responsible for 1.5 million deaths per year worldwide-most of them due to acute respiratory infections in children under the age of five. The indoor air pollution that results from these methods of cooking and heating is also responsible for increased incidences of death linked to many diseases, including pneumonia among children and respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), among adults.

Globe Aware, a nonprofit based in Dallas, Texas, that offers what they call "mini Peace Corps a.s.signments" in 14 countries, sends volunteers to San Pedro de Casta to work on community development projects ranging from repairing buildings, establishing irrigation channels for the schools, encouraging reforestation, and teaching English, computer skills, and first aid.

They also build rammed-earth adobe stoves that kill three birds with one small stone. A lorena stove that vents smoke through a chimney dramatically improves a family's health, reduces poverty (because it's energy efficient, it saves money-one-fifth of their incomes go toward harvesting and buying wood), and eases the burden on local forests. But perhaps the stove's finest feature is that it can be made easily and cheaply from local mud and sand. The stove's name, lorena, in fact, come from two Spanish words: lodo (mud) and arena (sand).

PISCO, THE NATIONAL DRINK.

It wasn't enough for Chile to become world-renowned for its wine. Now, it's claiming ownership of pisco, the clear, Peruvian brandy that's drunk neat and in the infamous pisco sour. Both countries call pisco their national drink. It should be noted, however that Pisco Elqui-the village in Chile that now claims ownership of the beverage-was called La Union until 1936 when its name was changed by government order. Yet Chile produces more than 50 times the pisco that Peru produces annually.

On the other hand, Pisco, Peru, a.s.serts that it has been making the rich grape brandy since early in the Spanish viceroyalty, which began in 1524 and ended in 1824.

Alas, the contentious pisco t.i.tle is unlikely to be decided anytime soon. In the meantime, if you'd like to have a drink while you ponder the question, here's the recipe for a pisco sour.

1 part freshly squeezed lime juice.

3 parts pisco.

Ice.

Sugar to taste.

1 teaspoon egg white (for frothiness).

Combine the lime juice and pisco in a blender. Add sugar to taste. Add plenty of ice and blend. Spoon in egg white and blend again.

Some recipes use simple syrup instead of sugar and some include a dash of bitters, as well. Others use a c.o.c.ktail shaker to blend the drink and discard the ice before serving the pisco sour. There are four varieties of pisco: pisco puro, pisco acholado, pisco aromatico, and pisco mosto verde, with the latter being the most expensive.

Besides building lorena stoves, Globe Aware volunteers work on a variety of community development projects in the village, from teaching English to planting trees to establishing irrigation channels. Since San Pedro de Casta is at a high alt.i.tude, you must check with your doctor before deciding to go if you have high blood pressure or a respiratory condition, or if you have ever had difficulty adjusting in higher alt.i.tudes.

Located four hours from Lima, this quaint, secluded village doesn't attract a lot of tourists. The few who do visit (there are only three tiny hotels, one of which doubles as the schoolteacher's house) are probably on their way to the plateau of Marcahuasi, a weird "forest of rocks" whose shapes, say the locals, change at various times of day.

Globe Aware plans a full week of activities, including horseback rides to Marcahuasi, visits to the cheesemaker and hatmaker, and Andean craft and cooking cla.s.ses. You'll learn to make hualquies (pouches that are made for carrying coca leaves) and see Inca mummies at the local museum.

A one-week trip, including shared lodging in the central village lodge on Plaza de Armas-the town square-and three meals made with fresh veggies and beans from the surrounding hills, costs $1,250.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Globe Aware, 6500 East Mockingbird Lane, Suite 104, Dallas, TX 75214, 877-588-4562, www.globeaware.com.

TROPICAL ADVENTURES FOUNDATION..

throw a christmas bash for an indigenous village.

COSTA RICA.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is "What are you doing for others?"

-Martin Luther King, Jr., clergyman and civil rights activist 20 A volunteer vacation with the Tropical Adventures Foundation is more like joining a family than taking a trip. No matter which of the Costa Rica-based organization's 15 projects you decide to undertake, just know that you'll probably feel connected to the families you work with forever.

