Turtle Conservation & Cloud Forest Exploration

I would like to start out by saying that I am very glad that I participated in The Leap and I don’t regret it at all. I met so many amazing people and I did get to see beautiful parts of Costa Rica and have a very unique experience. I also liked that Monteverde was towards the end of the trip and I really enjoyed the week of Samara and ASVO. That said, I think there are many problems with the program itself. Since you are asking for feedback I will outline what I found to be problematic with this trip: The first item I would like to discuss is that the itinerary was misleading. Many of the activities that were promised on the itinerary never happened. We did not have hikes on Wednesday, 4-6 hours of volunteering, we barely worked with bionics , and the 2 prepaid surf lessons at samara never happened. Also, many things were canceled due to the rain, and backup activities were always planned on the spot. I would have thought that Jakera/ The Leap would be aware that in the rainy season it rains a lot and would have developed some sort of plan of how to deal with that by now. Anyways, my main problem with the program is that Jakera/ The Leap seems to care much more about appearing sustainable and making money off of volunteers than actually being sustainable. They used single-use plastic for the laundry service and to collect the plastic waste we would pick up from the beach. overall I believe the camp is having a net negative effect on the world as far as pollution. Also, the volunteering opportunities were very limited and honestly so poorly organized. Jakera did not utilize the potential of having 21 eager volunteers. Honestly, I found that 99% of the time our volunteering was unproductive and unhelpful. To give you an idea of what I mean I will provide a few examples. On our trash cleanups, we would focus on picking up waste mainly on the street right in front of Jakera base camp. We were basically going around picking up the trash of a few families who lived in this housing complex. This is unproductive I think because if we always clean up the same area in front of these families if trains them that it doesn’t matter if they leave their trash on the street because volunteers will always come to pick it up. Another example of unproductive volunteering is that we spent a good portion of time putting up signs we made. We were instructed to write things like “be quiet for the animals” “save the turtles” and “throw your plastic in the bin”. Then we spent a day all walking around and putting them up. Also, are we really that naive that we think that putting up a few painted signs will actually do much? More so, it was like a two-person job so the rest of us ended up just standing there (which felt quite unproductive). On days like this, we always had lots of pictures taken of us and posted on to the instagram which furthered my feeling that Jakeras main goal was to attract the business of volunteers not to actually make a productive difference. Also I want to reemphasize that we barely did any volunteering in reality. The instagram and website is very misleading in that way. The volunteering we did was we went to Cobano (the bionics thing that was written about extensively in the itinerary), twice. We stayed for about 2 hours each time. One of the times we went, the men working there said that they didn’t know we were coming (poor communication of the camp). Other than that we did 2, hour long beach cleanups and picked up trash and painted signs a bit, for like an hour or half hour occasionally. That is literally all we did for the whole 3 weeks we spent at Jakera (which might I remind you is supposed to be the intensive volunteering part of our trip). I will acknowledge that we did do volunteering at our time at ASVO and cirenas. However, this was a small portion of our trip. I think to improve the trip, The Leap/ Jakera either need to change the marketing and stop acting like this is a volunteer based trip, or spend time and some money trying to figure out productive volunteering that a large group of people can do and that will actually help the world and the local communities in Costa Rica. We could build a new recycling center, we could do beach clean ups every day, we could work on a permaculture farm. Costa Rica is a country that is overall very conscious of sustainability so I am confident that there are plenty of organizations already existing that would jump at the idea of having 21 volunteers for 3 weeks. Think about it. My last problem with the program is that it is very overpriced for what it is. This would be ok if some of the proceeds were being donated or if the activities promised were acted on but since neither of those things were true I would be very curious to see a breakdown of the cost. Honestly also it was a little dodgy that we had to pay for everything in cash. This was never mentioned by The Leap and it was all of our understanding that they would accept bank transfers. I know that with cash you can avoid taxes so I understand why a business would want to do that, but it totally disregards making it easy for the volunteers. Also, it is a little unsafe having 21 girls march to the one functional ATM, get large amounts of cash back, and march back up to the camp every week. It puts us in a very vulnerable position, and it would not be hard for locals to take advantage of us as we as campers are a pretty well known entity in the town. I hope you understand that my feedback is not a criticism of the individual leaders on this trip as they were excellent (shoutout to Jack and Max- absolute legends). The program as a whole really needs improvement though, so please keep this advice in

It’s my second time on a Leap Programme! Aged eighteen, my hard-work teaching in schools, working with children and brick-building classrooms, was the perfect eye-opener to a global need for volunteers, and aid for third-world countries. I made lifelong friends from around the world, and we still meet up regularly, with the addition of babies now the oldest group members are settling! But we always reminisce about the days of ‘Team Tuska!’ At a young age, is a great way to ‘leap’ out of your comfort zone, immerse yourself in a different and vibrant culture, and learn to fundraise prior to the trip. So, after graduating, and three years of suppressing my travel bug, I signed up once again, but this time for Costa Rica 2018! A completely different ranging programme, including Surfing & Spanish Lessons, along with midnight guiding walks on the beach to learn about protecting nesting turtle eggs. The Camp base in Jakera Jungle was simply paradise, complete with a pool, hammocks, and evening Salsa lessons with Marco, a new energetic, youthful, and inspiring camp leader. The Camp food was five star everyday- great relief for a fussy vegetarian! And you really do get a chance to meet people from all different walks of life as they attend these well-organised and exciting programmes. I’ve already booked a flight to Lithuania on my return with a small group to go visit a team mate! The Leap Camp Leaders are great guides, always on hand to help, and set up diverse programmes across each global camp. Chris & Peggy from Jakera really worked hard to host an experience to suit all! The Leap HQ, are only a phone call away to answer any questions before, during and after your travels! I’ll be looking at the map once again to place my finger and see what camp will take me where next!

An excellent, very caring group of people who go out of their way to find a solution that works for you. My situation was a little unusual, as my son has Aspergers Syndrome and ADHD and I needed a company who could really listen, understand the situation and find a solution that would work for him. This fantastic group of people were always there with quick responses and well thought out solutions. Not to mention, it was something that was very last minute. I've had to explain Aspergers to many who have been a part of my sons life over the years - many don't get it, or don't want to get it, or they will only provide a "one size fits all" solution (which doesn't work) and no options (they don't want to deal with it). This company embraced it and went above and beyond (that's you Jenny). My son is on his placement now and is loving it - successful because this company listened, responded, and was happy to provide out of the box solutions that worked. Thanks you so much for your part in what will be one of, what will be greatest learning and development opportunities my son has experienced.