Volunteering in Costa Rica

Pick up at the Juan Santamaría International Airport and transfer to Hotel. Free afternoon.

We start our San José City tours picking you up at your hotel in the morning and heading to Plaza de la Cultura; this plaza is in the heart of downtown, is usually packed with locals slurping ice-cream cones and perfect for admiring the wide gamut of San José street life.

Later we will continue to Parque Nacional and National Museum of Costa Rica; this museum offers a quick survey of Costa Rican history.

Afterwards we will visit the National Theater and Metropolitan Cathedral. Then we will move to La Fortuna, near to Arenal Volcano for spend the night.

Our Arenal Volcano tour begins early in the morning when our Adventures Mexico’s guide picks you up in your hotel.

When you reach the park, experience the thundering Arenal Volcano from a safe viewing area. Since a major eruption in 1968, this stratovolcano has been one of the most active in Costa Rica, with mild and nearly continuous explosive activity from the conical crater, whose summit reaches an elevation of 5,436 feet (1,657 meters).

As you watch for any lava flows, clouds of smoke or ash, your guide will share information about the park’s thermal features.

The most recent eruptive period for Arenal began with a major explosive eruption in 1968.

On our way to Tamarindo we will visit National Park of Palo Verde; The park Verde is a wetland sanctuary in Costa Rica’s driest province. It lies on the northeastern bank of the mouth of Río Tempisque, and at the head of the Golfo de Nicoya.

All of the major rivers in the region drain into this ancient intersection of two basins, which creates a mosaic of habitats, including mangrove swamps, marshes, grassy savannas and evergreen forests.

A number of low limestone hills provide lookout points over the park, and the park’s shallow, permanent lagoons are focal points for wildlife.

Playa Grande it is a beach in the province of Guanacaste and is considered to be one of most important nesting sites in the entire world for the baula or leatherback turtle.

Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas de Guanacaste, was created in 1995 to ensure the survival of the leatherback turtle and protects about 450 hectares of beaches, forests and mangroves.

Tamarindo’s perennial status as Costa Rica’s top surf and party destination has made it the first and last stop for legions of tourists. It stands to reason, then, that this is the most developed beach on the peninsula with no shortage of hotels, bars and restaurants.

Yet, despite its party-town reputation, Tamarindo is more than just drinking and surfing. It forms a part of the Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas de Guanacaste, and the beach retains an allure for kids and adults alike.

Whether you are looking to swim, relax, surf or get into various adventures, there is something in Tamarindo for all types of marine lovers..

Costa de Oro in Playa Coyote is a small beach town on the Pacific side of Costa Rica’s southern Nicoyan Peninsula. It is the newest of four sea turtle beach conservation projects, and has been in operation since the 2012 season.

This sandy beach is 4.5 km long, and is bordered by the Javilla estuary in the north and the Coyote estuary in the south. 

Accommodation is in private cabins at Costa de Oro. The cabins have a bathroom, fully equipped kitchen and a dining table. Outside there’s a parking lot, a swimming pool, and a large ranch style building with plenty of room to put up your hammock and relax in the shade.

Some of the tasks the volunteers are up to:

• Volunteers accompany staff member team on nightly 3-hour beach patrols, both looking for nesting sea turtles and recording scientific data. Another objective is to find sea turtle nests, collect the eggs, and move them to a hatchery where they are protected from poaching.
• Volunteers help monitor and maintain the hatcheries to ensure that incubation conditions are optimal for egg development. Once the hatchlings emerge from the nest, project participants release the hatchlings onto the beach, and protect them from predators as they crawl out the ocean.
• Along with the turtle tasks, volunteers are expected to help with station house maintenance and cleaning. Team members live in close proximities, so it is important to keep the living areas clean and functional.
• There are additional opportunities available for volunteers such as helping out at local schools and assisting in climate change or beach garbage monitoring studies.

This information is used to gain an understanding of sea turtle reproductive behavior, and improve our conservation strategies in the future.

Our Monteverde tour start early in the morning; Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve is a private protected area with a high scientific and economic value, being a positive conservancy model to follow in Costa Rica and internationally.

Since 1973 Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve has been a living laboratory for hundreds of scientific researches, besides a destination for thousands of foreigner visitors who support the ecotourism in Monteverde zone.

In Monteverde we can do canopy tours, visits to the butterfly garden, take a suspension bridges tour, horseback riding and visit the cheese factory.