People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahal or the Louver.
Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure-a surprising and exciting trip They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they d0 this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of hardships, but they’re a lot of fun. One organization, Earth watch, sends small groups of volunteers to different parts of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals Others learn about people of the past.
Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Murmansk, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day.
Do you enjoy ocean animal? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball.” They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows Orcas. We call Orcas “killer Whale”, but they’re really dolphins-the largest kind of dolphin. These beautiful animals travel together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earth watch is studying how this happens.
Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorini. This explosion was more terrible than Krakatoa or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompei. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past
Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earth watch vacation is for you.