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I've come across a few travel + working websites - which can get you a 'non-standard' job in a remote place - like EscapeTheCity which has had roles from post office master in Antarctica to landmine defuser to chocolate taster.

I'm looking for 'something' - preferably in Latin America - ideally travel related, and I'm struggling to find work+travel websites that aren't just 'volunteer-tourism' where you end up paying to do it. I currently work as a software contractor, but given my explosion of interest in travel the last few years, and having done some fairly hard travel, have some experience of that.

Hiking/trekking guide - no, don't have the physical ability to lead something like that.

But working with animals, sure, leading tours, sure, teaching English in the jungle, sure that also could be interesting. But something related to tours - organising, leading, researching or travelling-ahead-to-prepare-for-the-group would be my ideal short-term goal for a role.

These are however kinda non-standard and not that often advertised for. Any travel working resources would be of interest. This could probably be a community wiki too.

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    All my trips to Latin America and all my friends that have been there I can only ever think of people teaching English (or German) or volunteering in all kinds of things like farms in Guatemala to counting penguins in Tierra del Fuego. You might find IT work in Brazil but it won't be an exotic adventure (-:
    – hippietrail
    Jul 16 '11 at 8:11
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    Oh for sure, I'm certainly not looking for IT work in this - although if it helped, then great (eg online PR coordinator in an orphanage might help if you have IT skills). Counting penguins, epic - I like that, haha
    – Mark Mayo
    Jul 16 '11 at 10:24
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    Apparently these are tall nasty penguins that bite so you have to wear special antipenguin boots. (seriously)
    – hippietrail
    Jul 30 '11 at 21:03
  • I was looking at places to work in South America and noticed Uruguay allowed you to swap visa's while in country. wikitravel.org/en/Uruguay#work
    – Stuart
    Aug 1 '11 at 8:37
  • How about cooking on the remote Arctic island of Bjørnøya? Unfortunately this "Førstekokk Bjørnøya" (head cook on Bjørnøya; Google Translate considered it to mean "firt cook the bear") is only available to Norwegian nationals.
    – gerrit
    Jun 7 '14 at 2:06
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+50

Here are some links to travel jobs to get your started:

  1. http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/shortterm/tourism_hospitality_gap_year_jobs_abroad.shtml - all sorts of jobs, however not particular South America related
  2. http://www.tefl.com/jobs/search.html - currently only 4 language jobs in Mexico; but a lot more in other countries. This job here pays $2000 pesos per month: http://www.tefl.com/jobs/job.html?jo_id=47956; 90km north of Mexico city.
  3. http://www.volunteersouthamerica.net/ - quite long list with links to employers, sorted by country.
  4. http://www.projecttrust.org.uk/Projects.php?p=Teaching - teach English in other countries; however it doesn't mention whether you get paid or you pay them :|
  5. http://www.earthwatch.org/expedition/ - this is where you pay to do do the work, however some of the topics seem quite interesting, but it's also a quite expensive and short experience.

You might get better answers or links if you could give narrow it down to a particular country, so maybe someone could tell from his own experience.

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  • Project Trust is a volunteer charity for high-school leavers only. I went to Japan with them, it was awesome :)
    – codinghands
    Nov 12 '13 at 7:06
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Backdoor Jobs is probably my favourite resource for out of the ordinary job adventures. It includes a variety of different jobs for different people with different backgrounds and experiences. A lot of the jobs listed are leading groups or hiking / trekking, BUT there are a lot of other ones available too.

The owner / writer of the site Michael Landers actually has a book, that I believe is now in its fourth edition. I purchased that book, then gave it to one of my friends. It is quite the resource. Two specific opportunities that I remember from the book where working at a "BioDome" in I believe Arizona, and sailing the Caribbean working as a crew member. The site is a good introduction to what the book has to offer.

All of the organizations / jobs / opportunities listing in the book come with a short description and contact information. If you have the extra money I would recommend purchasing the book.

PLEASE NOTE: As a Canadian, I found a lot of the opportunities were specific to American Citizens. Still, I would highly recommend it for anyone as there are plenty of jobs targeting International People.

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