Summer Camp Leadership in Costa Rica

Hotels
Students will stay at various types of locations including a jungle lodge, a ranching hacienda turned into a hotel, and a beach hotel. The jungle lodge is a fairly rustic location, while the hotels have more modern features. All toilets are western style.

Basehouse
Students have beds in shared rooms, separated by gender. Shared bathrooms with flushing toilets (but hot water is not always available).

The service project is creating and running a summer day camp for rural Costa Rican children. The first part of the trip will focus on the actual set up of the camp, planning the logistics and details of the day to day schedule. Then students will run the camp for 6 days, about 6 hours every day with time to reflect, improve and plan for the following day.

This program requires students to work well and work hard together as running a summer camp is no small feat. Students spend a lot of time reflecting on the experience and discuss the impact they are having both on their lives and the local community. However, because of this hard work and the amazing interaction they have with the local students, it is one of the most rewarding experiences they can have! On this program, students will be able to practice their Spanish while interacting with the local kids and our staff, but will have no formal instruction.

This program involves adventure and service activities that require students to be physically active

For most of the program, students will be eating traditional Costa Rican such as rice & beans, salad, beef, fish, chicken, pork or veggies and other local specialties. At the base house, we will have our own in-house chef who will prepare all our meals. When away from the base, they will be eating at local restaurants and will have a variety of meals to choose from.

Dietary Requirements/Food Allergies – We can easily accommodate vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and other common dietary requirements on this program. Please make sure to include this in your medical form so that our staff can prepare and we recommend bringing along some of your own favorite snacks!

Through the vast majority of the country, water is safe to drink from the tap and has the same standards of purification as in the US. For this reason, we ask students to bring reusable water bottles in order to reduce plastic usage. For the hotel we stay in on the coast, tap water is not recommended to drink but Rustic Pathways and the hotel will provide potable water at all times.

The Summer Camp Leadership program takes place in a rainforest region, a very green, humid, and “wet” area of the country. Students should be prepared for hot, humid weather, 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and daily rain showers. However as you will find, a little downpour doesn’t stop anything in a country used to rain. In the evenings, the temperature can cool down to 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Flights – Direct flight from Los Angeles (LAX) or New York (JFK) or Newark (EWR) to San Jose (SJO) (East Coast hub depends on dates. 6/13/23 starting programs use EWR, all other program dates use JFK). This program does not have any internal flights. The advertised dates for this program include travel time from the USA. Students from the USA will depart on a Tuesday afternoon and return on a Wednesday afternoon. The program within Costa Rica runs from Tuesday to Wednesday. Please refer to the itinerary for further details.

Visa –There are no visa requirements in Costa Rica for students traveling on United States passports. Students traveling with Rustic Pathways on passports not issued by the United States are responsible for determining their own visa requirements. Please check with the appropriate consulate or embassy.

Internal Travel – You’ll travel to a few core places while traveling every 3-4 days. This will offer a chance to know a few places well. Traveling to your destination internally can require several hours on a bus ride with the group.

Students are allowed to bring phones on their Rustic Pathways program, but must abide by our cell phone policy. Students will not be allowed to use their phones during community service other than taking some photos, nor at any other time where it is disruptive to the group dynamic. Students will have access to wifi for three days while planning camp, a couple of evenings while running camp, at the last two hotels we stay in. We understand many students come with international cell phone plans, and we ask that parents discuss responsible cell phone use before the trip and direct any major communication through Rustic Pathways so students can immerse themselves in the “Rustic” experience.

All activities in this itinerary are included. Checked luggage fees, personal gifts, laundry and snacks are not.

Students will have the chance to visit a couple of gift shops, grocery stores and free time in La Fortuna town center. We recommend $150 per week to cover souvenirs and incidentals.

Laundry is available once during camp and the cost is $10-$20 depending on the amount of clothes. Those that will be connecting to another program may have access to another laundry service in San Jose at the end of their program for a cost of approximately $10-$20.

Students will be very active throughout this program, so we recommend bringing lots of comfortable athletic wear, preferably that can dry quickly. Please note that we will be working with young Costa Rican students ages 6-12 so students should set a good example with the types of clothing they wear; reasonable length shorts, no spaghetti strap, low cut tank tops or “muscle” tanks, appropriate logos/no foul language or depictions. Additionally, we will spend a lot of time in the sun so clothes that sufficiently protect students from the stronger UV rays of Central America are recommended.

Ensuring the safety of your teen as they travel with Rustic Pathways is a top priority. Please review our Health and Safety measures.

Our Travel Protection Plan helps protect our participants, their belongings, and their travel investment in those unforeseen circumstances that may arise during travel. Learn more about the plan offered through our partner.

Please know that your service contribution is an essential part of achieving the development goals we have established in collaboration with our partners and no donations are required.

If you do wish to bring donations, we are collecting donations of basic school supplies that will be distributed through a local organization to Costa Rican students with limited resources. In order to ensure what is brought is most useful and easily able to be distributed, we ask that you only bring a “school supply pack” as listed below. There are two types of packs needed, please select one and bring all the items on that list bundled together in a simple grocery bag or similar.

Please be aware that we are unable to accept donations sent by mail after your program ends. If you are interested, please bring them along with you on your program (and be mindful of baggage allowances).

Our Costa Rican staff will collect any donations from you on your arrival day. Thank you for your contribution!