Praktika ekologinio turizmo įmonėje Estijoje

I was really passionate about the nature and travelling during my study time. I spent most of my free time exploring it. During my studies I learned many interesting facts about the nature, I gained interesting skills (for example foot tracing or plants recognition). I always enjoy to share this knowledge with others, and I thought that one of the way to protect the nature – is making people to be curious about it. For all that reasons I decided to have an internship in nature based tourism company.

I did my internship  in one ecotourism company in Soomaa national park, in Estonia. The company provides nature guided tours and canoe rent. Guided tours where of two types: guided canoe trips and guided bog walking trips. The internship was quite short – only 2 months, however it was really useful for me and I enjoyed it so much. The company helped me with accommodation and sometimes with transportation, so I was able to concentrate on work.

I was working with nature guides, assisting them on guided tours. During the internship I was able to customise my working days and activities freely, thus I had the opportunity to work with all guides and to explore all routes. I  was also helping with canoe care and transportation from time to time. During the guided tours I had the possibility to work with costumers from all over the world – it was really exciting for me. I was able to improve my canoeing skills on my free time too.

In addition I had many extra activities during my internship. I was participating in some events about bogs ecology and conservation, traditional dugout canoe workshop and in ecological construction camp. I gained more knowledge and better understanding about local environment, history and culture.

This internship was beneficial for me in many ways: I got better understanding about nature based tourism, I improved my English, communication with costumers and nature guiding skills, I learned more about Estonia and of course I really enjoy it.