Do you eat vegetables? Do you want to know more about consent based tourism? Do you want to know how to see if an animal centre is really ethical? You will want to listen to this podcast!
Expedition Guatemala Throwback
Want to know more about volunteering with us during an expedition? Well look no further! This blog post from Lauren, who came with us in 2019 is all about the amazing things you will experience and the beautiful people you will meet.
As always, if you have any questions, email us! We are here to make sure you are safe, comfortable and confident while volunteering!
The Human Beauty Podcast
Want to have an amazing animal experience.. internationally? Of course you do! On this short but sweet podcast Nora speaks more about accessibility, justice and of course animals in travel. Give it a listen and tell us what you think!
Interconnectivity in Travel.
Dispatches from Nora’s field journal.
One thing I have learned from travelling is absolutely everything in life in connected. Sometimes we see the connections right away and other times we only see them later, when we are sitting at a hotel bar in Muscat looking at the crescent moon rise over the sea.
I was about to start my fourth year of university when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the levees burst and suddenly my world changed. Although, at that time I didn't know it had changed. I was a leader at a university fencing camp and only really heard reports on the radio while on the drive in every day. Much like Sean of the Dead where all the reports around them showed a world in chaos, I was happy to live in a little bubble of sports during the day, pints in the evening. Months later I found myself in New Orleans, volunteering with Best Friends helping with animal rescue. Again my life had changed, I just didn't know it.
I came back to university after volunteering with no real animal volunteering path in my mind, no real understanding of what that trip meant to me. I loved my time there: it was hard, it was sad, it was overwhelming, it was triumphant, it was real. But I thought it was probably a trip of a life time, I wouldn't have the opportunity to serve like that again.
The thing that stuck with me was I had no experience or formal education in anything animal related- but I was still able to help. Everyone who showed up could help, there were people who did laundry all day, people who cooked all day, people who threw down giant bags of food for the dogs who eluded rescuers, there were people who spent their days cleaning dog runs. It took all kinds of people doing all matter of tasks for this rescue effort to work. Everyone had a role and not all of them were hands on but all of them were working towards the same goal so we all helped. We all rescued dogs.
Later I would go to Nepal find this out again. Volunteering at a dog rescue centre in the Kathmandu Valley I would sometimes bath mangy dogs, sometimes I would enter codes on a computer, other times I would take dogs on walks. All these tasks were important, small as they were they were part of the bigger picture and while doing it I rescued dogs.
30+ countries later and 6 more dog rescue programs under my belt, I found myself taking part in one of the hardest dog volunteer programs I have ever done. Hard because I would be in a virtual team but physically on my own.
I was going to look after a dog rescue. I had internet met the founders of the rescue years before. Supporters of AEI and followers of our many adventures, it seemed like we were already friends in real life. They would be expanding the scope of the programs and would be out of the country for two weeks, they needed someone to look after the pack for those weeks. I knew it would be a challenge but they needed help and I love a good challenge. 23 dogs, 7 cats and 1 Canadian. Spoiler alert: we all made it out alive.
Muscat is a beautiful city and the capital of Oman, it boasts a rich and deep history of trade, art and being way hot. Located on the sea of Oman it has the distinct pleasure of being super hot and very humid, when I arrived it was 40c with 80% humidity and that was at about 10am. We drove to the ministries district, where I would be living with the dogs. A massive three story house with echoy marble floors and gorgeous white pillars inside. Our neighbourhood hosted three beautiful mosques that rivalled only each other in beauty. From my room I could see the white architecture of the region and not so distant mountains that protected Muscat in historical times of trade and sometimes plunder.
My normal day turned out to be:
Up at 4:30 am. The dogs would wake up during the call to prayer to try and sing along. I would jump out of bed and hush all of them but in all that activity everyone would get riled up and it would be time to socialise and get outside. Our neighbours were quite close and no one was more aware of the dogs' barking than me. It is hard to keep that many dogs quiet and trust me neighbours, I tried my very best.
Chop up about 12lbs of raw chicken for their meals, they eat raw, I'm a vegetarian. I would have my coffee after chopping so I wasn't so awake for the daily massacre.
9 am I take a few dogs to the beach. The sea of Oman was a 6 minute drive from the house. I had a Hummer to drive around and as much as I hate to admit, dang I felt cool driving it. The water is warm like a bath and the almost white sandy beaches could rival any beaches I have ever visited. We walked along the beach that are shared with embassies. Sea front property for Bahrain, France, Iraq, Britain and UAE, I would wonder what they would think if they saw me walking the great dane or swimming with a few rescue dogs. Later in the trip I was able to go snorkelling. Coral reef, whale sharks and rays call the sea their home- so do oil tankers. It's a fragile region in many respects.
