Three weeks at Reserva Betary

My stay here at the Reserva Betary has been thoroughly enjoyable, throughout my stay I was working on the forest inventory program which has given me a huge insight into how practical research is undertaken. It also allowed me to further understand why a reserve like this one is so important to biodiversity, and helped me to gain a perspective on what actually working in this field would be like. The weekend trips to caves and boya crossing across the various rivers in Iporanaga have been another highlight, and you definitely need to stay a minimum of a month to be able to explore the various sites within and around the area. If we didn’t have major exploring plans for the weekend a BBQ was always happening, as well as learning how to make Caprihanas to perfection! Staying on the reserve itself has been a whole different experience, being surrounded by the forest gives you the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere and after the practical work of the day, being able to sit in a hammock for hours on end in the middle of the Atlantic forest is something I have taken for granted! I have been here with two other volunteers throughout my stay and whilst it is sometimes nice to not be surrounded by people, I maybe would have like a few more volunteers to have been here too, they are building more housing for future volunteers so is just a question on the time of year you choose to stay. I would completely recommend the reserve to anyone who wants to do something completely different whilst helping the environment at the same time, and getting a feel for a place which has been relatively untouched by commercial tourism!