Reviewed 15 Apr 2007 by Alice de Lamaze
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Being able to help turtles to nest at night, every night, seeing them crawling up the beach to nest their eggs, helping her in that process and making sure the eggs are safe or relocated to a hatchery to enable them to harvest in the best conditions possible.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
The most important thing is not to shy away from hard work - long patrols at nights or guarding and building hatcheries can be tough under the tropical rain or 36 degrees, be prepared for the most adventurous time of your life. No one day resembles the next in terms of help we provide, and all ideas and steps forward are clearly valued by the community. Patrolling beach at nights increases the chance of hatchling process occurring safely and reduces the poaching level of eggs from 98% in the past to 2% currently. Locals realise the economic value of the project is in their interest, as it brings more awareness to this endangered species, trying to push as much as possible the extinction of leatherback sea turtles is definitely worth not only for these animals but also for the local communities that look after the project.
Be enthusiastic and open-minded, and nothing can stop you to contribute a little bit there for the better of sustainable development. Bring dark covering clothes for night patrols, a sun hat at a lot of sunscreen for day duties, take some vitamin B12 against mosquitoes as repellent are not allowed (and sand flies adore human bodies). Humidity being quite high, always travel with a raincoat handy. You will see a lot of other rare animal species in the Refugio de gandoca manzanillo, a true tropical forest. Days off get you surfing in puerto viejo or visiting bocas del toro in panama, 1 week for this project is too short, 2 weeks is good, but being there 2 weeks, I actually wanted to stay another 3rd week as the peak of the season is starting. No need to speak Spanish, but need to accept a good rice and beans session as it is the main dish there.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Locals aged 18-35 lead the night patrols, coordinate the volunteering work in the hatchery building process, and work hands in hands with the organisation. Locals also provide basic accommodation in families and cabins for foreign volunteers so work for the organisation and are used as stays (they get paid for it) for volunteers. With local leaders on patrol, chances to miss a turtle nesting are very very low, and poachers are working less because of the local leaders. Staying in basic camping / farming accommodation far from all luxuries enables to preserve the beautiful natural ecosystem surrounding us (alligator on the mini-lake, hurling monkeys in the trees, a boa in the garden, from the most normal farm animal to the most uncommon). Costa Rican Ticos are very chilled out and friendly- probably the friendliest country towards foreigners, very open and entertaining.
4. Any other comments?
Fabulous, fantastic, astonishing and I cannot even express my thoughts. I am longing to develop the pictures really quickly. My first ever volunteering experience was a true success. I am certainly looking towards a second adventure...
Reviewed 02 Apr 2006 by Jill Peacock
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
SEEING a sea turtle laying eggs. (We saw just one, in a supposed-7-day tour of duty.)
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be aware that many costs are not covered when you apply for your holiday, and that the time AT the project is only 3 - 4 days if you book a week.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes. Benefited them mainly in providing income for accommodation.
4. Any other comments?
This is an easy but costly way of doing volunteer work. For those new to travel.
Read the operator's response here:
There is no absolute guarantee that you will actually see turtles during a set period, especially if that is just one week. We do send volunteers to the relevant areas when the turtle season is running and assistance is most required. These are wild animals that come and go as they please but we are sorry that you did not have to assist with more turtles than this, at some times there are more turtles than volunteers!
We do try to cover the majority of expenses whilst in country and make it very clear on our website what those exclusions will be. As a general rule the exclusions are flights, visas and in-country transport once you have been picked up at the airport. This is due to the fact that much of this transport is public and has to be paid in person at the time. There are also additional personal expenses such as internet usage, phone calls, trips at weekends etc. Within our pre-departure information we also indicate how much these extra expenses should be. We generally provide insurance, accommodation, two meals per day, airport pickup, an orientation (including introduction to the country, health and safety, culture and language) and 24 hour support while you are in country.
The orientation is a very important part of the experience with us because it introduces you to the country, how to stay safe, cultural considerations and logistics on getting around. When you are volunteering for one week this will inevitably bite into the volunteer time but we consider it to be of vital importance and try to make it clear how things will work when you book.
The main payments that are made in country are for your food and accommodation as well as your support. This means that you are paying your way without being a burden on the project. The project themselves benefit by having volunteer labour to assist in their ongoing tasks. We do not as a general rule fund the projects that we work with as we aim to assist sustainable projects in their own right. We do not want them to be reliant on the funds from volunteers whose numbers go up and down throughout the year. We do, however, fund projects through our Foundation so that projects can get tangible items on an annual basis. For example, last year the foundation donated GB £130,000 across our projects globally.
There are indeed cheaper ways to volunteer. If you have the inclination you can arrange your own volunteering experience directly and only cover your in-country costs. However, this takes a lot of effort and no guarantees. You also do not have the support network in your home country and in the country you are volunteering so that if something should go wrong you can call on them for help. We aim to provide a high quality service and experience for people who want us to do the leg work, provide the support and prepare individuals for their trips away so that they don't have to worry, however, that does not come without a cost.