Isaac Garcia started Tropical Adventures (TA) with American Scott Parlinsky, who serves as executive director of the organization. Garcia, director of volunteer services at TA, says, "Besides the sheer beauty of the country itself, I think people are really blown away by the authenticity, warmth, and generosity of the Costa Rican people. Almost 100 percent of our volunteers leave in tears, having made new friends for life. And a good majority of them come back to visit. It's really like we have created a big, international family. I love it!"

In 2007, Tropical Adventures decided to throw Christmas parties for the people in the Costa Rican communities where volunteers live and work. They figured that since the volunteers, who were joined at the hip with the host families they lived with, were going to send presents anyway, why not make it official and go all out? During the year, volunteers monitor sea turtles, work at iguana farms, teach English, garden, translate for tour guides, and help with injured monkeys. But because they live and eat with host families, who are doing the same work alongside them, they bond deep and fast.

The average Tico makes less than $500 a month. Obviously, there's not a lot left to put presents under the tree at Christmas. Tourists, with their disproportionately fat wallets, drive prices up and out of reach for local people. Presents received at the 2007 party were the first ones some children ever received.

CLUB MUD.

After 400 years of peace and quiet, Costa Rica's Arenal Volcano erupted in spectacular, deadly fashion in 1968, killing 87 people. More moderate activity at the volcano hasn't really stopped since then, making it one of the 10 most active volcanoes in the world. It's a safe bet to think you'll get to see lava flows while you're here.

The gla.s.s half full aspect of living next to a volcano that spews a continuous supply of hot ash, steam, and lava, however, is the hot springs. There are a range of commercial hot springs you can soak in around the Arenal region, with settings ranging from basic to highly luxurious. Several local resorts, like the Baldi Hot Springs Hotel & Spa La Fortuna, Hotel Arenal Paraiso, and the Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort, have hot springs on-site.

At our favorite hot springs, Eco Thermales, the temperatures of the four pools range from 91F to 105F. Run by a local family, it's secluded and only admits a hundred people per day. Dona Mireya Hidalgo, using a traditional, rustic kitchen, serves home-cooked Costa Rican meals in clay pots while howler monkeys look on. Eco Thermales, near La Fortuna, 506 2 479 8484, $21 plus fee for dinner. Make a reservation in advance.

The holiday parties, complete with presents, cakes, balloons, and, in one community, an inflatable bouncy slide, were such a rousing success that Pralinksy and Garcia and the rest of the TA gang have added it as a permanent volunteer project. As a volunteer, you'll help purchase, wrap, and deliver gifts, as well as plan activities and decorate. If you come for the whole holiday season, you'll also get to celebrate in several parts of the country.

In 2008, the parties centered on the theme of education. TA collected-or purchased with donated funds-items such as knapsacks, lunch bags, school uniforms, art supplies, pencil cases, pens, pencils, highlighters, markers, crayons, coloring books, Play-Doh, glue sticks, paper, notebooks, books, educational DVDs, English teaching materials, educational games, dictionaries (Spanish and Spanish-to-English), and geometry tools to distribute to the Costa Rican children.

Located on the Central American isthmus, between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, Costa Rica is one big outdoor playground. There are waterfalls, animals, beaches, volcanoes, hot springs, b.u.t.terflies, jungles, rivers, and lots of friendly people. It's the oldest democracy in Latin America with more than a hundred years of political stability, all without a military. Tropical Adventures operates in the Central Valley, in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast, on the Talamanca Indigenous Reservation, and in Guanacaste in the Pacific northwest.

If you look at the second word in this nonprofit's moniker, it should be no big surprise that volunteers also partake of such adventures as riding zip lines through jungle canopies, kayaking, river rafting, snorkeling, horseback riding, surfing swimming, and hiking.

A one-week stay, including accommodations and three healthful, hearty meals with a host family, runs $995. Tropical Adventures recommends staying at least two weeks, however, which runs $1,895. Additional weeks can be added for $299. The holiday project trip, like all TA trips, is flexible and can start and end at your convenience.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Tropical Adventures Foundation, Apartado 87100, Paraiso, Cartago, Costa Rica, 506 2 574 4412, www.tropicaladventures.com; U.S. contact: 1775 East Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 110341, Palm Springs, CA 92264, 800-832-9419.