As you know, when I was away I worked in two volunteering programmes both booked through I to I. The longest one was a four week project in Peru, I arrived in Lima airport and was picked up by a very friendly man who took us to possibly the best home stay ever, Giannina who was simply amazing to us, we sat up for hour talking to her about politics, the language, the country and food and she was so incredibly welcoming to us! When in Lima we went on small trips with Laura who we were to work with and other Peru volunteers who were also waiting to go to their projects, this was fun and important as it relaxed us into the country by assuring us that there were others, this was bolstered by our lunch together and orientation. However, this is when some of the misunderstandings started, by being told that we were to work with kids in cooking, carpentry, English and playing as we had signed up to do. We arrived in Arequipa after a 15 hour bus journey which was largely uneventful and was picked up by Jorge and Lillia who after a sharp start were really lovely people and we got on with pretty well especially when they helped us with our misunderstandings. Our first day at the project we told simply that we were there to clean and do DIY, with limited contact with the kids........very different to what we had signed up to. We got through the first day by working in the play room getting it ready for the kids, then we saw the kids for around 15 minutes before we headed out to meet Laura who had similar issues with hers.
I to I began off very well in Peru, but I left with a slightly bitter feeling stemming from being lied to and then forced to continue due to some contract which we cant remember filling in and with the threat of being kicked off the programme and out of our home stay =( This also left me worried for my second project with them in Costa Rica. Overall I did enjoy Peru, the trips away, the people I met and the school I taught in bolstered up my opinion of the place (as seen in earlier posts), and I guess it was relaxing with time to read on our very own roof terrace with AMAZING views of the mountains;
Costa Rica was very different yet had similarities to Peru in terms of I to I. Again I was not 100% happy with the company but I adapted quickly and I am now proud to have completed my three week project there. I had enrolled onto a Turtle Conservation programme at Playa Matapalo....an idyllic beach on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica where Olive Ridley turtles come to lay their eggs. The advertisement; spend weeks living on an idyllic beach, participate in the house and conserve one of natures most beautiful creatures. I arrived in San Jose, met a number of fellow volunteers in particular Kat, Vivian and Matt who were on my exact project, had an orientation which lasted FOREVER! then headed onto Matapalo. We arrived and instantly I thought "what on earth am I doing?!", as the house was a crowded one which was cramped, 20+ people sharing a single house with one bathroom and a small kitchen. The house would be condemned in the UK for having no smoke detectors and bars on every window which would make escape impossible in an emergency. We got introduced to the programme, round the clock hatchery shifts which last between three and four hours and can be times such as 2am-6am, or 10pm-2am etc, and Beach patrols which take up to four hours as you have to cover the whole length of the long long beach!!! I am not a fit person by any means! So when this was coupled with daily jobs such as hatchery digging and beach clean ups, we were pretty much knackered all the time. In between working though we did have time off to hang in the hammock and read, go to the beach (rained a lot so this was a small length of time really), hang out with friends, have bbq's and in general relax.
One of my main issues was that I was sent all the information of what I needed, was going to do and what I needed to do before I got there, just two weeks before I started the project when they knew that I was away in Peru. I had requested the information early but they hadn't sent it to me, so when I received the info I had to go out and buy sleeping bags, long socks, red torches etc all when I was in Argentina and Florida, which was a hassle seeing as I could buy it at half the price in the UK. Plus, when I read the information on what I was going to be doing I realised that I didn't want to do any of it, something they should have told me when I had booked six months beforehand. Obviously this is my opinion and others may have felt differently to this format. Costa Rica had many bad points for me, i.e. the hard physical labour, the constant rain, the house, the bed bugs, and the rice (Grrr)! But when I left I felt as if I had achieved something as I never thought I'd even last a day there, so too complete three weeks and release into nature over 900 hatchlings for me was fantastic, and I even lost some weight =D!
I cant believe that my trip is over and its already 2012! I loved my trip contrary to all my moaning above, there were just a few issues which I wanted to make people aware of in case they too are thinking of booking through i to i, read carefully into it, ring them and ask exactly what you will be doing, and check whether your money is relative to the living costs in that country i.e. Costa Rica has a higher living cost than Peru hence it was more expensive, but Peru was way higher in cost than the living cost, leading us three to wonder where £300 of our money has actually gone! My favourite parts have to be Teaching in Peru, Argentina which was just amazing!, Florida for seeing my Grandad, Costa Rica for the hatchlings and the amazing people I met there and finally Atlanta to see my Aunt and Uncle before their arrival came ;)
Thanks for reading this and sorry it took so long to do!!!!!
