Ecuador 2025   

After a 20 month build up the team finally came together on the build-up day in Highcliffe School. 

The expedition leader, Tara, joined the team and after going through their kit to check we all had what was needed we did some team-building activities and looked at the first stages of our itinerary. 

The team headed home for a last supper with family and friends and we then travelled to Heathrow the following day for the flight to Ecuador. The seamless journey to Ecuador took a few hours to say the least but eventually the team arrived in Quito and transferred to Hotel Andino for the first of a few stopovers there. With no time to hang around they headed into Quito to have lunch and purchase some essentials for the next stages of the trip. 

The following day was one of sightseeing in the “Old-Town” of Quito. Built with a major Spanish influence, the team had the chance to explore the ancient buildings, streets, churches and markets. Heading back to the hotel, the evening was one to pack all the kit ready for the 6 days of trekking in the volcanic regions around Quito. With 2 days of shorter walks to assist acclimatising to the altitude the team prepped food and kit for what would be a tough 4-day trek. The target was snow line on a volcano called Cotopaxi at an altitude just below that of Everest base camp. With 3 days of trekking through the “Avenue of Volcanoes” completed, the team were on the final push walking around the base of Cotopaxi before they turned uphill with around 5 to 6 hours of lung-bursting climbing ahead, when they were unfortunately hit by extreme weather that meant the only option was not to go as far as planned. Undaunted the team returned to their base camp at Papagayo Lodge and celebrated with a well-earned dip in a hot tub and chocolate brownies with ice-cream. Not all days on expedition are as tough as you might think! 

After a day in Quito to recoup and do some laundry, the team moved off to our project phase via a town called Mindo. Taking part in a chocolate workshop, where they made and tasted several different strengths of dark chocolate, a tour around a butterfly and hummingbird breeding programme and dinner in town, they were enjoying the surrounding forest and contemplating the next stage. The following day they travelled to La Hesperia, where the ongoing research into the farming strategies that we can use to allow humans and animals to live together in a more harmonious way, have been an ongoing work in progress. From cross-breeding new strains of cattle, changing the manner in which the animals are moved on the farm, using cameras to track the puma’s, ocelots, toucans, monkeys and armadillos, breeding goats and sheep and using bamboo in ways we could never predict has made this project one of the most diverse we have been involved with on a World Challenge Expedition. 

This only scratches the surface of what the students achieved! Travelling to the other side of the planet, making many day to day decisions for themselves about where to eat, what food to buy for the days trekking through some of the most dramatic landscapes in South America, how to cook at altitudes higher than the highest mountains in Europe while keeping warm and happy. Making pig pens out of bamboo and realising that Peggy the pig loves a good scratch with a stick, milking goats every morning so Mr Evans can have a coffee and feeding the sheep so that the mums can look after the babies that seemed to increase in number daily. 

All of this and more was achieved by the students taking the lead, without parents to guide, us as staff taking a back seat, but obviously being there to guide if needed. With only one mobile phone for the team to use, information was limited and yet they succeeded. They all came home safe and sound, pleased to greet their families and friends and possibly now with an enhanced set of skills to tackle bio-medical sciences or cyber-security at university or an apprenticeship to become and RAF pilot or even 3 months travelling in a van around New-Zealand. On a personal note I want to say thank-you to the students for being a totally amazing group of young people, for World Challenge’s work setting up and providing all the necessary safety and backup systems needed, to Tara who again worked so well with the students and to Highcliffe School for allowing expeditions like this to run. It is a great honour to be allowed to be part of a trip that the students will never forget! 

A few quotes from the students are below. 

“Great memories made for life” 

“Genuinely lifechanging experience that I’ll remember for the rest of my life” 

“I’ve finished this expedition a far more confident and tenacious version of myself” 

“A once in a lifetime experience which has made me a more confident and adventurous person” 

The next expedition is already being planned and if you are in Year 11 or 12 you will find out about the amazing opportunity that will be open to you in 2027 in an assembly planned for Wednesday September 24th!