Today is in Costa Rica Dia de Niños – Children´s day! Thanks to this occasion, Valoarte exhibition is opening its gate today! 

This special day has given an opportunity for opening to the public an exhibition called Valoarte at the Centro de Arte y Tecnología La Aduana in east of San José, Costa Rica. This exhibition, where about 150 artists are introduced, benefits to Hogar Siembra, which is a nongovernmental organization founded in 1983 and which has been dedicated to rescuing girls and young women at risk, helping them to overcome problems of abuse and domestic violence.

There are supposed to be around 250 different art works that are for sale. The event is possible to visit until September 29 and it can be very nice experience!

Also in this day dedicated to children, I cannot forget to mention our projects, which are specially aimed at children. If you love children and would like to help them, think of your involvement in our Art & Music Project in Hojancha or you can volunteer this Christmas in our Holiday Project!

Our project in Hojancha enables artists, musicians, teachers, and those interested in art & music in general, to volunteer and to join local artists and teachers, immersing themselves in the pricelessexperience of rural Costa Rica.

Our Holiday project is a great opportunity for you to experience this year´s Christmas extraordinarily!

                                  We wish all children a day filled with sunshine and smiles!   

 (By Marketa Sobotkova - Marketing Intern)

Last week me and Jakub had a chance to visit Hojancha and had a great opportunity to visit Daycare and Nutritional Center. Hojancha is a small town located in the Province of Guanacaste. The origin of the name Hojancha comes from a tree located in the region, which the Indians called broad-leaved, because of the very special characteristics and the size of their leaves.

Because Hojancha is a small town, it's easy get to know local people and to make new friends. Volunteers are welcome in town and are taken care of very well by our host families and community members.

Hojancha can be proud of its cleanness, how well the town is organized and maintained. Even more, it is one of the safest towns in the country and it is reflected that residents feel in safety and many of them still leave their doors unlocked day and night.  Hojancha is still considered a small town in Guanacaste but it is one of the most respected.

Projects in Hojancha that are currently possible to join are Art & Music Project and Daycare and Nutritional Center. And also in Hojancha our Holiday Project will take place. For more information please see here.

As I mentioned at the beginnig this time we had the chance to visit Daycare and Nutritional Center. It was created to function as an educator for parents and kids to teach them better hygiene and eating habits. Additionally it serves for distributing food packages to poor children who live far away from the center and are in need of a more nutritional diet.

Nowadays the Daycare and Nutritional Center serves as a model for others throughout the country. Its staff takes great care of it and is committed to maintain the quality of the services they provide. Unfortunately it is not easy for them, since they are understaffed and the government keeps pressuring them to maintain its services and also to improve them every day. Due to this fact volunteers are more than welcome in this amazing Center. Not just that volunteers can play and do various activities with the children, but by this they give some extra time for teachers to catch up with the paper work.

Center is very beautiful and you can see that teachers there really take care of it. There are pictures on the walls and some posters that were made by children and previous volunteers. You can feel lots of positive energy and compassion here.

 Volunteers can participate by assisting teachers with taking care of children and keeping them busy and under control, playing games with children, assisting the children in taking their naps, preparing food donations and also by teaching them some basic English and in whatever more that is needed.

Volunteers that are naturally enthusiastic, active, creative and proactive and of course they love children have the best prerequisites to spend an amazing time here!

For more pictures from the Daycare Center please see our photogallery here.

Except the great time spending in the Center there is also an option for some afternoon adventures such as zip-line canopy tour, Diria Coffee tour, Wildlife Tempisque River tour and many more. 

Also, make sure you visit some of the beaches since Guanacaste is famous for its spectacular beaches in the Pacific coast with more than 125 miles of extension and are definitely worthy to see!

What is your experience, have you ever participated in volunteer projects connected to children?