10:30-1 pm Try to get work done while shushing dogs and making sure they are socialised. I found out while in the country there are a few sites I needed that were blocked by the Sultanate. It decreased my work load greatly but gave me some anxiety about work once I got back home.
1-5 pm All 23 dogs have different friend groups and different grump groups. While getting them all outside for play, exercise and socialisation I needed to make sure the friends were together and the rivals were separated.
5:30pm Doggie dinner time. During this time I would socialise the cats, clean their litter boxes and sometimes remember I hadn't eaten yet.
6:30-9:30 pm More dog play time before they are put to bed.
10:30 pm I often I would go to sleep without dinner. Being too tired from breaking up squabbles, getting the dogs to STOP THEIR DANG BARKING, cleaning up indoor 'accidental' pee, cleaning up outside yarfs and poos, trying to make sure all the dogs got proper individual play and loving time, going to the store to get more chicken and figuring out how to live in such a hot place, I was exhausted every day.
This happened for 16 days. When my friends got back, I was a bit delirious and found myself shushing birds and water coolers.
While walking on the beach one day with a Great Dane named Gatsby (see what they did there?) I marvelled at how amazing and how difficult all this was. It was an incredible adventure and again, one that didn't need any special skills. I was certainly using skills I had learned along the way, but I wasn't hear because I was a leader in any field, an expert at anything. I was here because I again was ready to jump in and see how I could help with the skills I had, where I was. From New Orleans to Oman I have spent my life being just a bit over my head but being okay with it.
Later my friends and I went to have dinner at a hotel restaurant and bar that overlooked the Muscat skyline. While the sun set, the tide came in and the crescent moon rose, it occurred to me that the timeline of events that got me to Oman was quite fragile. I was here because everything in life was connected and the neat part of that is we don't know where it's going, we only know some of the connections that got us there. It took countless meetings, failures, leaps of faith, missed connections and mundane details throughout my life to get me to Oman- and most of them, I will never see the importance of.
I never thought I would look after a house of dogs in the middle east but I am happy I did it and I am excited to know what this experience will bring and how it will be connected to future adventures. Maybe more exciting is knowing there will be things in the future that happen and I will never know any of their connections.
A Vegetarian Goes Fishing in South Africa.
Dispataches from Nora’s field journal.
2019 in South Africa.
Standing on the small fishing boat, I wedged myself between the cooler of dead fish and the gunwales. I delicately cut a partially-frozen squid in half, the ink squirting all over me and my jacket. I didn’t worry too much as I already had fish and shark blood on it. How did a vegetarian get herself in this predicament, fishing in South Africa? Well, it was all in the name of shark conservation!
Most of my job as a CEO of a travel social enterprise requires sitting behind a computer and making amazing trips happen for other people. I don’t mind! I love that in a year I can help about 200 people go on amazing conservation and animal-welfare trips. In fact, I love providing all these helping hands to centres because I love locally led community conservation programs and because I have visited all these programs first. I know personally what volunteers will be doing and how important those helping hands are.
I go to all the programs before I sent volunteers because I want to know that, as a solo woman traveler, it is safe for me and therefore our volunteers. I also want to make sure the programs are ethical and authentically helping the animals they were designed to. These programs have taken me all around the world, I meet new friends, see animals I didn’t know existed (please Google ‘African spring hare’) and, of course, take part in amazing conservation and animal welfare programs.
In October and November last year I got to visit South Africa to check out a shark conservation program. Two weeks of playing with shark biologists and people who are way smarter than me. I was so excited!
I said sorry every time I cut into a fish, and thank you every time we brought a shark on board. I then apologized to the shark every time I hook the hook out of its mouth.
The program is in Hermanus, in the deeply beautiful Western Cape. Also known as the Whale Coast and Shark Alley, I would be spending two weeks next to the biologically diverse coasts of both the Indian and Atlantic Ocean. All conservation is dependent on not just the biological understanding of the species but also the health of populations and the behavior of individual animals (as well as their families). This means terrestrial animals, while not always easy to monitor and understand, are at an advantage since they can’t escape into the almost infinite abyss that is the ocean.
As an example, the conservation of the wild horses in Mongolia is an amazing adventure, but one that seems relatively easy when you compare the ecosystems and populations. In Mongolia we hike the steppe to find the horses. As there are hardly any trees or other things clogging up your view, finding the horses can be quite easy. But, when looking at populations of sharks, we can’t “just” look on the horizon with our binoculars: we have to snorkel, free dive and fish.
