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LIVING & TRAVEL
Second in a Series
Index
WEB TOOLS
STA Travel -- cheap student tickets
The Green Tortoise Bus Company
Trip Magazine -- tons of budget travel ideas
Council Travel Study Abroad Programs
Workcamp Directory
International Volunteer Organizations Project Directory
CubaWeb
Cuba Resources
Lonely Planet's Cuba
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Entry 2: Friday, March 15, 1996
Whether you're in the mood for some last-minute March madness (and I'm not talking basketball) or you're trying to distract yourself from this (god will it ever be over) winter, here are three last minute, alternative travel ideas: alternative bus travel, cooperative language training and civilian peace camps.
I'm busy packing for my Monday departure, so the next time you hear from me, I'll be in Mexico City. Hasta la vista!
The Green Tortoise Bus Company
Adventure Travel delivers on its promise to provide a gloriously cheap alternative to typically tedious bus travel. Several of their off-beat trips happen during spring break. The well-seasoned tour company is probably best known for its frequent "Beach Daze" forays into Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
Departures are March 15 (14-day, $400 including food) and March 22 (9-day, $330 including food). Most Tortoise odysseys originate in San Francisco, but their Spanish Language School on Wheels program (March 16-30, $600 including food) is based in San Jose, Costa Rica. A native Costa Rican teacher and a customized audio-visual array inside the bus mean this promises to be the most educational ride of your life.
All Tortoise trips focus on exploring the natural beauty and local culture of their environments, but at least half the fun lies in how you get there. Call 1-800-TORTOISE or 415-956-7500 from California for more information.
Cooperative Language Training
Let's say you want to improve your Spanish, and you want to learn by immersion -- but you want to keep your feet on the ground while taking the linguistic plunge. Consider attending a cooperative language academy in Guatemala or Southern Mexico, where you live with a local family and contribute to community service projects.
If access to the beach is a must, think about a stay in El Salvador, where one-on-one language instruction is the cheapest around and the waves of the Pacific Coast are world-renowned. More than one hardy adventurer has financed a few weeks abroad by selling a couple of his sticks (surfboards) at the end of his journey.
Language Study Programs in Central America:
Instituto Linguistico Cihuatan
202a Calle San Salvador, Colonia Centroamerica
San Salvador, El Salvador
tel 011-503-226-9268 fax 011-503-225-2638
Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco de Espanol
5a Calle 2-40, Zone 1
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
In US call 502-961-2620
ISLS has information about immersion programs in Costa Rica:
800-765-0025 or 227-4621 in Costa Rica.
Spanish Language Schools are sometimes difficult to contact directly, but Council Travel (212-661-1414) directs programs, or you can contact the National Registration Center for Study Abroad (800-558-9988).
Your best bet is to get into the country you want to study in and make contacts there, so you can check out schools, meet teachers, etc. before making a commitment from abroad.
Civilian Peace Camps
For the peace-minded and politically inclined, the opportunity to
live in one of several "Civilian Peace Camps" in the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas (March 17-24, $700 from Mexico City) is a golden one. Located in indigenous villages that have been previously occupied by the Mexican Army, these Peace Camps are supported by Global Exchange ([email protected] or 415-255-7296) and their affiliated International Peace Center in San Cristobal de las Casas. Global Exchange's Reality Tours focus on making person-to-person links between people of the first and third worlds.
Reality Tours also explore Cuba, which, contrary to popular belief, is accessible to U.S. citizens. In spite of U.S. sanctions against Cuba, it is still possible for U.S. citizens to enter Cuba through a go-between country, such as Canada or Mexico. Although this sort of entry is illegal, just ask for your visa to be recorded on a removable sheet of paper rather than on your passport.
Frequent charters connect Cuba with Cancun, which also happens to be a prime Spring Break destination. High demand means frequent cheap charters are available to Cancun from most major U.S. cities. The Center for Cuban Studies (212-242-0559) helps people visit Cuba, and Palmer Travel (011-526-634-7070) in Tiajuana, Mexico offers cheap packages from Tiajuana to Cuba (8 days, $750 all-inclusive).
Unplanned travel brings a sense of freedom, but it is also sometimes true that the best things come to those who plan ahead. In this case, spring vacation also happens to be prime time to start making plans for summer. Visit a project that you want to rejoin later for a longer stint, or at least start making phone calls and receiving the necessary information.
Finally, if you've already booked your reservations for Daytona Beach, don't fret! According to the Wall Street Journal ("Mom, I'm Going to
Daytona Beach To Look for Employment. Really," by Jonathan Welsh, Feb. 96),
the local spring break marketing committee is sponsoring a Job Fair (including employers like GTE and Rand McNally) during the holiday festivities. Recruiters encourage potential employees to take advantage of the casual setting by interviewing in a suit -- a swimsuit.
Andrew Nystrom is a 21 year-old Geography-Linguistics student at the University of California at Berkeley. Currently on sabbatical, he has been working as a freelance editor/travel correspondent. Previous travels have taken him to Indonesia, Scandinavia, Ireland, and Guatemala. He was most recently the editor of the Berkeley Guide to Central America for 1996.
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