(By Marketa Sobotkova – Marketing Intern

Time goes so fast and it´s already one month since me and Jakub started our marketing internship with Tropical Adventures. We have already had an amazing opportunity to go to the Manuel Antonio National Park, where there is a great future possibility for Tropical Adventures to open a new projects for our volunteers. But more about this trip you can read in our other post from David here.

Another great possibility occurred for exploring more beauty of Costa Rica and we went to stay few nights in Bambu village, where our Bambu indigenous project takes place. Commonly labeled on traditional maps as “Bratsi”, Bambu can be reached about 30 minutes from the main indigenous community of Bribri. During the way to get there we were passing alongside Suretka river and on the opposite side of the riverbank we could have seen Panama. We stayed in Bambu Cultural Centre that was built by using traditional indigenous methods and hosts people from around the world. Just by staying in the Centre it supports up to 20 local families through the income it produces through receiving overnight guests. 

 Next day we took a look around and visited elementary school of Bambu, where our volunteers have opportunity to participate and also retirement home, where we were warmly welcomed by one of the nuns that takes care of the elderly people living there and volunteers are there welcome as well. For more information about typical day in Bambu you can read more here.

Talamanca Indigenous Cultural Festival

As the headline indicates, we didn´t come to Bambu just to enjoy beauty of indigenous centre and hospitality of local people, but the main reason was to experience a Talamanca Indigenous Cultural Festival, that took place during the weekend August 6-7 in nearby village called Amubri. This was a first year of this festival among the indigenous communities of Talamanca and local political officials. The event was held in honor of common unity organized by our friend Danilo, a Bribri political activist employed with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Travelling to the place of event                        

Early in the morning we had to get to the shore of Súarez river. The only way how to cross the river is by motor canoe, since the government doesn´t have enough financial resources for building a bridge over the river. On the other side a bus was already waiting and we continued our adventure towards the festival. After a while we arrived to the place of the event.  My colleagues Jakub and David could lend a hand and utilize their height for hanging the big table over the stage, as you can see on the picture :). 

Festival started by several speeches of local prominent personalities that were followed by playing and singing the national Costa Rican anthem in Bribri language. As next a performance of local children showing the traditional dance of local culture was followed.

These showcases of indigenous culture attempted to show local political leaders the value of the community’s presence as well as encourage the leaders to help facilitate the administrative process of obtaining the “cédula de identidad” for the many undocumented indigenous community. The “cédula de identidad” is the necessary identifiable ID card which is required in obtaining any services as well as accessing and transactions in Costa Rica. The process for obtaining the cédula is highly complex for native people who often lack the necessary resources to navigate administrative procedures. 

Puerto Viejo

Bambu is located about a one-hour bus ride away from the popular tourist beach town of Puerto Viejo, where we had also opportunity to spend some time.  It is home to beautiful beaches, such as Playa Chiquita, Playa Negra, and Punta Uva and it is a place with the most amazing surfing opportunities. And of course, this place will love fans of reggae since cadenced rhythm of this music are present everywhere. That is caused by substantial Jamaican population that lives here. We had a chance to try Carribean sea and also experience Puero Viejo´s  local delicious food and town´s nightlife. But there are plenty of things what to do in Puerto Viejo such us many water sports as above mentioned surfing, snorkeling, diving, kayaking, horseback tours around the area, mountain biking or for those who prefer some nature there is a possibility to visit for example National Park Cahuita.

(By Marketa Sobotkova – Marketing Intern)

A music school in Hojancha - Guanacaste

is a part of our Music & Art project where our volunteers have a chance to participate, bring their own ideas and also learn many new things. In this group, age is not important, there are children as well as seniors taking part and forming a music group. They get together three times a week - every Thusday, Friday and Saturday for 4 hours to practise and also have fun.

As Elí Salgado Vargas, the music teacher, says the music school was established because of a necessity of some cultural values in the town. Together with a help of municipality which provided the musical instruments, Elí was able to make this school a reality in the year 2009 and it now consists of 36 students and 3 teachers.

