ARCC Gap Semester Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru

It is extremely difficult to shorten my gap semester experience into a short review, mostly because it has changed and matured me so much on the past three months. Every place that we went and person that we met morphed my opinion of the world around me and made me so much more globally and culturally aware. I remember when we stayed in the Ecuadorian Amazon (wow that is so cool to be able to prove that I have been there!) and how every bit of thier way of life was so different from mine. Thier family life (our host parents had 11 kids!) lifestyle, activities (from helping to farm the exotic fruits to taking a boat across a river everytime we wanted to travel to and from our house) I am still in awe that I was able to experience that. I believe that a gap year is so valuable for any young adult about to enter college to have in thier back pocket and I could not imagine my life now without having traveled Latin America for three months. The ARCC program was really well done, supportive and I made some of the best friends in my life traveling with out group. The planned itinerary hit so much of each country and I really felt like I have used these three months doing impactful service everywhere and having awesome stories to share. This program was a perfect mix of the adventure side of traveling and the volunteer aspect that I wanted to gain experience from. I would highly reccomend taking a gap year and ARCC to anyone looking to travel!