In December 2022 we had the amazing chance to go to Costa Rica, and participate in a wildlife intern volunteer program. This experience was such a key highlight for us both. Being immersed in wildlife, surrounded by likeminded people, and learning and being able to watch wild animals… it was such a mind-blowing experience.

We had a 16 day trip in Costa Rica, in which only 7 days was dedicated for volunteering… this quickly changed. We instead decided to extend our stay volunteering to fill our full 16 day trip.

Our experience was spent in Alajeula (not far from the capital of San Jose), where we spent our volunteering at Rescate Wildlife Sanctuary. This sanctuary is home to around 650 animals, all that cannot be returned to the wild for a variety of reasons (had a detrimental human imprinting, bad injuries, wouldn’t survive in the wild etc). It also has a veterinary hospital and rehabilitation centre, which is the largest in Central America, and the only one in Costa Rica. It also runs breeding programmes for endangered species, such as the scarlet macaws.

Below we are going to share an insight into what our volunteer experience was like, how our day to day activities looked, and if it was worth it!

How did we volunteer abroad?

There are so many ways to volunteer abroad now! Especially for a wider range of interests now. There are plenty of opportunities, ranging from free to paid positions, for a variety of time periods and specialities.

Our focus was mainly on animals, since we both share that interest. However, I had wanted to focus more on photography and social media based work, whereas Jack was happier to be more physical and hands on.

With knowing our time scale (roughly), and our interests and skillsets, we decided to volunteer through the ‘Volunteer World’ platform, and this is where we found Rescate! This was a paid placement, and we believe the cost is more now than when we volunteered, but ours was roughly £400 a week.

We applied through the volunteer world website, writing why we wanted to join on this program, and thankfully we were accepted!

There is other platforms to use to volunteer abroad, which we will briefly touch on here (watch out for a future post explaining these in further detail)!

For free volunteering opportunities, its great to check out WorldPackers and Workaway, however we have seen there isn’t as many animal based opportunities. Volunteer World has also introduced some free placements, but we think they are for longer time periods. Some charities you can also reach out directly to see if there are any volunteer spots available.

What is included?

Every placement is different, but we will explain about our one specifically.

Included in our fee was a hostel-style accommodation in the volunteer house (I actually designed and painted a mural here!), alongside 3 meals a day.

The accommodation was nice! The room we were in had two bunks of two beds (so four of us in total), you had your own wardrobe space, and our view was overlooking a path in the sanctuary where we often saw a peacock walking across! There was a shared bathroom with a shower, which was great. Then there was a community area with cooking facilities, a fridge, a large table, and whiteboard saying our weekly activities! This is also where the tree is painted. We spent many nights here playing music, socialising, making food and having a laugh!

For breakfast we had access to basics like cereal, eggs, milk etc. We were then added into a WhatsApp group chat, where we would have a set list of meals to request. In the morning, we would make our lunchtime and dinner requests in this chat from the list provided. There was both meat and vegetarian options! Within the sanctuary was the ‘animal kitchen’, where food was prepared for all the animals, however we were allowed in their to get fruit to snack on.

They were able to pick us up from the airport, however this did have a small fee. There was also wifi available around the sanctuary and volunteer house.

And of course, all of our volunteer activities and learning was included!

What did the average week look like?

So within a week we were given two ‘off days’, where we could go off to explore. During our 16 day trip, we spent a two day stay in Manuel Antonio, then another two day stay in Monteverde.

Each week a schedule of activities was written on the whiteboard, with everyone having different roles. We were able to say what our preferred activities were in a group meeting, which was how we managed to have a slot in the clinic!

This is an example of one day :

8-9am : Behaviour Observations with the Jaguar (Aimee)

9-11am : Collecting leaves for the animals (Aimee + Jack)

11-12pm : Behaviour Observations for the Coyotes (Aimee + Jack)

1-3pm : Enrichment Activities Construction (Aimee + Jack)

3-4pm : Lecture (Everyone)

Lectures were really cool! There was one held weekly, in which we would learn about animals, one week we had someone speak about a bird endangerment programme in another country!

Enrichment activities was spent in the ‘woodworking’ shed, where we would construct activities for the animals to use, to boost animals instincts among other reasons. Part of this session would also include research about what to make, why it would help etc.

Behaviour observations were one of Jack’s favourite activities, where you would use an app with one of the main ‘leaders’, and you would track the animals behaviours every minute. This was done over quite a few different species.

There was many other activities, such as assisting in the feeding round, helping with the Macaws, clicker training, cleaning and assisting in the clinic, and more.

What about once your activities were done?

We made it a daily routine to go on a walk around the sanctuary before any of our activities began so we could soak up our surroundings. This always made our days start on a great start

At around 7pm our dinner would be ready to collect from the kitchen, so many times we would just chill in our accommodation with the people we met.

We were given keys to the main gates, so that we could leave the sanctuary after closing times, so there was one night we went to a Walmart, another where we went to a shopping mall, and many snack runs!

One night we do remember was for New Years Eve, where we playing games, sang along to music over the speaker. We then went into the park to watch the fireworks over the city. It was such an amazing night.

Another key memory from our trip was when we all sat in the car park for sunset, we had met a lovely group of people, and the 5 of us sat and played guitar, sang songs and watched the sun go down. It was magical.

There was also a cinema room within the sanctuary, so we did have a couple of movie nights. We watched the first avatar on the night we arrived!

Was it worth it?

YES! We would honestly go back in a heartbeat. Costa Rica was an extremely special trip for us for multiple reasons, and we cannot wait for the day we go back to visit. Costa Rica holds a place in our hearts always.

We think the price was fair for what was included, considering it’s all your food and accommodation for the whole week, plus activities. We don’t know many places in Costa Rica where you’d get a price that fair for food and accommodation. Plus the memories we had were insane, and we probably would’ve paid more if we needed to. We got to be surrounded by wildlife, saw some amazing animals, met amazing people and had the best time.

Would you ever volunteer abroad?

We would recommend anyone to volunteer abroad atleast once, it’s truly an eye opening experience. Plus, it’s great to socialise and meet people who are likeminded, and can push you outside your comfort zone.

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