All the fishing I did was, of course, catch and release. This is not perfect, as it still involves a poor shark being dragged up to the boat and having a hook taken from its mouth, but we do de-barb the hook (meaning the hook will slide out of the sharks gill without causing more damage), and only the well-trained get to handle the sharks. Each shark is only on the boat or on the shore for about three minutes. It’s enough time to take the hook out, measure it, tag it, take a fin clip (for DNA tests), and check what sex it is. (Sidebar: Did you know that male sharks have claspers? Please also Google them).
Turns out I quite like fishing in South Africa. Sitting around chatting with people is basically my favorite activity, but then when you catch a shark it’s deeply exciting.
I loved my time on the research boat. We would leave early in the morning (after taking anti-nausea medication, packing a lunch with plenty of ginger cookies and salty crackers to curb seasickness) and go out into the biologically rich waters. On the ride out to pre-determined locations we would see penguins, southern right wales and seals. Sometimes teams see great white sharks! The sharks we fish for vary, from soupfin sharks (about 25kg) and bronze whalers (about 170kg) to puffadder shysharks (about 41cm) and pajama catsharks (about 1m) at their largest.
The two weeks I spent on the project fishing in South Africa we ‘only’ caught smaller catsharks, but I was delighted every single time we caught one because before this, I had never met a shark in real life. I had briefly seen a shark while snorkeling in Oman, but in South Africa I was able to touch them, hold them and even tag them. Thanks science!
Of course to catch them, you have to get your hands dirty and this meant bailing the hook with the most delicious things to a carnivore of the sea: fish. This wasn’t the first time I had the task of preparing meat as a vegetarian. After spending lots of time on animal programs throughout the years, cutting up meat for animals is not my favourite activity but it’s something I know has to get done. At the start of the year I led a group down to a Guatemalan wildlife rehabilitation centre and volunteered to gut fish for the herons, so the other volunteers didn’t have to. When I was in Oman I cut up 20kg of raw chicken for rescue dogs every day. This vegetarian is not happy about it, but she is happy to do it for animals.
I want to know that, as a solo woman traveler, it is safe for me and therefore our volunteers. In fact, I also want to make sure the programs are ethical and authentically helping the animals they were designed to.
Now, while fishing in South Africa, I was cutting up thawed fish and skewering them on a hook to help catch sharks to better understand the populations in the water all around Hermanus. I said sorry every time I cut into a fish, and thank you every time we brought a shark on board. And I then apologized to the shark every time I hook the hook out of its mouth. Most sharks were too little for the hooks and didn’t even get hooked, their small teeth just got caught on the cotton we wrapped the bait in. I still apologized.
In the time I was there we were able to catch and tag about three dozen sharks, which is a lot of data. With the information we collected we know location, bait, time of day, the type of shark, size, sexual maturity and if they are caught again and where. The fin clip that is used for DNA testing tells us even more information. It’s a messy job but I loved every minute of it. It felt so neat to be in the middle of the ocean, helping science in this small way.
Turns out I quite like fishing. Sitting around chatting with people is basically my favorite activity, but then when you catch a shark it’s deeply exciting. It’s also nice knowing these animals are going back to their home with an exciting story to tell their buddies. The cherry on top is knowing that you are helping conserve these animals for future generations.
Hopefully, in time, technology will make conservation easier and less painful for the animals. With less invasive techniques we will be able to understand more about the oceans without having to fish for their residents. The fairly new (in scientific terms) baited remote underwater video (BRUV) technique is where cameras are dropped to the ocean floor and then the footage is interpreted later. Advances like this will help all of us know who lives where in the ocean and how to help them thrive there.
By the way…. does anyone know how to get squid ink out of a rain jacket?
Getting Through Together- Apart
Dispatches from the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
A LOT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST DAYS.
I am getting more and more hopeful for humanity in some ways. Seeing yoga instructors doing free courses online, meditation apps being given away for free and gym teachers going on Instagram once a day to help parents home school their kids... love and empathy are all around us. Things are hard right now but I am heartened by how many people have decided to use their skills and passions to remind us we are together and together we are much stronger.
Conversely, I'm so sad when I see people not taking this seriously, partying on beaches and not standing an appropriate distance away. It's so easy to be good, to keep yourself and therefore your community and family members safe. All you need to do is wash your hands and stand apart. For animal people this is easy, the distance is a llama or a leatherback sea turtle. Imagine you are being followed by a llama or a leatherback and don’t let anyone come between your animal friend. For the macabre and those who need to hear the awful truth to remember how real this is: the distance of your sick family member is how far you should be standing from others.
