Fun with Thinking Beyond Borders in South America

The South America Gap Semester with Thinking Beyond Borders was the best time of my life. For those who do not know what it is, it is an educational gap year program that involves traveling to four countries: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the US. In Ecuador, the focus of the program is Education. I worked with the rest of my group in a school in San José de Minas, Ecuador, teaching the children English. We stayed with host families in San José de Minas and the people there are genuinely some of the nicest people I have ever met. I improved my Spanish massively and had some fantastic times with my host family and the group. After, Ecuador, you go to Peru to hike Machu Picchu. We did the Salkantay Trek which was fantastic. It is truly incredible seeing Machu Picchu. Surreal. After Peru, you go to Bolivia. We stayed in Cochabamba, Bolivia with host families and during our weeks there we worked on three different projects. My favourite project was one focused on permaculture. Cochabamba is awesome. It is a proper city, so there are plenty of things to do. I went to the gym regularly and went out to eat often. It's great in Bolivia because everything is super cheap. Towards the end of Bolivia, we travelled to Salar de Uyuni. The salt flats were the most beautiful natural phenomenon I have ever seen. Being with some great people and watching the sun set on the Salar was an experience I will never forget. Finally, after Bolivia, we went to Washington DC to speak to several organizations such as the World Bank, the Peace Corps and NRDC about how they see development and what they do to tackle some of the issues we saw during our trip. The program is just fantastic and the people that sign up for this sort of stuff are super interesting. You make great friends, learn a lot about yourself and the world and have great fun while doing it. Do not think twice about signing up. It is legit.