what's up guys it's not Alexander Travelbum today I just wanted to talk a little
bit about my volunteering experience in Central America with worldpackers
and as you can probably see I'm not in Costa Rica anymore
I am in sunny California so I just really wanted to tell you guys about the
experience about the people I met the things I did where I was because it was
very cool so you're gonna want to hear this first let me get some coffee so
firstly people always ask how did I find this place
because my experience was a bit different and it's something that you
can't just find anywhere and so I found this opportunity through this company
called worldpackers worldpackers is a website or a platform that connects
volunteers with hosts volunteering house all around the world
there are a bunch of different opportunities everything you can imagine
I think you need a platform like this in order to find these places that are
really rural and they're usually a little bit off the beaten path I'll go
into a little bit more details about worldpackers later but let me talk about
the experience first so I decided to go to Central America to Costa Rica and
this place was called Isla vielen which is a small area a small island where
only a few families live so it's very rural there are no grocery stores there
is nothing but just this family everything you eat is something that
they cook for you and they get almost all of it from their farm and from the
jungle around them so it's just amazing they are pretty much self sustainable
they get their power from solar from solar panels on the roof so this place
is truly one-of-a-kind so basically it's these five or six cabanas in the middle
of the jungle and I just I really need to show you this place
so you stay in these cabanas and the walls are just this mesh material so you
can see the outside you can see the jungle around you but from the outside
you can't see in people always ask me about that this so it's good because you
feel like you're right there in the jungle it's like you're camping you can
hear all the sounds you can see although everything that comes by if a
sloth wants to come say hi you can say hi to him or her ezel Avilan is just one
of the most beautiful places that I've ever been and I got to spend a week
there I could have spent more so if you want to go to isla view and you can go
for two weeks or three weeks or something like that okay so the work
people ask about the work so one thing I did was I helped build this path out of
coconuts out of halved coconuts so it's the rainy season right now so they
really have a problem with this mud it's kind of hard to walk everywhere they
gave me these rubber boots so that I could walk around trudged through the
jungle trudged through the mud and you really have to wear these to walk around
right now so we took these halved coconuts and we place them in the mud
and built kind of like a cobblestone path like something you would see in
Europe so it's just much easier to walk on those coconuts when when it's muddy
so one thing I did for a few days when I was there is I had to hack away at this
wall and move good strong land and rock toward the dock where you enter this
place because at the dock because of the constantly shifting tide the high and
low tide whenever the tide is low which is you know most of the day a bunch of
mud is exposed so when guests show up to this place these Laville in is actually
an eco-lodge people show up and it's kind of hard to
walk through there because it's it's all mud so we started building this pathway
out of this better land this rock and some palms so that even when the tide
comes in and goes over that land this good land will will stay there and there
will be a little pathway so that you can get to the cabanas a little easier okay
so another pivotal and important part about a volunteering experience like
this is the people so you want to volunteer somewhere where you're going
to like the people where you're gonna feel safe and feel welcome there's some
of the nicest people they cooked a variety of meals every night we had
something different they taught me whatever they could about their
lifestyle about the area about Costa Rica and you
know there was a language barrier because I only speak begin yo espanol
only a little bit most of the family there they don't speak that much so it
wasn't that easy to communicate but it was also it was pretty fun
we were laughing at each other a lot because we were saying the wrong things
and it was just it was fun so worldpackers this is also kind of a
review of worldpackers the company that allowed me to do this
and I have nothing bad to say I have all good things to say I had an incredible
experience it was very easy so all I had to do was I signed up and then I reached
out to maybe five six or seven hosts around Central America in all these
different countries and I think all of them got back to me maybe one didn't get
back to me but they all were really open to having me to having me volunteer
there so worldpackers is great because you can feel safe they they have a
process where they verify their hosts so you're not just gonna go on the platform
and find somebody who you know who they haven't verified who they haven't spoken
to yet and made sure that it's a safe place it's a good experience and so
that's something that makes worldpackers different from some of the other ones
out there one question that people always ask but they really want to know
is how much does it cost a lot of people look for volunteering experiences and
they can't believe that it costs two thousand or three thousand dollars to go
and volunteer somewhere like it shouldn't it be free or nearly free I
think so and so worldpackers it's a $49 membership for the year which is
actually very very cheap if you think about it the host is gonna give you a
place to stay they're gonna provide you food usually once you get there all your
expenses are covered and if you travel at all you'll know that typically
between accommodation and food and transportation and all that you're
usually going to be spending that anyway within less than a day
depending where you are or within a couple of days you'll be spending $49
but you can stay somewhere for a month with worldpackers or stay multiple
places the whole year and still it's only that $49 feet and I've talked to
worldpackers and they gave me a promo code which is Alex travel bump so if you
click my link below or if you put in that promo code you'll get 40% off I'm
really bad at math but but $49 40% off you know you'll probably spend $25 for
the year and that is not much at all that's like a hostel and a meal and
that's for the whole year so really really really worth it I had a great
experience and you will too please check out worldpackers check out all the
experiences all over the world anywhere you want to go they'll probably have
something for you really you should try volunteering if you have the time you
should volunteer and give back a little bit leave some comments below let me
know asking me any questions about this I want to get a conversation going about
volunteer and travel please like this video so that more people see it and
more people volunteer around the world and help people out and I will see you
in the next video