Some people have decided to use this time to learn a new skill, start new projects or finish those projects that have collected dust for too long. But I do also want to remind people that rest is important. You are not on holiday, these are not normal circumstances and we don’t have a defined timeline. This isn’t a contest on who can be the most productive with this time. This is a time to not compare your life on social media- as we know comparison is the very thief of joy. This is a time to learn from yourself, what do you need to be healthy: mentally, physically and spiritually. Do you need to sleep more because the idea of a virus passing through all the countries of the world is hard to fathom and makes you very sad? Then sleep, rest, be good to yourself. Do you need to run or do push-ups or do HIIT guided by someone on YouTube because the idea of being in isolation for months gives you nervous energy that you need to get out of your body? Then sweat it out and breathe it out. Do you feel like you need to eat more comfort foods like chocolate, salad, pop tarts, Kraft Dinner or anything in between because your body is asking for comfort in a time of mass uncertainty and fire hoses of information? Then nourish your body and remember there should be no guilt in pleasure, let the soft animal of your body love what it loves ( Mary Oliver). Do you feel like you need to Zoom with friends more or you have zoomed so much this weekend that another video conference hangout makes you feel overdrawn? Listen to what you need in the right now and make choices for you now. This is a marathon, not a sprint and every single day will be different.
THERE WILL BE GOOD DAYS IN WHICH WE CELEBRATE TOGETHER (APART) AND THERE WILL BE DEVASTATING DAYS THAT WE CRY INTO OUR PILLOW AND MOURN DEEPLY.
What you need today may be different than what you needed yesterday and tomorrow—that is okay.
But, do remember this is the same with everyone around you, we are all going through this devastating time of grief and anxiety so while you are being kind to yourself, be kind to others. We will get annoyed with our housemates talking too loudly on the phone. We will glare at our partners when they leave their towels on the floor, even after we asked them not to. We will be angry that our kids thought unsupervised science experiences in the kitchen were a great idea. We will be overwhelmed and overdrawn at times and we will snap. That is okay because we are humans and humans are complex emotional creatures and we can say we are sorry. And just as we can apologize, we can accept apologies.
I AM NOT SURE HOW THINGS WILL LOOK IN A MONTH OR A YEAR FROM NOW BUT I KNOW HUMANITY WILL FIND A WAY TO KEEP ON SURPRISING ME WITH JOY.
I know in these times I will cry and I will laugh and I will experience everything in between. I will be as gentle as myself as possible and I hope you are as gentle with yourself, too.
When it is safe we will volunteer again, we will go out in great numbers and show how committed we are to these animals we love so much. We will help those community leaders that are still on the ground right now helping horses, dolphins, monkeys, pangolins, dogs, elephants, sea turtles and more. Until then, my dear friends, be kind and be safe and do remember that we are all in this together.
Thailand is OPEN
Great news friends!! As of 1 May 2022, Thailand is dropping its hotel quarantine mandate. Fully vaccinated travellers can volunteer with us at our wildlife or elephant centre (or both) without having to spend any time in hotel quarantine! So, if you have been waiting to volunteer with orangutans, sun bears, elephants, otters, gibbons and horn bills- your wait it over!! Come on over to our website and apply! The application process is very simple. After you fill out a short survey you will be given our volunteer coordinator’s schedule. You get to choose a 30 minute time that works for you and then we will have a chat all about volunteering. You can ask any questions you have and we’ll tell you more about the program, making sure everyone's expectations are aligned.
As of May 1st, being fully vaccinated is the only requirement for people travelling to Thailand, and you will need to download a Thai Pass: Read More about the Thai Pass.
Elephants aren't your thing? Check out our other programs
No experience needed!
Remember, you don't need any experience to volunteer- there are vets and nurses already there! If you can sweep your floor, you can sweep a gibbon enclosure! If you can cut a watermelon, you can help make breakfast for a bear!
All our programs have been chosen because of their high standards of animal welfare, trust from the local community, investment in the local conservation professionals, safety and of course: authenticity in their benefit to the animals!
Reasons to travel with AEI for your first trip after the pandemic.
-Amazing pre-planned adventures helping community based conservation groups!
-Authentic animal volunteer activities.
- Travel insurance that extends beyond your return date (just in case there is a flight change or unexpected anythings).
- Guaranteed safe and sanitized housing.
- Guaranteed meals. Why is this important? Around the world cafes, restaurants, shops and stores have had to close temporarily, or even permanently, due to a lack of travelers. This can make travel stressful for those trying to make a plan before they are in country! We set up all your accommodation and meals before you have even left to make sure you are safely and happily taken care of.
