The best time of my life

As my first volunteer abroad experience, and my first experience with Global Volunteers, I couldn't have asked for a better time. When I traveled to Costa Rica I was 20 years old, and traveling with a friend the same age. We were taken care of from the moment we arrived, and everything was planned out for us. The team leader, Nia, is so incredibly awesome. She was there for us every step of the trip and was always available to help. One of the things that I didn't expect was to grow so close to the other team members. We engaged in activities to understand each other more so we could better work together. The work itself was manual labor, and not very easy at that, but the community was very gracious and the frequent coffee breaks and delicious meals from the women in the community were fantastic. Over the two weeks our team completely re-did the exterior and interior of the health post in Canitas - adding a wheelchair ramp for one of the community members. On the weekends a few of the team members and I traveled to La Fortuna to tour the Arenal Volcano and had a wonderful time. It was such a learning experience, and I would love to go back! The Monteverde region is so unbelievably gorgeous!

My friend and I decided that if we were flying down to Costa Rica that we might as well stay for a while, so we spent an extra two weeks in the southwestern part of the country which was BEAUTIFUL. I would recommend that to everyone.