Mexico

I chose to volunteer with IVHQ for a week in Merida and chose the child care program. This was my first time with IVHQ. I found the process of signing up very easy and user-friendly. IVHQ was very responsive and even called me to chat. The IVHQ placement options are enormous across the entire world and it is the most affordable volunteer organization I have found. Once registration was complete, the program review was really easy to follow and full of a lot of important details. They even offer flight booking help, travel insurance links, and your travel country of choice's visa requirements. The local contact in Merida was very responsive by text before my arrival. I was given the choice to be picked up at the airport which went as planned. I chose to stay at the Volunteer Inn (instead of a host family), which was clean and my room was comfortable. We were provided one day of orientation that covered a lot of details, including a trip into the town center, with historical sightseeing. My assignment in child care was well organized, although we had to use our imagination to work with the children. I wanted to do a geography lesson and needed a round ball to draw the continents. I did not have a ball handy so I used a coconut I found in the street. I had the children paint it blue and I traced the continents to teach about other countries in relation to Merida and Mexico. I met a nice group of like-minded volunteers, which was a lot of fun.

Plainly speaking, I am very dissatisfied with my don Quijote experience. My girlfriend Bonnie and I looked forward to this trip for months only to be frustrated with our very poor experience. Don Quijote did not meet our expectations! We did not have the “times of our lives.” Our don Quijote academic advisor did not provide clear guidance on how to select a language program that best fit each of our needs. They did not provide enough information about their homestay selection to allow us to make an informed decision. And they knowingly sold us a ridiculously priced airport pick up option that is nothing short of criminal.

Below are the details of each issue.

Issues with the Language Courses Purchased

· I will concede that I misunderstood some of the details regarding the course offerings we purchased. Thankfully, the local don Quijote school director had the decency to inform me of the issue on the first day.

· Specifically, I did not understand that Super Intensive 30 meant 30 hours of instruction. I thought I had purchase 20 hours of ‘advanced’ language instruction. The local director caught this error right away and explained the math. Because there were only four school days during the week of our stay (due to the November 1st holiday), both Bonnie and I would have had to average 7 ½ hours of instruction per day for four days to complete 30 hours of instruction. Not only is this not practical for any language learner, but the school simply was not able to accommodate such a schedule. This error should have been caught by Don Quijote as they are experts in their course of instruction and language learning best practice. Obviously, had we understood the course options, we would not have chosen Super Intensive 30 course. Clearly, the don Quijote academic advisor should have caught this error right away and recommended an alternative course, as the local director did.

· To make things worse, I purchased 5 hours of additional private instruction, which would have totaled my daily hours of instruction to 8 ½. How is it possible that my don Quijote academic advisor did not realize this wasn’t a problem? Again, the local director realized the issue right away while my don Quijote academic advisor failed me miserably. I attended a one-hour follow-on class after the 4-hour group class on the first day. However, it was not a one-on-one, customized class just for me. It was simply an extension of the group class format, attended by three students and with no real structure or agenda. Because the local don Quijote school was unable to fulfill the private class as described in your brochure, I elected not to attend the remaining classes as it did not meet the course description objectives nor my expectations.

· Bottom line, my academic advisor gave me no advice!

Issues with the Home Stay Arrangement

· The most egregious issue is regarding our homestay arrangement. The address provided by don Quijote was incorrect. It is the address of the host’s sister. To be clear, it is not the address of the homestay hosts and not the location where Bonnie and I lodged and expected to be. We stayed at a different location, not the “central residential neighborhood” as described in the homestay description and it was located twice as far from the school as communicated. Don Quijote and our hosts put us in a very awkward, worrisome and quite frankly, un-safe situation. A very unsafe situation! Bonnie and I simply did not know where we were, our address, how to travel to the school in the morning, etc., nor could we tell anyone where we were. This is a totally unethical and dangerous “bait and switch” practice! This is a horrible way to treat a customer, an unethical business practice if not illegal, and one that should never be condoned!

· To make things worse, our hosts did not provide Bonnie and I the correct address until the morning of our third day in Oaxaca, even though we asked them multiple times! During the first two days we were not able to return to the property on our own accord because we did not know the address of our homestay. We had no choice but to rely on our hosts to pick us up after school. It ruined our Monday evening because instead of eating dinner with our fellow students, we waited for our hosts in a heavy rain for over an hour to be picked up. The school had closed its doors, so we waited outside under cover of a nearby building in the rain. We were soaking wet and did not eat dinner that night nor breakfast the next morning!

· During our wait in the rain it became apparent our hosts were not familiar with the exact location of the school. How is that possible? We saw our host drive by the front (and only) entrance to the school three or four times without looking or stopping before finally picking us up.

