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The team consists of the entire community
of Ostional (who works the project when the big arribadas occur),
an association with 258 members of such community, a board of directors,
a president and resident biologist, the school of biology of the
University of Costa Rica, and the volunteers. The Board of directors
and community help oversee the beach patrollings, eggs collections
and all conservation activities like protecting the baby turtles,
beach cleaning and vegetation control. The resident biologist oversees
that no regulation is violated according to the laws and scientific
data. He acts as a liaison between all government organizations
that regulate the project and coordinates all educational activities
within the schools, community and volunteers. Finally, the volunteers
whose job is to help with activities such as cleaning the beach,
assisting nightly patrols, monitoring and counting turtles, gathering
data, building hatcheries, tagging turtles and moving nests among
other activities.
 Participants
come from all over the world to assist with ADIO´s conservation
efforts and stay in Ostional anywhere from one week to five months
even though we’re open to longer stays if the volunteer would
like it. We recommend a minimum stay of 2 weeks to really get to
know the project and community members of Ostional. Participants
should be aware that people in these communities have different
cultures and standards of living than those one might be used to.
It is important to have an open mind, be adaptable and bring a positive
attitude.
Volunteer Schedule
Turtles nest on the beach after dark, but during arribada, turtles
might start coming to the beach as early as 2 pm in which case,
volunteers should be ready to work when needed. During births, there
will be shifts protecting the baby turtles between 4 p.m. until
dark and 5:30 a.m. - 9 am in the morning. Volunteers will work a
minimum of 6 hours and during high season (arrivals and births)
as much as 12 or more if the volunteer desires. You will pair up
and walk the 7km stretch of the Ostional beach searching for nesting
turtles. When a turtle is found, it is tagged, measured, and the
newly laid eggs are transferred to a nearby hatchery where the eggs
are reburied and monitored until they hatch. When the eggs hatch,
hatching rates are recorded and the baby turtles are released into
the sea under cover of night. During the winter, the nests are left
on the beach and the hatchlings will exit their nests an go directly
to the ocean on their own. Volunteers need to keep in mind that
nature is unpredictable and therefore you need to be totally flexible
to changes in their schedule to accommodate the unpredictability
of nature and be willing to make adjustment.
Volunteer Activities
 Aside
from working directly with turtles, it is possible to teach and
interact with eager youngsters as well as interested locals about
turtles and the protection and conservations programs. Community
support and involvement is integral to the success of the program.
During free time you can experience the local environment: the long
deserted beaches, and of course the friendly Ostional community
members who are always willing to help you polish up on your Spanish
or give a cooking or dancing lesson. School kids are eager to learn
and don’t have access to mentor programs or even tutoring.
Math, English and computer lessons are great ideas for volunteers
to get involved in.
Every weekend, different members of the community will put together
an activity for volunteers as a distraction from the routine schedule.
Activities would include things like horse back riding, trips to
the river and other beaches near by, shopping trips to Nosara, Latin
music dancing, Spanish, surfing and cooking lessons. The cost for
such activities is included as part of your program. Other tours
or activities that are not the ones listed are available at an additional
cost. There are also bus and taxi services available to you from
Ostional.
Volunteer Expectations
While you are working with us, we promise to provide you with
accommodations and support you in your volunteer work. In exchange,
we expect you to attend work regularly and to behave consistently
in ways that reflect well upon ADIO and Volunteer Adventures. That
means you are expected to dress according to local norms while in
public and to treat people on the work site with kindness and respect
appropriate to their age and social standing. The same goes for
your host family. In addition,we insist that volunteers avoid any
contact with drugs and any culturally inappropriate activities relating
to alcohol, especially in your host homes. Remember that some of
these families have children and their culture is rather conservative.
If a case should arrive in which our staff feels that volunteers
have repeatedly behaved in ways that contradict the basic spirit
of ADIO, we reserve the right to remove volunteers from this program.
We view the volunteer experience as a commitment that includes
a willingness to overcome challenges of all kinds. In cases where
volunteers are experiencing difficulties, we strongly encourage
creative, collaborative solutions that allow the volunteer commitments
to be completed. At the same time, we respect the ability and freedom
of our volunteers to use their own judgments and understand that
volunteer work only functions well when volunteers retain the will
to participate fully and energetically.
As a volunteer you will:
• Help construct a hatchery.
• Patrols beach daily. Several patrols a day in each of the
three sections of beach.
• Move nests to the hatchery and prepare the sand to receive
such nest.
• Mark turtles that are nesting, trying to build a nest or
returning to the ocean.
• Search for marked turtles and gather data regarding the
percentage of turtles that return to the beach during arribada.
• Count all turtles during the big arribadas as they enter
the beach.
• Translate documents for the office.
• Participate in teaching English classes.
• Participate in teaching Computer classes.
• Help build a watering system to help the hatchlings develop
during the dry months.
• Taking the sand’s temperature in specific sections
of the beach in the morning, at noon and at sunset.
• Gather information regarding the egg development (or lack
of) of all the nests and the presence of organisms inside them.
• Clean the beach of tree trunks and other debris that has
been washed on the beach.
• Clean the beach of all unwanted vegetation that takes over
the nesting areas reducing the space available for turtles to nest.
• Plant trees in different areas of the beach and the town.
• Help the most amount possible of baby turtles get to the
ocean by defending them from the predators that are waiting for
the hatchlings to come out to destroy them.
• Help extract and pack the eggs that are sold lawfully (only
1% of all the eggs laid).
• Help patrol the beach to protect nests from illegal extraction
and predators.
• Help with infrastructure activities like building schools,
bridges, roads and other similar community activities.
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