Amazing Trip!

This was a wonderful experience with very knowledgeable and amiable staff and similarly delightful, like-minded students. We traveled throughout the Amazon and saw mountains, gorgeous waterfalls, and enjoyed many jungle hikes. The housing and food (lots of vegetarian options) were generally very good quality and the Ecuadorian guides that we had at each location were all a lot of fun and were extremely knowledgeable. We got to have a lot of very neat experiences (including white water rafting and milking cows!!!) and our group culture was very fun and respectful. Our leaders taught us a number of games and we would simply enjoy spending time with each other while traveling or before going to bed each night. The staff was also well aware of our safety and I never really felt that our activities or practices were endangering in any way.
This program, despite its name, did not focus on environmental issues quite as much as I had expected. We did go to several hydroelectric projects and discussed the implications of those, but besides that, environmentalism was typically only mentioned in our evening discussions and we didn't focus on it or learn quite as much as I had been hoping. Besides that, the Sustaining the Amazon trip was a wonderful experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone!