Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
la Tortuga, an aquarium-research facility right on the beach. And the admission price doesn't
scratch the surface of the amounts these ecotourists are willing to pay for meals and lodging
and tours through the mangrove swamps.
NO MORE TURTLE SOUP
Seven of the eight known sea turtle species (all threatened or endangered) nest on
the coastline in southern Oaxaca. The state of Oaxaca also has 53 percent of the
whole indigenous population in Mexico, with half of its population living close to
the poverty line. A third of them still speak a native language.
So what's the problem? Well, most of the locals don't speak English. That's not an issue
when capturing and slaughtering the
tortugas,
but tourists like to be able to communicate—at
least a little—with the folks who rent them their cabanas and feed them their shrimp pizza.
And that's where you can help. Volunteers, who sign up for two-week trips (or can stay longer
if they choose), tutor locals in how to communicate with their customers.
The volunteer organization that sponsors these trips, i-to-i, specializes in teaching Eng-
lish. The international organization was started in 1994 by Deirdre Bounds, a 40-something
British backpacker who taught English in Japan, China, and Greece before coming home to
her one-bedroom apartment to wonder “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” She
decided to go for her dream, which was helping others go “eye to eye” with fascinating cul-
tures and travelers. Since then, Bounds's i-to-i has trained more than 15,000 people in TEFL
(Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and organized more than 500 service projects in
23 countries.
On this trip, in addition to teaching English, you'll get the chance to work at a crocodile
nursery in the nearby beach village of Ventanilla. Two miles west of Mazunte, Playa
Ventanilla is a former coconut plantation with a beach that leads all the way to Puerto Escon-
dido, a famous surfing town in southern Oaxaca. After 1997's Hurricane Pauline devastated
the area, 25 families settled in Ventanilla and started a cooperative. Not only do they give
tours of their crocodile and iguana nurseries, but they've also started a community-owned
restaurant, El Maíz Azul (Blue Corn), and a dugout-boat tour operation that takes tourists
through the mangrove swamp. i-to-i offers more than 500 other volunteer projects around
the world, many centering around teaching English as a second language. Other i-to-i pro-
jects focus on community development (working with street children in the Philippines, for
example), sports (coaching a soccer team in Costa Rica, say), conservation (preserving and
protecting dolphins in South Africa, perhaps), and health (working in a prenatal care unit in
Honduras, for instance).
