Save Land and Fresh Water Turtles in the Atenas Area

Project At A Glance Location: La Garita (20 minutes by bus) Start Point: Atenas End Point: Atenas Duration: 1-12 weeks Hours: 20-30 per week Food: Provided by host family Room: Host family Date: First and Third Monday of each month

Project Summary

Just outside Atenas, there is a project focused on local land and fresh water turtle conservation. They are trying to protect species of in-land turtles that are often overlooked with worldwide publicity of their cousins, the sea turtle. This project offers tanks for the turtles and works with hydroponics organic fertilizer from dry leaves and maintaining the greenhouse.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

Beginner to intermediate knowledge of Spanish is preferred (but not mandatory). If you cannot speak Spanish, we suggest you enroll in our Spanish language course to make your stay more rewarding – both for you and for the children you are helping. Love for turtles and nature is important. Experience with websites could provide development assistance with online projects. Volunteers are expected to be reliable and flexible.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Turtle project volunteers work directly with the turtles, assist in the hydroponics project, work with organic fertilizer and the greenhouse, and help with the website.

Room/Food/Supervision

In Costa Arica, all volunteers stay with well-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and are well versed in the art of hosting international volunteers. Host families offer a safe home, private rooms (occasionally rooms will be shared with other same-gender volunteers) and shared bathroom facilities with running hot water and a “western” style toilet. Volunteers have the ability to do laundry at the house or the host family may offer to do it for you for a nominal extra fee. You receive three prepared meals per day. If you will be out of the house during lunch hour, you can request a lunch "to go" that you can take with you or eat out on your own. Host families provide typical meals that are traditional to Costa Rica.

Throughout the volunteer project, our local staff stays in contact with volunteers either with face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. With longer placements, we visit our volunteers every two weeks (when possible) and volunteers are always welcome at the local office. If project placement is local, we request that volunteers stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone.