Amazon Sunrise – 5.30am – You wake up to the familiar squawks and chatter of charismatic macaws and mischievous Capuchin monkeys. After a typical Peruvian breakfast with the team, you organise your survey equipment for the day and give your volunteer group a tropical forest safety briefing. It’s three months into your internship and you’ve passed your training phase and have been signed off on all the surveys by your mentor. You’re now qualified to lead volunteer groups.

Survey Leadership – 8.00am – You lead your team into the rainforest; the thought of this would have terrified you just a few months ago, but now you know the maze of trails intimately and feel completely comfortable in the remote rainforest. Today, you’ll be teaching the volunteers how to to survey the immense diversity of Amazonian butterflies – how to handle, identify and record the butterflies’ data. This is the survey that you chose to specialise in and you can do it in your sleep now. But you never get bored of teaching new volunteers about indicator species and how butterflies can help us better understand the health of an ecosystem. You’re amazed by how much you’ve learnt and can now teach.

Jungle Lunch – 12.30pm – After a busy morning leading your group through the surveys and teaching them all you’ve learnt about tropical fauna and flora, it’s time to relax by the stream and tuck into you packed lunch. You bask in the sunshine and enjoy the sounds of the rainforest. You tell you’re team stories about jungle life and what’s been the best wildlife sighting so far. You make sure everyone in the group is happy, you make a mental check that no-one’s showing signs of dehydration, you ensure that team dynamics are good and are ready to get back to work.

Wildlife Encounters – 1.30pm – While completing the afternoon’s surveys and data collection, you keep an eye out for your next wildlife encounter – there could be a troop of cute-faced squirrel monkeys in the canopy, or a herd of stampeding peccaries around the corner. You teach your volunteer group about the rainforests diversity of plants and wildlife. With tired legs, you lead your team back to camp.

Scientific Process – 5.00pm – After a busy day trekking through the rainforest, it’s time to enter the data and identify any unknown species you’ve come across. It’s great to know that the data sets will be used in scientific papers and help inform conservation policy. You teach your volunteer group about the importance of collecting and entering data, you help them identify new species that they’ve never seen before, and make sure everything’s set up tomorrow’s field work. It’s time for a much-needed hot shower.

Camp Gossip – 6.30pm – You enjoy a hearty Peruvian dinner with the team, swapping stories about the day’s best wildlife sightings. You get to know the new group of volunteers and tell tales about jungle life. After a good natter, you help the kitchen staff with the washing up and practice the colourful Peruvian Spanish phrases they’ve been teaching you.

Presentation Assessment – 8.00pm – Tonight you’re giving a presentation to the team at camp about your chosen subject, the fascinating world of symbiosis. You’ve been researching the topic for the past few weeks and have been practising it in English and Spanish; you’re much more confident speak Spanglish after your week at a home-stay and Spanish school in Cusco that you completed as part of the internship programme. You’re nervous but you know that your work colleagues and friends are all here to support you.

Celebration Time – 9.00pm – You’re really pleased by what you’ve achieved today and have a cold beer with the team to celebrate. Tired and fulfilled after the day’s achievements, you’re on the way to bed but take a moment to stand in awe of the amazing starscape and the milky way like you’ve never seen it before. You hit your pillow for an early night, in preparation for the new adventures and experiences that tomorrow will bring.

DATES & COSTS

APPLY