I have planned my trip over a year before I finally started. Since I had already lived with a host family in Costa Rica for half a year and had liked it very much, I wanted to go back to the Latin America shortly afterwards and came up with the idea of making this trip. I really wanted to see more of Latin America, improve my Spanish, become more independent.
My stay abroad in the ecological community was a very nice and intensive life experience! It is a very quiet and beautiful place, isolated from all civilization, right in the mountains of Puntarenas.
Galapagos is synonymous with nature conservation, environmental protection, bio-diversity, sustainability, ecotourism with a quite unstable balance. The islands are located far away in the Pacific, about 1,000 km off the coast of South America and pretty much on the equator.
I would simply recommend anyone who asks me to live abroad for a while, because it allows you to get to know yourself better, taste different food, get to know a completely different culture and because it is simply fun to be on your own and afterwards you are proud that you have achieved everything.
I have no more words, it was just incredible! I also felt very supported and in good hands by the support from South America Inside. I thank you for everything and can only recommend your organization to everyone!
My time in Costa Rica was unforgettable and I had so many wonderful experiences that I don’t want to miss. You make friends with people from all over the world and you get to know so much about the country and the people if you spend a long time there. I can only recommend such a stay abroad to everyone.
Working as a volunteer in Costa Rica was a very enriching experience for me. I stayed with a real Tica Mama who was very nice and warm. I talked to her a lot and really improved my Spanish.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that I had a great time in Costa Rica with a lot of fun and super nice memories. I liked it so much that I want to go back there and see more of the country and the countries around Costa Rica.
So I experienced “culture shock” right from the start and noticed that things are more relaxed in South America than in Germany and that people deal with punctuality and appointments with ease. People are just more relaxed than in Europe and I quickly got used to it.
I spent four weeks as a volunteer in a school for children with special needs and supported a teacher teaching children aged eight to ten. I took the bus from my host family to school every morning and worked from half past seven to half past three, choosing how long I wanted to work.