My Upcoming Trip with The Woods!!

Hello everyone!

In March I get the great opportunity to travel to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands with Woods Around the World here at William Woods University. I want to tell you guys a little bit more about my trip and what Woods Around the World is and also what Project 123 is as well. Hope you enjoy!

I’ve never flown in my life, and soon I will be flying all around South America from March 2nd- 11th, it’s pretty exciting to go and see something you’ve never seen before. I love this quote it has a lot of meaning to me, “In the worlds through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.” -Author Unknown.

Let’s start from how I got involved with Woods Around the World (WATW), I went to Freshman Advantage here at the Woods and I was introduced to WATW along with Project 123. With WATW they take two trips in the Spring semester one during Spring Break and one after school has ended. This year’s trips are Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands and the other trip is to Australia and New Zealand after the school year is over. Then in late February they have a reveal party of where the trips will be in Spring of 2018, I am super excited about to find out where they are going next.

Travis is our main guy, he looks for affordable places for everyone to go, because as we all know, we are broke college kids. We used, EF College tours, which is a great site to use, I absolutely enjoyed how flexible they were and I made small payments on it since June and finished paying of my trip in January.   

I got accepted into Project 123, which is where you have to do 123 hours of volunteer work before you go on your trip and they will pay for $2,000 of it from generous donors. I was never worried about getting my hours here or at home, you can log up to 15 hours at each place you volunteer and 25 at a summer camp you might be working at. Cleaning houses, babysitting, and things of that nature don’t count as collectable hours for your trip. Not everyone will be accepted into Project 123 as they have limited spots.

I leave in 20 days, which I’m not as nervous as I thought I would be, even though I am the only freshman going on the trip this year and I don’t know everybody, but hey, why not make friends while I’m there, right?

Now the fun part, the trip. While I’m away I will be writing down everything I will be doing and for my next post in March I will be posting what I did and there will be many pictures of my adventure as well. On day ,1 we will arrive in Quito late that night and get all checked in for the day. Day 2, we have a guided tour of Quito, we visit the Santo Domingo Monastery, take an excursion to the equatorial line, and go to the Intinan Museum. Day 3, we fly to Baltra and from there we continue to the Isabela Islands and explore. Day 4, we will do the volcano walk, see the flamingo habitat, and my favorite part snorkeling with marine life! Day 5, travel to Santa Cruz Islands, visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, Explore the highlands of Santa Cruz. Day 6, Travel to San Cristobal, hike Tijeretas Hill, visit San Cristobal Interpretation center, more snorkeling (Yay!!) and visiting the La Loberia Costal Walk. Day 7, unknown morning activities in San Cristobal and then we will fly back to Quito. Day 8, Travel to Otavalo, tour Otavalo throughout the day, and then return to Quito. Day 9, we finally head back home from our trip.

When I arrive back from Quito to the States and back to the Woods, my mother will be waiting for me and ready to hear all about my trip, and I hope you guys will be just as excited to hear all about my adventures from Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

Until the ‘morrow we will speak again

~Megan