(2 of 3)
The Kraussers had signed on with Service Civil International of Seattle, which coordinates work camps in 50 countries. Since they have a strong interest in classical Greek culture, they volunteered for two weeks last spring to clear the overgrown site of an ancient amphitheater in Mycenae. Occasionally turning up pieces of marble in the theater's dusty floor, Traudi held them in her hand and imagined what the place and people had been like thousands of years ago. Weekend trips to Delphi and Olympia, arranged by the Greek cultural organization sponsoring the work camp, were an unexpected bonus.
Using some free air miles to fly from their home in Seattle to Corfu, and with the cost of food and lodging at the work camp only $125 a person, the Kraussers spent less than $1,000 for their two weeks. The Greek group leader often sauteed calamari for a treat at lunch, which was the main meal, and the seven other campers, all in their 20s and from Holland, France, Crete and Britain, shared recipes. Everyone ate together at a large table under a shade tree in front of the little school. When the Kraussers weren't wearing shorts and T shirts, they were in swimsuits. After four hours' work under the blazing morning sun, they had afternoons free and soon discovered a beautiful sweeping sand beach frequented only by a few local families. "This became our favorite spot," John says, "where we would swim, sunbathe and read." Surrounded by all that beauty, who wouldn't put up with an air mattress?
IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE
At dawn on his vacation, Lee Peachey climbed a hill in the Ecuadorian cloud forest and unfolded thin nets strung between bamboo poles. When birds, often Amazilia hummingbirds or gray-breasted wood wrens, flew into the nets, he patiently untangled them and, with sweat pouring down his face and into his glasses, carried them down a steep path to a work station below. There he and his wife Helen or one of their three teammates on an Earthwatch expedition recorded the birds' size, type and condition, took blood samples and made sure they were banded before setting them free. At dusk Lee closed the nets and took his turn cooking dinner or cleaning up. Then he collapsed, exhausted, in a tent. "I wouldn't trade it for anything," he declares. "Hard work, but it was marvelous."
Helen agrees and says, "It is something special to get that far away from the world." A clinical-research nurse, she exercises regularly but had a rough time on the rugged, muddy 9-mile trek up to the base camp in the Machalilla National Park of coastal Ecuador. It was easier for Lee, a biophysicist who at 67 still bikes 30 miles round trip every day between their home in a Philadelphia suburb and his office at the University of Pennsylvania. For their nine days, not including airfare, they paid a little less than $1,600, which is partly tax deductible. "Practicing retirement" is how the couple describes this adventure. But Helen admits to another motive. "I had just turned 60," she says, "and had to prove to myself that I could still do it."