Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary in Costa Rica

Before I continue with country number seven or actually the seventh time I lived and worked in a country, I will first share with you my fifth experience with living and working with wildlife in Costa Rica!

My first time in Costa Rica was such a gift after my five-month internship in Curacao, where I will share all about it in one of my next posts. Everything was so well organized at Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. There was a wonderful cook who cooked us two amazingly delicious meals per day, lunch and dinner, and who practised my Spanish with me. Oef she had cooking skills. Besides that, we could order dry food, fruits and vegetables two times a week for the two volunteer houses there. I shared my room with one other veterinary intern. We had a kitchen to make breakfast and food during the weekend. We had a bathroom and a living room with a bookshelf filled with books that other volunteers and interns left. I could feel the presence of all the people that have been living there by looking through their books. The group of volunteers and interns that was there when I was there was so lovely. We consisted of all women and we created this safe space where everybody was accepted for who they are. No drama, only uplifting each other. I met these three amazingly beautiful, warm-hearted women who feel like sisters to me. Sisters from another continent tho since they are from Malta, South Africa and Mexico. I feel this connection with them that instantly clicked and I feel so grateful for their friendship.

I came to the sanctuary to work in the clinic and to gain experience as a veterinary nurse. The work days started with a morning meeting at 7 am and ended at 3 pm.

I fed baby anteaters, kinkajous, squirrel monkeys, opossums and toucans in the nursery. You probably wonder what is a kinkajou, I also had never heard of them before but they are really interesting creatures, google them! Anyways I cleaned the enclosures of the animals in rehab and when needed in the sanctuary. I made their food ready in the kitchen when I was on kitchen shift. With every feeding, I also had to create enrichment for the animals in the sanctuary to keep them stimulated. In the clinic, I gave the animals injectable or oral medication under the supervision of the veterinarian and I assisted in doing the clinical health checks of new patients under anaesthesia. I had a wonderful experience working alongside the veterinarian at the sanctuary. I admire her for how she is connected to the animals and for the work she does for the animals #womeninconservation. I fell in love with seeing all these different species coming in: from arracaris with fractures, and orphaned squirrel monkeys to an ocelot for a health check. It was interesting to learn how things go in this clinic compared to the animal hospital where I work in Amsterdam. Since we worked with wild animals there were no owners involved, only people that brought the animals in, so I was able to actually just work with the animals, loved it! I learned a lot about different cases that came in. Besides the work days in the clinic, I also had project days to work on an individual project. I decided to do a project for the clinic, I created a list of parameters of the animals that came into the clinic and I did some re-organizing/re-labeling.

On my days off, which were two days a week, I went with my girls on adventures to Playa Linda where we spent the day talking, swimming, massaging each other and dancing on the beach under the palm trees. So magical, peaceful and full of love. We also went to the Nauyaca waterfalls which was beautiful to see, it was very intense as the water was storming down from the rocks since I was there during raining season. During the weekends we went to Fuego for some Latin dancing, where I could improve my salsa moves. We also went to Kinkajous which was our place to be with reggaeton music. What a blast we had, plus one good hangover and some drunk pictures and videos after but worth the memories haha.

Besides the work in the sanctuary the organization organized activities for us such as going to the butterfly and bamboo forest waterfalls (my favorite!!), Playa Dominicalito and Playa Hermosa to surf, and to Bahia Ballena to see the whale tale during low tide. We were able to leave the sanctuary with the volunteer coordinator, my dear friend, who drove us in the volunteer car. The road we were driving on was absolutely beautiful. On one side there was jungle and on the other side the ocean. Oef a wet dream for a traveller like me. I absolutely have fallen in love with this country. So much nature. Everywhere I looked I saw green from the jungle trees: Bamboo, palm trees and many more plant- and tree species I do not know the name of. I heard Howler monkeys howling from the jungle and saw capuchin monkeys swinging around in the trees. I saw toucans, amazon parrots and even scarlet macaws flying around, absolutely magnificent.

I stayed for one month but it felt as if I was there way longer, and I felt so sad when leaving. I felt anxious about going back to the Netherlands after six months of being on my own in my element with my people. I wished I could have stayed longer but I was also looking forward to my next adventure in the Netherlands. I felt like I needed to go home to work on myself, to finish my study, and I felt very curious about someone that I met during my travel and who I wanted to get to know better.. hihi. I took the plane with a suitcase full of memories and with knowing I would come back one day.