Tag

Volunteering Costa Rica

Browsing

Sloth in treeI am pleased to announce that I am still ‘ringworm free’ and have now moved to work in a wild animal rescue centre. This is the most amazing place. Sick and injured animals are brought here by members of the public or the Costa Rican government. Some have been trafficked or injured and others have been kept as pets. The aim is always to release them back into the wild. Sadly this is not always possible. There is a Sloth that fell out of a tree as a baby, and hence requires physio on his back legs every morning, and there is a Capuchin monkey who was tragically kept in a bar and fed on alcohol and cigarettes and is now too domesticated to fend for himself.

The  work here is enormously rewarding, we feed and clean out over 100 animals every day. Although the policy is that we must never touch them, being up close to monkeys, parakeets, sloths, raccoons, lizards, deer and wild pigs feels a real privilege. These residents live in complete luxury and eat the most delicious combinations of fresh fruits and vegetables, which we chop up every morning. I wish the same could be said for the humans…

Dog shelter San JoseIt was with a very heavy heart that I left the Galápagos Islands and the wonderful 2 and 4 legged inhabitants I had shared my stay with. 4 boats, 3 planes, 3 taxis, 3 buses and 2 hotels later I arrived in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. My route involved a change of planes in war torn El Salvador and I was relieved to note, as we came into land, that the runway was basically  intact and the terminal was functioning.