Paula Newton is a freelance writer and management consultant. The editor of V!VA Travel Guide to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands, she has an insatiable thirst for off-the-beaten-track travel. Paula has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and Central and South America. Those volunteering in Ecuad[...]
Archive for the ‘Ecuador’ Category
La Vida: Teaching English in Quito, Ecuador
First off, thanks Rob for the recent guest series on various volunteer and development opportunities. Your experiences and incites were concise and objective, great advice to the budding idealist in Latin America. While reading your entries and others on the site lately, I have been deeply consid[...]
Guest Post: To Kiva Fellow or not to Kiva Fellow, Eso e’ la pregunta. (Part III of III)
Today’s guest post comes from Rob Gradoville, a current Kiva Fellow, Rotary Scholar, and Fulbright Fellow in Cusco, Peru. Since 2005, Rob has been thinking about the best way to provide the basic services that rural folks in the developing world want and need most: clean water and electricity[...]
Guest Post: To Kiva Fellow or not to Kiva Fellow, Eso e’ la pregunta. (Part II of III)
Today’s guest post comes from Rob Gradoville, a current Kiva Fellow, Rotary Scholar, and Fulbright Fellow in Cusco, Peru. Since 2005, Rob has been thinking about the best way to provide the basic services that rural folks in the developing world want and need most: clean water and electricity.[...]
Guest Post: To Kiva Fellow or not to Kiva Fellow, Eso e’ la pregunta. (Part I of III)
Today’s guest post comes from Rob Gradoville, a current Kiva Fellow, Rotary Scholar, and Fulbright Fellow in Cusco, Peru. Since 2005, Rob has been thinking about the best way to provide the basic services that rural folks in the developing world want and need most: clean water and electricity[...]
Movember in Quito
Living abroad for me is a constant balance between trying to learn the language and fit into the Latin culture, while simultaneously keeping some American customs and cultural practices. I enjoy trying to blend in to the fabric of Quito. Obviously, I physically stand out as a foreigner, but I a[...]
The Adventure Illusion or: how I learned to stop thinking and just ride a bike
Today’s guest post comes from Casey Link. Casey is a software engineer who just can’t seem to stay in one place. Between stopovers at oases of Internet necessary for his work, Casey finds himself compelled toward that mysterious blue horizon. That compulsion has taken him across the USA,[...]
Mindo’s Green Revolution
“Han escuchado la historia de tourism en Mindo?” Have you heard the history of tourism in Mindo? “No.” Ok, well….. It’s a story of deforestation and reforestation; of destruction and rejuvenation; of changing perceptions of land use; and of ecology. Last week when I visited Mindo (a smal[...]