· It was only on our third day that we had the correct address needed to travel around the city on foot and taxi.

Issues with the Homestay itself

· Again, the location of the actual house was twice as far as what was communicated by don Quijote. Instead of an easy 15-minute walk, it was a difficult and dangerous 30-minute walk: difficult because the property is located on an extremely steep hill and dangerous because the traffic on the street leading from the hosts’ house is very heavy with narrow and obstructed sidewalks.

· There are no nice stores, restaurants or bars near the homestay. While our fellow students spoke of 5-minute walks to pleasant cafes and restaurants, Bonnie and I walked at least 30 minutes before arriving at one.

· We did not have WIFI at our homestay until late afternoon Wednesday, halfway through our entire week stay.

· The price of the room, given the location and amenities is super overpriced, as compared to the lodgings of our fellow students.

o The bed, linen, pillows were all very uncomfortable and of poor quality.

o There was no couch, not a single comfortable chair to sit. Only picnic-style benches and stackable metal chairs with no cushions.

o There was no refrigerator for cold drinks or perishable food.

o The host gave us a coffee maker on our second day but only instant coffee.

o There was a gas stove, but it did not work. There was no microwave, no way to cook or reheat food.

o On the first night, the host had to send her husband out to buy us each a 1-liter bottle of water because there were bugs inside the 5-gallon water container they intended for us to use.

· The noise in the neighborhood was incessant. Dogs barked and fireworks boomed all night long, every single night. This is not an exaggeration.

· Don Quijote gave us insufficient details regarding the correct address, quality, condition and amenities of the property for Bonnie and me to make an informed decision. Had we received this information, as should be any traveler’s expectation, we would have never accepted this arrangement.

Issue with the Pick-up Service

· We expected a professional pickup service. Your communication said, “One of our drivers will be waiting for you with a don Quijote sign bearing your name to be easily spotted.” We were quite surprised to see the host family at the airport with a paper sign waiting to pick us up. We realize now that we should not have had to pay extra for the pickup service.

· The extra charge for the pickup service was exorbitant, $70 US dollars. We subsequently learned that a taxi ride from the airport to the hosts’ home is only $6 dollars US. For that price we expected a professional pickup service that we never received. Instead we were picked up by the hosts in an uncomfortable car with no seat belts, no air conditioner, no anything. This is a total rip-off, a cheat, and a positively shameful business practice for which we demand reparation!

To be clear, I have documented and can show evidence of all that I’ve said above. If don Quijote cares even a little about the safety of their clients, or at least their own reputation, they will meet my refund demands as summarized at the beginning of this communication.

Going to Oaxaca, Mexico was an incredible experience, and Sol Abroad helped make that happen. The director of our program, Ena Aguilar, was informed and very active in making sure that everyone in our group was happy and taken care of. Near to the end of the trip, I got a bit sick, and even though it was never anything too serious, Ena made sure to check in with me whenever she could about how I was doing.

The program itinerary was very thorough and gave us an opportunity to see and do things that normal tourists would not be able to do. One day, we took a cooking class with an esteemed Oaxacan chef. Another, we took a guided tour through Santo Domingo, a temple in Oaxaca. We even took a trip to a small beach town called Huatulco for a weekend and relaxed.

All in all, the trip was incredible, mostly thanks to Sol Abroad and it's services. I couldn't recommend them enough!

My name is Marina and I am from Alberta, Canada. I traveled to Merida for one week to complete the special needs care project. It was my first time traveling solo and I was very nervous. However, IVHQ had such a streamlined process from start to finish and I felt safe and supported throughout my entire time in Mexico. Anytime I had a question I was always answered immediately. The fees are very affordable so it was perfect for a student like myself. The reason I went on this trip was to have a new travel opportunity but to also add valuable experience to my resume! The volunteer placement was so rewarding and worked out perfectly. It's a great set up because we volunteered in the mornings and had every afternoon and weekend to do excursions. Our program coordinator always had fun suggestions for things to do! This program is perfect for young solo travelers and I would suggest it to everyone!

Hola, I’m Maria and I just spent one month with IVHQ Mexico in Merida. If I want to describe my experience here in one world, I would say that it was phenomenal.
I won’t lie to you, the first week was hard. It takes time and effort to integrate yourself into a new culture, and to get used to the food, the language, and the lifestyle. However, once you get used to it, you will love it and become quite attached to it. Also, I realized that everything depends on the mindset you travel in: Having an open mind and saying yes to new experiences and adventures that are outside of your comfort zone will make your experience so much better.
What made my experience here so nice was the staff who really made everything easier. They were very understanding whenever I had an issue and always did their best to help me and make me feel safe, which is very important for someone who is abroad. Besides the staff, the friends I made here changed my life.
As for what I did, I was part of the English teaching program, and what was amazing about that was that every time I arrived at the school, all the girls would stop what they were doing and run to me, hug me, and give me a kiss. I would honestly do anything to go back and have this incredible welcome that made my day every morning.
In a few words, what I learned at the end of my trip is that the more you give, the more you will gain! Thank you IVHQ for these amazing 4 weeks of my life!

