Costa Rica wilderness/survival medicine trip

I think better communication between the sales people and the team leaders would improve the trip. The sales people in the office had suggested that there was a complementary surf lesson, and to another group member they said there was a complimentary canopy tour. When I brought up the surf lesson, the group leaders were happy to oblige but they didn't seem to know that we had been offered it. We also all received different kit lists, some group members received an older kit list with more things on and others received a newer one, it later turned out that the older more inclusive list was more useful. I also found that advice given from the office wasn't correct, ie I was told I wouldn't need 40m of parachord, that we can borrow it, however, most of the group ran out and relied on those that brought the right amount to use theirs, (these people then promptly ran out) and it wasn't possible to borrow from group kit.

I was also told that as I am not currently a 4th year medical student (I start in September) I couldn't partake in the clinic placement. However, I found that a young 19 year old just about to start his second year of Uni (in a science degree that wasn't medicine) was able to do the clinic placement. This annoyed me as I have a 5 year masters degree in a science subject and have worked as a healthcare assistant in a hospital for 18months, I would have thought I'd be more useful than him.

I also think the document sent out before the trip suggesting what we will be doing could definitely be improved. It suggested that we would be doing a trek of around 3 hours depending on ability. Sadly there was no trek, other than the 45 minute walk into the jungle. It also made the medical section seem more medical, it suggested how we could use vegetation to help us, i.e. which plants were useful and which were harmful, apparently the bit of jungle we were in wasn't useful for that in terms of plants, so perhaps that bit should be removed from the document? It wasn't as medical as I expected and instead focused mainly on evacuation and getting people out, the leaders said there isn't much you can do in a jungle to save most medical emergencies, its more important just to get people out. In a similar way, the webinar before we left was pretty inaccurate. It suggested that we would be spending a week in the jungle then having a day off in the town (when the surf lesson or in some peoples' case - depending who they spoke to - a canopy tour), then another week in the jungle. What actually happened was a few days in a house at the start then 9 days in the jungle. This worked fine but it would have been nice if the information we were told before leaving matched up to what the trip entails.

Overall a great trip but improvements could definitely be made in communication.