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Location
  • Costa Rica
Length
1 to 12 weeks
Project Types
Community Development Conservation Marine Conservation Sea Turtle Conservation Environmental Conservation

Program Details

Language
Spanish
Age Min.
16
Age Max
100
Timeframe
Spring Break Summer Winter Year Round
Housing
Host Family
Groups
Small Group (1-15)

Pricing

Starting Price
750
Price Details
The program fee is $750 for one week, $1350 for two weeks, $1850 for three weeks, and $2250 for four weeks. Each additional week after 4 weeks is $400/week. The fee is necessary to provide food, housing, and transport and provide upkeep of the facilities. All costs are covered except airfare and personal expenses. 100% of any funds that exceed your costs of living will go towards the Manos para Costa Rica program. Discounts are available for partners and families.
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Airport Transfers Equipment Meals
What's Not Included
Airfare Travel Insurance Visa
Sep 06, 2019
Nov 02, 2017
Wish List
5 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

The Sea Turtle and Ray Research Volunteer will assist in ongoing sea turtle and ray monitoring projects in the waters and beaches of El Jobo on the North Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. You will work side-by-side with local community members to conduct night patrols of the beach, looking for nesting sea turtles, collecting data, and tagging the turtles. The sea turtles seen in El Jobo (Green, Olive Ridley, and sometimes Hawksbill) are all endangered species. Your work will help collect needed data about these populations of turtles as well as help protect them from poachers.

In addition to the sea turtle monitoring, you will also monitor the local ray populations by snorkeling and collecting data on the species and sometimes tagging them to better understand their migratory patterns. Other potential activities are sea grass and coral reef monitoring.

You also have the option of visiting the local elementary school to assist in their marine education program and English classes.

This program is no longer offered. View more programs from Intercultural Outreach Initiative (IOI).

Video and Photos

Teaching marine conservation in local school.
Tagging turtles for research.
Sea turtle hatchlings head to the sea.
Learning about sea turtles is an important part of the program.
Sea turtle gliding through the waters near El Jobo.
Volunteers working with community members.

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Program Highlights

  • Gain experience working on a local community-based conservation project.
  • Learn how to conduct marine science research and conservation, specifically related to sea turtles.
  • Live in a beautiful coastal community and get practice speaking Spanish with your homestay family.
  • Interact with community members and teach children about conservation.
  • Embrace Costa Rica's "pura vida", laidback lifestyle!

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Program Reviews

5.00 Rating
based on 1 review
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Showing 1 - 1 of 1 reviews
Default avatar
Richard
25
Male
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Perfect Oportunity!

Nov 2, 2017

IOI's project at EL Jobo, Costa Rica is the perfect opportunity to learn about marine conservation, marine wild life, birds, and support a sustainable sea turtle project. One of the best parts of the experience in my opinion is the possibility of getting involved in community activities and work beside communities in their efforts towards marine conservation. Furthermore, getting to see the sea turtles is awesome!

The location is perfect! you can get to see the sunrise and the sunset since you can easily go up to the hill.

In general, the experiences is perfect for people from different ages and backgrounds.

Thanks for everything!

13 people found this review helpful.
Helpful

Questions & Answers

Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Jamie Preira

Program
Volunteer in Costa with IOI: Sea Turtle and Ray Research Volunteer
Job Title
International Programs Manager
Jamie lives 20 miles west of Boulder in Jamestown, Colorado in a house in the woods that is surrounded by national forest. She loves hiking, adventuring, rivering (I promise it's a verb in Colorado) and generally exploring with her two dogs, Elvis and Winnie. Her favorite hobbies are scuba diving and photography and she absolutely loves traveling - especially if it includes visiting the ocean!
Jamie Preira

What is your favorite travel memory?

I have so many great travel memories, it's hard to choose! I'll stick with one of my most recent memories. A few months ago, I was taking some time off during a work trip to Galapagos and went scuba diving with a colleague. At one point during one of our final dives, there were several hammerheads swimming below us, a manta ray swimming past, and eventually, a turtle made an appearance. It was absolutely incredible!

How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?

I feel like I am constantly growing working with IOI. I have learned brand new skills I didn't know I had and I am constantly challenged by my new remote position - working from home is great, but it's definitely not easy! I am also becoming more confident in my Spanish speaking and I'm taking classes once a week!

What is the best story you've heard from a return student?

There's definitely not one I can choose from, but I can tell you that one of my favorite things is seeing alumni students and volunteers interacting with our social media posts reminiscing about their time with us. When they see familiar faces or new volunteers working in the same project they worked in, they leave the best comments!

If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?

That's a really hard question!! I've participated in all of them and I honestly cannot choose just one. Both our program locations in Cuba and Galapagos are absolutely stunning and the projects are so much fun and they're so rewarding! I absolutely love turtles, so if I HAD to choose one project in the Galapagos, it would be the turtle nest monitoring.

What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?

I am especially proud of our team because we operate programs in two countries with 7 different projects and our team is spread out over 5 countries. It's not easy working with a remote team but we all work hard and efficiently and when we get together for program development, we have a blast! Our company is unique because of our locations and our mission; community growth and sustainable development come first and that is why I love working for IOI.

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

I believe a strong mission that all employees stand behind and believe in is extremely important in being a successful company. Without a positive and beneficial mission or employees' drive and belief in the mission, programs cannot develop and grow and there is no excitement for participants to join.

Location

Location:
Costa Rica
Currency:
Costa Rican Colón
Weather:
Jan-Mar
83 F / 67 F
Apr-Jun
85 F / 69 F
Jul-Sep
85 F / 69 F
Oct-Dec
83 F / 67 F
Airports:
Juan Santamaría International Airport
( SJO )
Limón International Airport
( LIO )
Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport
( LIR )

A pioneer of ecotourism, Costa Rica draws many tourists to its extensive series of national parks and other protected areas. Costa Rica began reversing deforestation in the 1990s, and they are moving towards using only renewable energy. Head to the cloud forest, relax on the beautiful beaches, or visit a coffee farm.

About Intercultural Outreach Initiative (IOI)

Mission: To provide international education programs that support the education, conservation, and social development of isolated communities by assisting local institutions in sustainably handling the human-environmental intersection. The location Join us, on a once in a lifetime opportunity to practice conservation through education and social...
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