I’d been wanting to participate in some sort of volunteer tourism program for a while, but as a first time solo traveler I wasn’t sure which program would be the best for me. After doing a bit of research I came across IVHQ. Choosing their program was the best decision. Not only is IVHQ one of the cheapest volunteer tourism groups around, they allow you plenty of time to sightsee and offer a wide variety of volunteer opportunities in a even wider selection of countries. From the very beginning their staff were helpful and always available to answer any questions.

Once I was in country, I found my accommodations in Mérida, Mexico to be exceptional. Everything was very clean and safe. There was even a pool. My coordinator Carolina was very helpful. She even set up tours for me and did research about things I was interested in doing to help me make the most of my time in Mexico.

While seeing all the street animals was sad, AFAD, the animal shelter were I volunteered was a ray of sunshine. Everyone who worked there was kind and incredibly dedicated to the care of their animals. The facility was clean and the animals were happy and well cared for. I wish I could have stayed longer.

If you’re looking for a way to see the world while giving back, especially if you’re a solo traveler, I highly recommend IVHQ.

It was a super exciting experience being immersed in the culture and the language that I knew so little about before coming here, all the staff and volunteers are extremely friendly and helpful and made the experience worthwhile. Being around people who require your assistance is really rewarding and something I will never forget. I was disappointed with how little we got to spend at placement considering we are only here for a week so I recommend more balance between volunteering and sightseeing for future volunteers. The house was really nice and well maintained as well as the food. Trying real authentic Mexican food was awesome however, more variety would be appreciated as a lot of meals we experienced were the same or very similar. Overall a really great experience.

Initially, I wasn’t too sure what to expect with my volunteering experience as it was my first time; however, it turned out to be the most amazing week!! The staff working at my placement (Carolina, Miguel and our cook Ana) were such lovely people. They were always available to answer any questions, give advice about tours/ what to do and to ask how we were all settling into the program. The other volunteers were very welcoming and friendly towards me. It was great to hear about everyone’s home countries and why they chose to be here. I was volunteering, with a friend, and we were both placed at a daycare centre. The children were truly adorable and all the staff working there were lovely even with a language barrier. I did a one week volunteering experience and the staff was so flexible if I needed to take off placement to go to a day trip to Chichen Itza or to leave early to catch a bus to Uxmal. I would definitely recommend going to Uxmal as you get to climb a part of the ruins - this was one of the highlights. Immersing myself in such a different culture via language, food etc was such an amazing experience. I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

I chose to volunteer with IVHQ because my school required me to fulfill an international experience in order to graduate and most students there have volunteered through IVHQ. I decided last minute I wanted to do this instead of another program offered by my school, I didn't know where to volunteer in, and I didn't have the time to research other countries either. I thought Mérida was a good idea because I already spoke Spanish, it was affordable, and the travel distance was relatively shorter compared to other locations... And it was the best the decision I could've made! I have met wonderful people here, I have made new friends, and I have visited the beautiful surroundings including downtown Merida and Uxmal ruins.
The schedule is perfect for both volunteering and exploring, a typical day includes around four hours of volunteer work in the morning with the afternoons are free. The project I worked on was sustainable agriculture in which I helped in a community garden, and I learned how to grow tomatoes, pumpkin, and eggplants. I also had the opportunity to support the childcare project at Amiguitos, and I must say this placement was my favorite! At Amiguitos, the children were exposed to an interactive, fun, but structured environment. It was just wonderful! The kids would play outside, every day they would have a different outdoor activity; then they would come back inside and toys were set out for them, this was to keep them entertained while waiting for their turn to take a shower; then they would have lunch, brush their teeth and prepare for nap time. I was impressed with the level of discipline these kids had!
Overall, IVHQ-Mérida was a great experience, you won't regret your decision if you choose this program!

This has been my first ever experience participating in a volunteer program. The opportunity came to me because my granddaughter needed to attend a volunteer program as part of her college curriculum and chose Mexico to study and participate in a local daycare. Not only was the IVHQ staff so helpful, supportive, and accommodating; but the teachers and the directors of the child care program did the same as well. They teach the children every day and do different activities that involve Love care and affection. I am so happy to have been able to be a part of this