When I decided to go help the planet on the other side of the world !

Hi !
My name is Kenza, i'm 19 and I come from France.
This summer, I had one of the greatest experiences of my life. I spent 6 weeks in Costa Rica on a biodiversity conservation program, With the wonderful organization GVI !

Our days were marked by different surveys, we work on the canal (with a canoe), in the forest, in the coconut plantation but also on the beach. Every different place we observed, was populated by hundreds of species of animals. I was able to see how great the biodiversity of Costa Rica is.

Life at the camp is minimalist but that makes the beauty of the place, no hot water, flushing or light in the rooms, but the warm atmosphere makes us forget everything, even when we are not an English native!
If you have chosen the program on jaguars or turtles, don't expect to work on it all the time. Indeed, the tasks are very variable and a large part of the time and observations are reserved for wildlife (amphibians and birds especially).

This experience (going alone on an international voluntary program), brought me many things.
I learned a lot about nature, about others but also about myself. Now, I know that I am able to go abroad alone, I have made strong friendships from all over the world. I also learned an incredible number of different species (birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals...). And, I can now easily speak in English!

I also made me some very good memories:
The "nights walk" from 8pm to 1am, walking along the beach with only the moon as light (the stars if there was no moon and the lightning on the horizon). Trying to spot almost blindly, fresh tracks of turtles in the sand, to find the turtle and why not, count one by one those eggs!
The evenings on rest days (Friday evening), where small activities are organized : dancing, giant "werewolf" (game), card game or just conversations.
And, the Jag Walk, a long 25km walk in the soft sand, long and tiring but so happy at the end to have done it.

I would strongly recommend this project, it is a total change of scenery, teaching us a lot about the "luxury" that we are in Europe. And the biodiversity is so big that we can observe more than thirty species in less than half an hour.

I hope my review would have helped you decide to go there and live the greatest adventure of your life!

Kenza