There's an interesting organization I stumbled upon during my quest for places to volunteer with. It's called SA (South American) Explorers. They have it in a couple different countries in South America and it has 3 different club houses in Peru, one of which is here in Lima (MiraFlores district). The whole basis for this organization is sustainable, independent travel, with the whole SIT lingo goin' on, so I thought I'd check it out. So far, so good. I visited the clubhouse today in Lima with Paris. It's located in an old historic mansion type house which is beautiful. They have internet there, a book exchange, local volunteering information, maps to everywhere, traveling information of every kind imaginable, organized events every week. If you're a member there you can store your stuff at any of their locations in South America for up to a year, you can have packages sent to you there... There is a lot of information available at this place! And it is very well organized. So, we joined today and a girl who is one of the directors there is going to help us hook up some volunteering action. And her boyfriend wants to practice his Spanish, so we are going to try to meet a couple times a week for an intercambio language exchange practice in half English and half Spanish.
If you are ever traveling to a location where they have a base there, you should definitely check it out. Or if you are in a Sustainable Development related field, they have regular interns who set up and help with various local, grassroots projects.
Here is the website: www.saexplorers.org
