500 Adrenaline Adventures (Frommer's) - Lois Friedland [142]
Roadmonkey Adventure Philanthropy: Roadmonkey’s trips are designed for travelers who want to combine rugged adventures and hands-on volunteer work. Each of the participants on a trip must raise $500 in tax-deductible contributions through their own social networks. The donations fund the group’s volunteer projects. In Tanzania, for example, along with climbing Kilimanjaro (see ), the team helps a local community build a clean-water system and build and paint several school classrooms in Mbagala. 917/319-8070;www.roadmonkey.net.
U.S.A. Ranch Volunteers: Not many people get the opportunity to spend 3 weeks on a working ranch in Wyoming, horse wrangling, gathering cattle, and helping brand cows. In addition to long hours riding the range during cattle drives, you may also have a chance to help veterinarians during their weekly visits and vaccination days. You’ll get a chance to rest those saddle-sore muscles, if you take a half-day or occasional full day off to explore the surrounding region. If you have a car, Yellowstone (www.nps.gov/yell) and Grand Teton National Parks (www.nps.gov/grte) are both an easy drive. Real Gap Experience ( 866/939-9088;www.realgap.com).
Crocodile Conservation Center, Chennai, India: After immediate hands-on training during your month-long assignment with the Crocodile Conservation Center, you act as a visitor’s guide, supervising guests as they handle baby crocodiles and pythons. Of course, you have to spend time feeding animals, too, as well as cleaning out pens that hold Mugger, Gharial, and Saltwater crocs. The center, which cares for about 2,400 crocodiles, is set on eight acres of coastal land south of Chennai. Twin Work and Volunteer Abroad ( 800/80-483-80;www.workandvolunteer.com).
Tropical Wildlife Conservation & Adventure Project, Cambodia: Based in a remote field camp in Cambodia’s Botum Sakor National Park, participants on this trip trek through the jungle and forests to survey mammals, record botanic and soil findings, and seek tracks and signs of the elusive sun-bear and fishing cat. Along the way, you may visit small villages where, with the aid of an interpreter, you’ll assess how reliant the communities are on the forest and jungle resources around them. Expect to live in tents you help construct, sleep in hammocks, and bathe in the river. Trips run from 3 to 20 weeks. Frontier-Cambodia ( 44/20-7613-2344; www.frontier.ac.uk).
i-to-i: If you’d like to save sea turtles in Costa Rica, work with children and see the country’s endangered Mountain Gorillas in Uganda, or coach soccer in Argentina, i-to-i can help you make the connections. This adventure volunteer organization matches you with local groups, so you can do volunteer work and experience the country and culture while you are there. 800/985-4852;www.i-to-i.com.
Earthwatch: Every year some 4,000 volunteers with Earthwatch collect field data in such areas as rainforest ecology, wildlife conservation, marine science, and archaeology. On one trip, you’re based at the Cheetah Conservation Fund’s working farm in Namibia, where you get to feed and care for captive cheetahs on-site and participate in wildlife surveys. Alternatively, you could take an Amazon boat trip to help with the conservation of monkeys, sea otters, and birds as well as track puma, jaguarundi, and other cats in Argentina’s pampas grass. 800/776-0188 or 44/1865-318-838; www.earthwatch.org.
Those on a trip organized by Earthwatch help release a cheetah in Namibia.
Sierra Club Outings: This arm of the Sierra Club offers hands-on volunteer vacations in the U.S. aimed at getting participants involved in adventurous and rewarding volunteer work. The dozens of volunteer trips run the gamut from rugged backcountry challenges and base-camp trips to a lodge-based volunteer travel experience. You could work on Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands National