an unforgettable experience in Costa Rica

I have travelled all my life and I've been all over the world, but nothing compares to my volunteer experience in Costa Rica! I spent 6 weeks volunteering in an orphanage, on a coffee plantation and on the Caribbean coast in the turtle conservation program, and nothing is as rewarding as travelling and working as a volunteer, it is so rewarding! You stay with local families and the cultural exchange is so enriching, the volunteer work is a blessing to every community I went to, helping them financially and also making them feel that someone really cares and that their wellbeing does make a difference. Working with the kids was an amazing experience because I felt so much love coming back to me from them , I never expected that and I left with tears in my eyes! I also loved working on the coffee farm, it was a very small organic farm that did not have the means to buy big machinery to sell their coffee commercially and make lots of money, instead they relied on us volunteers to help them and in the meantime also helping them financially by paying them for room and board, the farmer's family expressed their gratitude to all of us volunteers and they really made us feel very welcome! The coffee farm was located in the cloud forest of Montaverde, right in the middle of some spectacular nature! My last 2 weeks of volunteer work were spent at the Caribbean coast on the turtle conservation project, and again here I felt like I could really make a difference because without volunteers coming to help patrol the beaches and stay with local families and thus helping them make an alternative income, these turtles would already have been extinct by poaching, since these poor communities used to kills the turtles and sell their eggs to make a living and now they get an alternative source of income and are willing to contribute to the conservation of the leatherback and green turtles. Seeing these turtles crawl out of the sea onto the beach at night to lay their eggs made such an impression on me, what beautiful, amazing creatures these are and I felt such gratitude that I could experience this and am hoping that my children and grandchildren will also be able to see these creatures in their natural habitat just like I did!
Thanks you so much IVHQ for all your support to make these 6 weeks a success and I can only recommend this organization to anyone considering volunteer work abroad!