Trip Type: Volunteering, Cultural Immersion, Environmental

Dates: March 12th - March 21st, 2010 (late Friday until very early Monday) - USC Spring Break 2010 Schedule

Group size: 15-20 participants, 3-4 leaders

Cost: $800 - $1000 (depending on funding, donations and fundraising this could change). This cost includes airfare, lodging, food and transportation.

Requirements: Each participant will be expected to participate in frequent meetings, volunteer activities, and fundraising events.

Activities: Manual labor, including construction, painting, tree planting, rainforest hikes, and waterfall swimming.

Location: Quebrada Arroyo (located in the mountains above Quepos bordering the Savegre river), Londres, Manuel Antonio nature reserve, and San Jose.

Accommodations: Shared 6-person rooms with bunk beds, rain forest camps

Food: Locally prepared

Short Description: Quebrada Arroyo is a sustainable rainforest community located an deep within the forest and accessible only by a single twisting jungle road. In recent years the people of Quebrada Arroyo have joined together to form a tourism cooperative where the labor is shared equally among the members and the benefits equitably divided. The community has greatly improved its quality of life in this manner.

With a small grant from the United Nations, Quebrada Arroyo began a community tourism project to welcome visitors to the area which has beautiful waterfalls as well as a sky bridge that stretches over 400 feet above the canyon floor, 160 feet below. In addition to rainforest hikes and swimming in waterfall pools, participants will live as members of the community, eating home cooked traditional Costa Rican meals. It is a great chance to learn about true Costa Rican life in an unadulterated form.

In March of 2005 USC volunteers created a nature trail behind the Londres elementary school. The principal of the school has grand plans for this area behind the school including an outdoor ecology classroom.

In 2009, USC volunteers widened a main access road to Quebrada Arroyo, helping the town receive necessary supplies. Additionally, the volunteers helped to rebuild sections of the rainforest in Londres. Using analogous foresting techniques, volunteers planted seeds in bio-degradable milk cartons and rebuilt a section of the Costa Rican rainforest that had been removed due to deforestation.

Volunteering here will include maintenance and improvement on the trail, possible construction, painting of classrooms, interaction with the children including teaching English and playing soccer, and tree planting.