ISV - Volunteer Projects in Costa Rica

I volunteered with the WIDECAST initiative on the OSA Peninsula working with sea turtles. It changed my life! Honestly, one of the best experiences ever! I still start many of my sentences "In Costa Rica...." The country is beautiful and the host family we stayed with was wonderful. I learned so much during my time there! I now know so much more about sea turtles and even learned a little Spanish even though I didn't take the Spanish week. PURA VIDA EVERYONE!

It was a truly memorable experience and I will never forget it!

I enjoyed meeting all the people involved in the project and adventure weeks and I overcame fears and I encounted difficulties which I also overcame, and I feel proud to have acomplished this.

Everyone was so helpful and I felt safe and looked after for the whole duration.

I would recommend this trip to everyone!

It was an absolutely life changing experience. It was my first chance to put what I had been learning in the classroom to use in the field. I learned so much about conservation, the country and myself during my month in Costa Rica. I loved every minute of it and we we did valuable work on the wildlife reserve. It has inspired me to work in several different countries throughout my career. I owe a lot to my experience with ISV and I wish that every student could have the same opportunity. Costa Rica is such a beautiful country with an incredible culture.

Traveling with ISV was the best decision I've made in my 23 years of life. I have done study abroad and backpacked through Europe but nothing has impacted my life quite like the ISV experience. The staff is there for you 24/7 and they are super friendly. I worked in an incredible community building a road for coffee farms out of sustainable materials and eco-bricks, learned about eco-tourism, and played with the local children. It was a very humbling experience to say the least but after your volunteer work is over the next 2 weeks is an AWESOME adventure tour that practices sustainable tourism initiatives! We did everything in those 2 weeks; horseback riding, cliff jumping, whitewater rafting, kayaking, surfing, zip lining, free-hand rappelling, and the list goes on. ISV enhanced my love for adventure, travel and culture.

I travelled to Costa Rica in 2011 to do a project in Golfo Dulce. Our project was all about researching dolphin and poison dart frog populations in the area so as to determine their critical areas and protect their habitats. So we spent half our days out on a boat recording the behaviour of dolphins which was absolutely unreal. The other half was spent trekking through these stunning rainforests, looking for poison dart frog- a ridiculously cool experience.
We were completely immersed in the culture, staying with a host family and working alongside the locals. It was great because we saw Costa Rica from an angle that tourists don't get to see.
I learnt so much while I was there about sustainability and responsible tourism, and I took that back home with my when I left. It was absolutely the most fun and the most rewarding 5 weeks of my life, from the Spanish lessons to the project to the adventure tour! This program was the best experience of my life, and it will change yours! I recommend ISV's programs to anyone who wants to travel and to make a difference in our world!

I traveled to Costa Rica in 2008 with ISV and worked with a sea turtle research organization. We would do nightly patrols of the beach with WIDECAST researchers looking for turtles and nests so that we could collect important data in regards to their nesting habits. We also worked during the day cleaning the beach and helped rebuild an old school house into a dormitory for the researchers. The amount I learned in regards to conservation, sustainability and responsible tourism was amazing. They did such a great job and turning hard work into an incredibly rewarding experience. The 2nd two weeks on the adventure tour was just unreal. We went rafting to a lodge in the middle of the rainforest, ziplining, rapelling down waterfalls and snorkeling just to name a few activities. I came home so stoked on this program that 4 of my closest friends have traveled with ISV now as well. I highly recommend any of their projects!!

While I was in Costa Rica I volunteered for Proyecto Carey, located in the Osa Peninsula. It was a breathtakingly beautiful area surrounded by picturesque beaches and the locals were gracious and kind. During our two weeks we hiked through the rain forest and documented frugivores' interactions with nutmeg trees, all in the hopes of creating legislation to protect nutmeg trees for future generations. My roommate was amazing, as were the rest of the volunteers on our project and our host families. We truly became a little family during our time at Proyecto Carey.

The second two weeks were a wonderful finish to a meaningful trip! The activities were terrifying, crazy, and wonderful. We all had the time of our lives! I made great friends and enjoyed so many new experiences. Sometimes I look back at the pictures from my trip because it's the only real proof that something this wonderful actually happened, and it wasn't all a figment of my imagination!

If you're considering going on this trip- DO IT! There is no possibly way you will regret it!!

This was the best opportunity that I ever could have taken in my entire life. The first two weeks being able to help out a local community in another country while spending some serious bonding time with people from all over the world was an amazing experience. I felt like the work that I was apart of really helped out the community. I had so much fun and made friends that I never would have known without this trip, that I will have for the rest of my life. After the volunteer experience being able to travel around the country and participate in activities that I am unable to do in my home state gave me the most amazing stories, pictures, and memories. The trip really taught me how to be responsible on a global level, not just in regards to my carbon footprint, but also how to be a responsible tourist. Adding on the extra week and pushing myself to a higher physical level really made some of my wildest dreams come true.