In 2010, I landed a 6 week summer internship at a wildlife sanctuary in Costa Rica. An internship that I had found by doing a google search for wildlife volunteering opportunities abroad. An internship that I was overjoyed to be heading to. As a Wildlife Biology major in college, one of my pre-requisites was to intern at at least one wildlife-related organization and I couldn’t be more excited to start here!
I had no idea how difficult and challenging my experiences here would be.
With every trip you take, especially if volunteering your time with an organization, you go through a process of researching guidebooks and the web to gather as much information as you can. Or maybe that’s just me? I’ve always found planning a trip can be nearly as exciting as taking it. So you can be sure I thought I had done all of the necessary research about this place to feel it was going to be an awesome and valuable undertaking to add to my resume.
If only I hadn’t ignored the reviews.
I read through the entire website and corresponded with the owner of the wildlife sanctuary over a few emails. I had also found a previous volunteers positive blog post of her time spent there, and had found loads of google images. The cost to volunteer and stay here was much cheaper than other similar organizations and I was excited about the destination itself, and the work involved as well. I was accepted and ready to get there!
Pre-internship, I took my mom on a much needed week-long Costa Rican vacation before starting my internship. When the week was up, we said our goodbyes at the airport and I met my shuttle van to the Nicoya Peninsula. I wasn’t told beforehand how long the drive would be or that it would include a ferry ride—not that I was complaining, because it was a beautiful drive, but this is where I began to realize that I should have done a bit more research instead of getting ahead of myself with excitement.
Upon arrival, one of the first questions the owner asked, before even giving me a tour or showing me where to put my bags, was not how my travels had gone or even my name—it was if I had my volunteer donation money on hand. I first read this as rude, though I soon learned that she runs the entire sanctuary by herself and often with limited funds in feeding and caring for all of the animals. I handed over my fee, was shown around by a few volunteers, and was taken to the lodgehouse where I unpacked and tried settling in.
The next day, the other volunteers and interns taught me how to care for the all of the orphaned, injured, and non-releaseable animals in our care. There were prehensile-tailed porcupines, a baby coati, a collared aracari, a keel-billed toucan, variegated squirrel babies, a green iguana, and more…but the animals I was most excited to work with were the baby mantled howler monkeys and the white-headed capuchin monkey. So far, it seemed like I was going to have the BEST time here.
If only I had been warned about the roller coaster of emotions involved with the work.
Those baby monkeys I was excited to work with…actually had tragic and upsetting stories and outcomes. It was common in many areas of Costa Rica to find dangerous electrical wires that were uninsulated due to lack of proper government funding and resources, and in some cases lack of knowledge or care. In many cases, monkeys and other arboreal (tree-dwelling) wildlife try to use these wires like vines and as a means of getting from canopy to canopy.
Usually, when uninsulated wires are touched, the monkeys are electrocuted and fall to the ground. The young mantled howler monkeys at the sanctuary all had various histories of being found on the side of the road, still attached to their dead mothers stomach, newly orphaned and with singed fingers and toes.
We did all we could to help with their pain and stress, including endless vet care treatments and once going on a 4 hour quest to another city to buy stuffed monkeys that the new babies could cling to and be comforted by. However, by the end of my internship, many orphaned electrocuted babies had suffered major internal organ damage and passed away because of it. I tell you all this not to upset you but to educate you on the topic and make you aware of how depressing my internship became. It made every single successful story feel like a miraculous praise-worthy event.
If only I had known what poor volunteer communication would mean.
That is, me being attacked by a 3-legged monkey due to information not being passed along and my poor timing.
If only I had known about my accommodation limitations.
The sanctuary website had shown a wide variety of accommodation options, though once I got there, only one was available. The lodgehouse. I was not at all prepared for the lack of having a fan while trying to keep my body inside my hot sleeping bag to avoid bug bites, all while sleeping on a dirty lumpy mattress on the floor of an open air building. And being awoken by iguanas and monkeys jumping on and running across the tin roof at the crack ass of dawn each day was no treat either.
Not to mention having to use the outdoor toilet that had only 3 walls and a ripped up sheet as its 4th wall that just so happened to face the lodgehouse. If someone was in the kitchen and a breeze flew by, they could totally see you squatting over the pot and trying not to disturb the scorpion spiders or capture any flying bugs in your pants as you zip up. The outdoor shower wasn’t any better either. Four uneven walls of sheet metal nailed together with a tiny flat rock to stand on as the coldest water ever trickled out from the rusty pipe above. The entry door was so unstable that it was common for us to wind up showering with the curious free-range goats or collared peccary pig. Not to mention the huge spider that lingered above our heads.
I think the lodgehouse living would have actually been fine if there weren’t so many other stressful things happening all at once. Halfway through my time here, some newfound friends and I decided to put our money together and we rented a house in town. Best decision ever!
If only I had been prepared for all the drama.
Don’t get me wrong here. Now that I’ve been through the internship, and even went back a year later to volunteer with my boyfriend, I understand and respect the sanctuary owner’s heart and being. I will say though that it takes a certain type of personality to be able to handle hers. She butt heads with a lot of other people and most other volunteers and interns got caught up in ranting and venting about her every chance they got. It created a really negative vibe and things got pretty tense pretty quickly. There was a lot of yelling and swearing and crying and even one guy who quit and left the place after only 10 minutes of being there!
Bottom line : You may find a lot of drama surrounding a certain person or topic, but don’t get involved. It’s so easy to join the gossip, but the minute you do, you’ll be mentally drained and it’ll be that much harder to enjoy your time because you’ll be constantly drowned by the influx of rumors and negativity. Quite a few people I worked alongside were so wrapped up in the drama that they forgot the real reason they were there—not to get the latest juicy details on who reamed out who, but to aid in the care and rehabilitation of the animals in need.
I’m not saying everyone had issues with the owner. I met a few girls I grew close with and our group encountered zero problems. We all had laid back easygoing personalities that allowed us to let things roll off our shoulders and we didn’t go around intentionally instigating anything. We simply focused on the animals and on our own adventures around the town. I’m also not saying that anybody who left earlier than anticipated was in the wrong. If I didn’t absolutely need the credit for this internship for college, I may have left too. I am really glad that I stayed, because even the terrible memories taught me important life lessons and make for some really unique and crazy stories!
If only I had known what kinds of dangerous insects were in the area.
Because I was stung by the world’s most painful insect. Three times. During a healing ceremony.
Credit : Graham Wise
My Take-Away
Overall, I am happy I not only did this internship but stuck it out until the end. I learned SO much about wildlife rehabilitation, the world of backpacking and travel, and most importantly myself. Not every volunteer opportunity abroad winds up awry. In fact, many are highly satisfying and totally worth it.
Interested in volunteering or interning abroad, but don’t know what to look out for?
See my checklist of all things to be made aware of before you set off!
Have you ever had a bad experience with a volunteer or internship opportunity?
Were you ever totally unprepared for something while traveling?
And most importantly, who thinks they could have lasted 6 weeks in that lodgehouse?!
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