Asociación Salvemos las Tortugas de Parismina, is a community-based, non profit, conservation organization based in Parismina, Costa Rica, dedicated to protecting sea turtles and their eggs from poaching while initiating sustainable development and providing a viable alternative economy to poaching in the village.
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We've volunteered at the ASTOP programme in August 2017.
The good parts:
The local guides were excellent, they took us on patrol at night to search for nesting turtles. The aim of these patrol's was to stop Poachers from killing turtles and stealing their eggs. We undertook several patrols and saw two beautiful green turtles laying eggs.
-the Project is mostly run by volunteers, who were very passionate and hands on. We've met lovely people and made some new friends.
The bad parts:
-The local employees of the programme were terrible and disengaged from day one. They didn't bother showing up at the bus station to collect us as arranged and failed to inform us about it. We've had to go round in circles phoning out of date contacts to finally get somewhere. When we arrived in Parisimina they briefly showed us to our homestay and for the rest of the week we never saw them again.
-The people of our homestay were lovely and very welcoming. We were prepared for humble living conditions, however the homestay lacked basic hygiene and was infested by bugs and roaches.
At the moment I would not recommend this particular organisation, as it feels that they are completely detached from the project. The volunteers are left to organise their own schedules and activities throughout the week. It wouldn't take much to improve the experience, but I feel an internal restructure of the...
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I spent an interesting and sometimes challenging week volunteering with my girlfriend at the ASTOP programme.
The good bits, The local guides were excellent, they took us on patrol at night to search for nesting turtles. The aim of these patrol's was to stop Poachers from killing turtles and stealing their eggs. I undertook 4 patrol's and saw two beautiful green turtles laying eggs.
-the programme is half run by volunteers, the ones we met were lovely people who did an excellent job.
-we were with around 10 volunteers who were lovely people and made some good friends.
The bad bits, -The local employees of the programme were terrible, from day one they didn't bother showing up at the bus station to collect us as arranged. When we arrived In Parismina they briefly showed us to our homestay and for the rest of the week we never saw them again. -The people of our homestay were lovely and and very welcoming. We were prepared for basic accommodation however the homestay was dirty and full of bugs.
At the moment I would not recommend this particular organisation, as it feels they are completely detached from the project. The volunteers are left to organise their schedules and activities throughout the week. I really hope they improve because the work the volunteers are doing is...
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I volunteered with ASTOP in July and August of 2019. Overall I had a great experience with the program and enjoyed my time in Parismina.
The local staff is very friendly and helpful. They welcomed me at the docks and showed me my homestay and the village. Some of the staff does speak English, which was helpful.
During the night patrols we saw many tracks and nesting turtles. However when you stay here for a longer time, you can also see the impact of the poaching. This reinforced my believe about the importance of this program. In addition it is helping the local community.
When you volunteer with this organization, keep in mind that this organization is run by locals. They try their best, however their resources are limited. All of the guides and most of the staff need to work other jobs to make their living.
For the accommodation, you need to expect it to be basic but clean. The houses have running water, electricity, TV, and some even internet access. I was very happy with my room and...
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