This ‘eco-tourism’ placement offers the opportunity to live and work with Chileans in their 20s, to be in close contact with wild penguins and with nature, to improve your Spanish, and to learn to manage a tourist attraction.

The privately owned reserve is a natural nesting and breeding ground for penguins during the Chilean spring and summer. It caters to some 40,000 tourists who come to view the penguins in their natural habitat. Facilities at the site are rustic and include a 1-mile wooden walkway through the penguins’ nesting site, a cafeteria, and an arts & crafts stand.
As a volunteer you will assist the four park rangers at the reserve, responsible for guiding tourists and ensuring that all rules are followed to protect the birds and maintain the integrity of their grounds. The tourists are primarily North American and European and your English is a great asset. However, there are also Latin American tourists, and the rest of the staff is all Chilean, so this placement offers a good opportunity to improve Spanish.

Other tasks include: sharing domestic chores at the house, helping in the kitchen, being in charge of the reception area, working in the cafeteria and the arts & crafts stand, and helping to count the money at the end of the day.

Room and board are provided with the rest of the Chilean staff in housing at the site, which is about 35 miles from a city. The workday runs from approximately 8 am to 8 pm. Time off is flexible and would allow the volunteer to travel through the region, which includes some of the country’s most spectacular natural sights. The reserve, situated at the sea-shore, is normally very windy, and often cold.

I felt like I fit in and was benefiting the most from the placement my first day. Wheat really made the experience was the great people that I worked with. They were amazing from day one and really wanted me to see their lifestyle.                     Camilla Lee, 18 years old, volunteer at penguin reserve, 2003