Iquitos •Perú

Learning and Service Journey into Amazonia
This program is designed for students who would like to experience life in the Amazon while working in service learning fieldwork. While taking a course about cultures of the Amazon basin, students will do volunteer work in Iquitos and in nearby riverine peasant and indigenous communities on the Amazon, Nanay and Itaya rivers.

In addition to classes and activities conducted by Florida State faculty, students will participate in the daily life of the Iquiteños by living in homestays and learning simultaneously from specialized Peruvian professionals. These professionals will present an overview of important topics related to culture and development in the region: indigenous cultures, health and medical issues, ethnobotany, forestry and sustainable practices and the cultural arts. Students will travel frequently by boat in the Amazon and Nanay rivers to visit local communities.

Excursions are likely to include a two day visit to the local village of Padre Cocha where students will see a butterfly garden and a Kukama language maintenance school, as well as a three day group excursion to San Rafael, a village sustained by ecotourism, situated two and a half hours down the Amazon River with a primary forest that has never been cut. The highlight of this program is a 5 day visit to the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, the largest protected area of Peru and the second largest protected area in the entire Amazon basin. Its 5,137,000 acres of protected unchanged forest make the lives of myriads of species possible. In Pacaya-Samiria, students will learn about forest and riverine people who have an interdependent relationship with plants, animals and their environment through sustainable practices of fishing, hunting and cultivating plot gardens.

Eligibility
This program is open to all students who have at least a basic knowledge of Spanish.  The program requires a high level of physical and social adjustments to life in the Amazon.

International Programs strongly advises students to meet with the Program Leader prior to applying to the program to help ensure this is the right program for each applicant.  The $100 application fee is nonrefundable.  To make an appointment with the Program Leader, please contact:

Prof. Juan Carlos Galeano at: jgaleano@fsu.edu
Prof. Rebecca Galeano at: Galeano@mail.coe.fsu.edu

Please also review the program information sheet which should provide students with a clear picture of the program expectations prior to making a decision about whether to apply to the program. 

Housing
Students will stay with selected Peruvian families.