"We have been working with a lot of financial limitations since the help of the municipality is just partial." adds Elí. In fact, this is a reason why I decided to visit the group in Hojancha and create this blog post. The most important thing for the group are now uniformes but they cannot afford them so we are looking for somebody who would like to help the group and influence their future. Is it you? 

(By David Kolesa - Marketing Intern)

With this letter, the parents of children in Alto Katsi, Talamanca, Costa Rica are appealing for your valuable support explained below.

For the past three years our children have been receiving school lessons in our own community.  Before this time, our children had to walk almost two kilometers down the mountain to the closest school in the nearby community of Katsi.  The small building we were using for the school was in very poor repair and no longer safe for children.  It was taken down early in 2009.  As parents, we have been given the task of working to construct our community school since our children no longer have a formal structure to receive classes.  They are currently receiving classes in the home of one of the community members

1.    Lack of cut wood

2.    Acabado de la misma como enderezado y machinerbrodo

3.    Funds to cover the foreman´s salary

This structure has the following measurements à 18 X 7.50 square meters (m2) and consists of 2 classrooms measuring 6 X 9 m2 and a front corridor measuring 1.50 X 18 m2.

Also missing is the cafeteria which measures 14 X 8.40 m2 consists of kitchen, eating area and bathrooms.  For this structure we already have 300 cement blocks, 30 barrilos and 20 bags of cement.  This material was donated to us to make the set of bathrooms.

We wish to finish the school and through this card we are asking for your support and collaboration in our important objective, which is to complete the construction of the school, eating area, kitchen and bathrooms.  In order to finish, we need:

1.    Funds to pay the construction foreman, which will be 2 months at a value of C15,000 per day, for a total of C900,00.

2.    8,000 inches of wood which comes from trees donated by parents.  Por lo ceiol there is a cutting fee, which is C150 per inch, for a total of C1,200,000.  lo ceiol cubrirla el faltante de madera que tiene la escuela y el resto es para la construcción del comedor.

3.    Arreglo de madera como enderezada y madrenbrodo de 8,000 pulgadas, con un costo de la pulgada para un total de C480,000.

4.    Hardware materials and supplies totaling C892,464.

TOTAL BUDGET à C3,472,464.00

I spent my spring break volunteering in Bambu, Costa Rica with Tropical Adventures. On the flight over, I was nervous and excited because this was my first time travelling out of the country by myself and excited to meet everyone in Bambu and experience Costa Rica. When I arrived in San Jose, I was greeted by Manuel who drove me to my hostel, Casa Yoses. The hostel was both clean and friendly, and I enjoyed my night there. The next day Manuel picked me up and drove me to the bus stop where I caught a bus to Puerto Viejo. Isaac picked me up in Puerto Viejo, and we ate lunch and discussed what volunteering in Bambu would be like. His biggest piece of advice was to "go with the flow," and it turned out to be excellent advice.   

Bambu was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I stayed with a family, which really added to the experience. During the days, I volunteered at the retirement center and the school. The people at the retirement center were really appreciative of the volunteers, and it was great spending time with them and getting to know each individually. The school was fun too, and the children were very excited for their English lesson!

After volunteering, it was great to return home to my family and eat lunch with them. After lunch, I either participated in a tour or spent time with my family. I did the Panama Waterfall Tour on my first day in Bambu, and it was a great introduction to the week. Ito and I took a boat ride out to the waterfall and spent a couple hours swimming there. It was beautiful!

I was sad to leave my family at the end of the week, and I would love to return one day. I only spent a week in Bambu, but the people were so friendly and open, that by the end, I felt as if I belonged there. Likewise, I was very happy to volunteer through Tropical Adventures because they really took care of me. Susan practically organized the whole trip- all I had to do was book my flight! Tropical Adventures booked my transportation, housing, and meals; they made it easy for an outsider to get an inside look at Costa Rica.