Gap Year in Latin America

Deciding to take a break year or gap year in Latin America could easily be one of the best decisions of your life. You will not only get a break from the rigorous grind of academic and work life but can travel, learn a new language and skyrocket out of your comfort zone.

Latin America combines travel to countries with spectacular natural and human-made wonders, while also combining every type of landscape imaginable from the ocean, to the jungle, to the desert and the snow-capped mountains. In Latin America you will find the famous waterfalls of Iguazu, amazing Patagonia, the Andean mountains with the lost city of the Incas: Machu Picchu, the unique Galapagos, and the famous Mayan temple Tikal and Chichen Itza – just to mention a few highlights.

In South-America, you can learn one of the world’s most important languages (Spanish) while possibly participating in an internship or volunteer work. Also, Latin America is more affordable for many young travellers!

We especially recommend the countries of Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica for your gap year.

Sample Program Gap year Peru

• Two months of intensive Spanish classes in Cusco during the morning with a family homestay. During the afternoons, you participate in many cultural activities or volunteer as a class assistant, helping Peruvian kids with their homework. Exchange with Peruvian university students and weekend trips to local villages and events are included.
• Two months of volunteering in Cusco or the Sacred Valley of the Incas, or, in an environmental project in the Peruvian jungle, where we support nature conservation activities in the Amazon. Accommodation is included in a student and volunteer house in the city centre of Cusco or similar lodging in the Sacred Valley or in Tambopata.
• Two months of travel in Peru (and Bolivia), including a hike to the Inca Citadel Machu Picchu, Rainbow Mountain, workshops Peruvian cooking and musics, river rafting.
• Starters package in the Peruvian capital Lima including transfers, overnight, city tour, and national flight to Cusco.

NOTE

This program can be customized upon request. Popular add-ons are additional weeks of Spanish classes in Cusco, Lima or Bolivia, or more weeks of volunteering or travel.

You can also shorten your stay in Peru and follow part of this program at a different location and in a different South American country.

Gap Year in Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador

Start with the popular Traveling Classroom in Costa Rica & Panama, or Ecuador, and add on weeks of Spanish classes, volunteering or travel in any of those countries.

The school in Buenos Aires offers the option to extend the Medical Spanish course with medical shadowing and convert it into a gap year in Argentina.

There are similar options for the Business Spanish Program in Colombia’s Medellin.