We are super excited that you will be visiting us at the Entreamigos
Community Center in San Francisco, Mexico, (known locally as “San
Pancho”). The community center is located in a small rural beach side village about 35minutes from your hotel. It is a village with just a few thousand people, a single main street, three restaurants along a wide and often empty sandy beach. In recent years San Pancho has become known as the “cultural capital” of the Riviera Nayarit, recognizing the artistic, cultural, educational and environmental contributions of many of our local residents.
Entreamigos is a vibrant community center, full of kids, adults and people of all kinds that are interested in creating new opportunities and new futures for themselves and their community. You can learn much more by spending some time on this website, but if you want the abridged version just watch a few videos on our Video page.
First off, a huge thank you for taking the time from your vacation to join us. We feel so lucky and so excited when we find that we will be visited by World Ventures, a huge group of people joining us to improve and maintain our facility and many of the schools, parks and public places of San Pancho…. and always with the best, happiest attitudes!!
When you arrive you will be greeted by our site host, very often the founder of Entreamigos, who will show you around and tell you about the work that we are doing, but most importantly about why it matters. We hope that this insight will help you better understand your integrated relationship with the community, not just here in San Pancho but anywhere you travel in the world. We also hope that you LOVE what we do, as much as we do.
After the tour we will get straight to work. The projects are always different and depend on the needs of the community at the time. Sometimes, we will stay around Entreamigos and work on maintenance or prep for a new activity or event and sometimes we will wander down the street to the local elementary school, plaza or park.
And after we work, you will have time to explore Entreamigos on your own, shop at our gift store, meet or play with children in the community center and then we will all join together for some local ceviche and freshly made fruit water.
(for info about your hotel transport and meeting times, please ask your group leader)
It is almost always warm… dress cool and comfortable and better yet, wear your World Ventures@entreamigos T-shirt! Its a great way for everyone in the community to know that you are here and helping out! T-shirts are available for purchase from your trip host or upon arrival at Entreamigos.
We suggest that you wear:
Tennis Shoes
Clothes that can get dirty
a hat or visor
and if you have a favorite sunscreen and bug repellent, bring those too!
No need to bring disposable water bottles, we will provide drinking water for you.
Bring a camera and some cash and that’s about it. We will have a place for you to store your valuables while you are working and you’ll want to take pictures of you and your friends having a different kind of fun on vacation!
Don’t forget to bring cash(or credit cards) because Entreamigos has one of the most famous gift stores in the Riviera Nayarit and you’ll be bummed if you miss out. The Entreamigos “Galleria” is full of one-of-a-kind gift items that are handmade by local residents and almost always the items are made from re-purposed or recycled materials. On your tour of the facility you will get to see where many of the items are made and meet the people who make them. 100% of the proceeds from the store are used to support Entreamigos programs and create local jobs. We think its a win-win for everyone and we are excited to show off our work. To see a photo gallery of items from the gift store, visit, ea Gallery and store.
oh.. and did we mention, the prices are much better than your hotel souvenir store!
Many of our World Ventures visitors ask what else they can do. We have two big ways that you can help, and it starts right at home.
Please consider bringing a backpack with school supplies. Every year World Ventures travelers donate a few hundred backpacks and mountains of school supplies and every year and throughout the year, Entreamigos donates these supplies to local schools and kids. In 2014, 200 backpacks and school supplies were donated to local students and huge packages of additional supplies were located to schools not only in our community but in other smaller and even needier communities. Thank you!
Please consider packing an extra bag with your good quality used clothes. We know that it might take a little more effort to travel and even cost a baggage fee but when you bring a bag of used clothes to donate to Entreamigos you are directly supporting the critical needs of children and families in our community. You are also making a cash contribution to the organization as some of your used items will be sold in our second hand store, Recicla Shop We calculate that every bag of good quality used clothes is worth about a $200usd cash donation! Thank you!
If you find yourself, moved, motivated, inspired or wanting to do more…Please ask about how you can support the education of a Scholarship student or how you or your family foundation can underwrite one of our ongoing programs.
Check out the Entreamigos website to learn a little bit more about the work that we do.
Confirm your participation with your trip host (if you haven’t already)
Send this link to the friends and family that will be joining you on the trip to be sure that they have all the info they need.
Gather up some school supplies and used clothes and pack them in an extra suitcase to bring along with you.
Check out the pictures below of other World Ventures travelers and the fun that they’ve had!
