One way to engage in purposeful travel is to do volunteer work in exchange for a place to stay. We selected a destination whose ideals were close to our own, an ecological resort. We picked the grandaddy of them all, Maho Camps on St John in the US Virgin Islands. Luckily, we were selected for the 30-day program that requires you to work four hours per day (120 for the month) in exchange for your lodging.

The work was demanding, if for no other reason than Maho has hundreds of steps to climb. But, when the work was done, we could collapse on the gorgeous beach.

The accommodations were tent cabins perched among the vegetation and connected with boardwalks. Ours had twin beds (boo!) with an incredible view (yea!).

Maho has an open-air pavilion restaurant surrounded by exotic flowers and boasts a fair view of its own.

On one of our days off, we hopped a shuttle into Cruz Bay and pampered ourselves with fantastic West Indian food.

About halfway through, we were given the chance to work at the newer part of the Maho dream, Concordia (on the other side of the island).

During the transition between the two sites, we took a National Park Service hike to the petroglyphs.

Concordia has both eco-tents and studios perched on a hillside above Drunk Bay (with it’s funky sculptures from shells and trash) and Salt Pond Bay.

The hike to Ram’s Head is world-class, taking you past a ruin, around the great snorkeling spot of Salt Pond Bay, to the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Our little studio was perfect and we also had a pool to hang around.

Of course we did work, but our lunch break was always special.

We picked the month of September. Guess what? That’s hurricane time! Sure enough, Hurricane Jeanne gave us a brush. The evening after was fantastic.

We’ll never forget all of the critters whose island we shared.

PS: Did we mention those wonderful rum drinks?