Ecuador Semester 2016

The program travels as a team throughout the country by train!

Otavalo is a town (population 90,000) roughly 2 hours outside of the capital of Quito. Otavalo is world famous for its massive Saturday market and its committment to engaging with and maintaining its indigenous peoples' identity and culture. The program visits the town for one week.

The program is based at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, or the "PUCE" in Quito, Ecuador's capital. With a population of 1.6 million, the city is a big change from Richmond, with tons of often free, often outdoor exhibits of arts in various mediums, an amazing food scene, and dozens of incredible mountainous vistas.

Bahía means bay, which accurately describes this small and gorgeous beach town rich in ancient history and modern cultural diversity. Here, the program spends a week in a hotel with the ocean in its front yard going on walking historical tours with Ecuadorian ethnographers and conducting ethnographic studies of their own!

The Yasuní national park, located in Ecuador's portion of the Amazon basin, houses the Pontificia Unviersidad Católica del Ecuador's biological research station. The program visits the research station and an indigenous community in the area for one week, meeting researchers, learning about the projects being done, and hiking in the jungle.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Opportunity to learn about/be immersed in Spanish language and Ecuadorean culture, explore the jungle, go to the beach, and attend a university in one of Latin Americas most beautiful & metropolitan colonial cities await you!!!!!

Information Sessions for the Ecuador 2016 Semester program will be held this Thursday, November 5th at 12 noon as well as Monday, November 9th at 7pm on the second floor of Carpenter in room 214. Applications are due in IPO Nov. 15, best get informed now.