What a week it has been!  Last week the whole Tropical Adventures team (Scott, Isaac, Ricardo, Mauro, Roberto, Susan and Sarah) went on a wonderful trip to visit some of our projects in the North West of Costa Rica.  We first took a visit to the Arenal volcano area to meet with some of our trusted tour providers and were lucky enough to get to sample ‘canyoneering’.  This is a Costa Rican past-time which involves abseiling up to 200 meters down waterfalls and jumping through rock pools in the rainforest – well done to Susan for getting over her fear of heights!!   What excitement it was to lie in bed at night looking up at a smoking volcano!

We spent the last three days in Guanacaste
region where Ricardo, our project co-coordinator for that area, took us to the
sea-turtle conservation project at Camaronal where we got to do as the
volunteers do and did a beach patrol in the night where we made sure that
turtle eggs were buried above the high-tide mark to maximize their chance of
survival and watched out for the many turtle egg poachers ‘hueveros’ there are
(eggs are illegally sold in Costa Rica as a specialty food and to bars as an
appetizer drink).  We came across an egg poacher and some of his family
waiting in the sand dunes for turtles coming in to lay their eggs.

The
eggs are sold at a high price and for people in the community who barely earn

enough to survive it felt unnerving to have to turn them away.  They have
probably been taking and selling turtle eggs for many years and may have little
understanding of their effect on the population of turtles in this area.
However, it so important to protect this endangered species by ensuring
the eggs are buried in the right place and left to hatch – we were told by the
rangers there that only 1 in 1000 eggs laid actually turn into a turtle that
survives into adulthood.   This is why the night patrols are key in
preventing eggs being washed away or stolen.  It was such a wonderful sight
to see several turtles laying their eggs.  They didn’t seem to mind our
presence at all and we all watched in awe.

We
also visited the elementary school and day-care centre in Hojancha where our
volunteers spend time teaching and mentoring students and leading sports, arts
and crafts and other recreational activities.  The children love having
the volunteers there to play with and learn from 
and this allows the head-teacher to get on with tasks she doesn’t often get
time to do.  It was great to see so many happy and playful children at the
day-care centre.  It’s a place where young children from less privileged
areas go to play and learn important life skills such as how to eat healthily
and how to brush their teeth.  The centre ensures that every child gets a
good meal – something very important for their development and health.  You can see some more photos of the day-care centre on our website here.

We
spent a night at both the Monte Alto and Barra Honda National Parks where our
volunteers are involved in erosion control, path maintenance, tourist assistance
and environmental education.  At Barra Honda, our lovely friendly Costa
Rican guide, Norman, took us to the underground caves – which was an adventure
in itself – an underground world millions of years old where we squeezed,
climbed and crawled our way through.  The views from the top of the
mountain there over the Nicoya valley area were spectacular.  We stayed
one night with a wonderful  couple who were so proud and welcoming to
have us at their home and cooked us a huge feast for breakfast – the
hospitality and warmth of the Costa Rican people is so humbling. The howler
monkeys were  also out in force and provided a good wake-up call in the morning.

We
were also lucky enough during the week to get a free surfing lesson at the surf
school we recommend to volunteers in Tamarindo and try out a canopy tour (by zip-line) – one
of Costa Rica’s must-dos. Well, I can think of worst jobs.

It
was great for the whole team to get a really good understanding of our projects
and tours in this region and it was wonderful to spend the week with the rest
of the team, getting to know each other better.   We are 7 people
from different corners of the globe and it is fantastic to all be working
together for the same cause.  We hope that when our volunteers come, the
projects and people they meet will impact them as much as they did with us over
the past week.

Pura
Vida,

Sarah
Morris

Marketing
Intern.

Check out some videos of the trip on our Facebook group here:

Isaac Garcia – Zip-line canopy tour

Susan Schuetze – Funny faces

Sarah Morris – I don’t think she knows the right way