- Ongoing supportive care from travel experts who have travelled during the pandemic and can walk you through all the steps. Want to zoom before you go? Would you rather email? We are here to talk as much or as little as you would like - we aren't comfortable until you are!
-VIP Arrival Plans to make your trip safe and comfortable. PCR tests, hotels and shuttles booked by us so you just have to plan your in country selfies and post cards!
Travel is once again within your reach – you will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and then we will help you with the rest! You can be traveling safely to Costa Rica (sea turtles!), Spain (horses!), Guatemala (wildlife!) or Thailand (elephants!) right now with more countries opening up in 2022 – many of them with us leading the trip (Mongolia, Malawi, Australia...)! We look forward to helping you plan your Animal Experiences as travel becomes a reality again.
Looking for something completely different? We partnered with the luxury travel group Girls Guide to Paris to offer a *luxury* Croatian adventure featuring truffle hunting, island hotels and of course dolphin conservation. See what everyone is buzzing about: Girls Guide to Paris: Croatia Edition.
Covid-19 Portal Update
No, it’s not a magic portal to help you get to a world without Covid-19, it’s our information page! We update it when we know anything new or can give you any updates. We of course, put all updates on social and in our newsletter, too! But, why not have as much information out in the world as possible. Please, don’t be strangers though, if you have any questions or concerns, send us an email! We are happy answer things as best we can.
Here are our newest updates on our Covid-19 page:
We do not have any updates about when Canada will be easing travel restrictions. But we encourage everyone to see this as positive. Setting hard dates is often not based on science, it’s based on commerce. In order to keep everyone safe and alive, we should be looking at science based, community dependant and conditional easing of restrictions.
AEI will not have a ‘Covid Guarantee’ on fees as we have always made deposits 100% transferable. Signing up for a trip should not cause financial hardship or anxiety, if you need to change your dates because of health, travel changes or anything not pandemic related, we are happy to help. You can read more about our cancellation policy here.
Currently the best way to help is by donating. Centres around the world are hurting because volunteers are sometimes their only source of income. Small donations once you and your family are taken care of, will really make a difference. We are collecting donations through our website so you don’t have to pay admin or bank fees. Just write where you would like your donations to go and we will get it to the centre ASAP.
Travel 2021 and 2022 on your own terms!
By now, you probably know A LOT about the vaccine roll outs. Yippie! We can travel again... as a slight reality check, while these vaccines are very promising and have given us (finally) some hope in this dumpster of a year, having a safe and effective vaccine around the corner does not mean mass vaccinations for everyone around the corner. What we need to remember is we will be living in the Covid era for a while longer. The world will not be able to get vaccinated over night, or even over a month or two. BUT the world will be able to open up to travel because of other technologies being trailed and refined now: testing!
Covid-19 testing is opening up countries around the world as we speak! British Airways is piloting a program that they personally rapidly test all passengers at the start and finish of all journeys and more countries are opening boarders to those who can show off their negative test.
No one on Earth has thought more about ethical and safe travel than travel advisors like us. Trust us, we have spent hundreds of hours in meetings, webinars and planning sessions with partners, industry leaders and travel/medical/mental health/epidemiology experts. We aren't just committed to making sure you can travel safely and security- we want to travel, too! How can we make sure everyone is safe? Testing and social distancing at our already spacious and rural locations.
What else can we do? We are going to travel WITH you in 2021 and 2022. We are going to still have our normal solo adventures available but we are going to plan more expeditions! We aren't here to hold your hand, we are here to have your back. Make sure you are safe, covid secure and comfortable. We don't have dates yet but all the small group trips are going to be to our partners. You can go to our website and already see where you can travel with us!
Our small and rural wildlife rehabilitation and conservation centres are perfect for those wanting to avoid crowds (all of us in 2021), they are located away from large cities. You stay privately in sanitized and clean accomodation and when you volunteer you volunteer socially distanced with other people who (like you) have tested negative for Covid-19.
These trips aren't for everyone, in fact our spaces are VERY limited so we can ensure private accomodation and distanced volunteer activities. But if you want to travel this year, we have been prepping for 11 months to make sure you can do it safely and as always ethically and authentically.
We will be announcing locations and dates over the next few months so keep an eye out!
TL;DR
We are going to be leading small group trips in 2021 and 2022 because we want to do the work while you have an amazing animal adventure. Covid secure, safe, comfortable and of course ethical trips guided by Nora and Heather!
