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Join our mission: Reforest & Protect Monkeys in Wild Costa Rica

The experience

Help protect capuchin monkeys in their natural habitat! 🐒🌿 Join us in Barra de Pacuare, a hidden Caribbean paradise where jungle, river, and sea meet. This family-led project focuses on reforestation and biodiversity conservation. Live in an authentic setting, observe monkeys, and plant native trees. Learn about ecology, share with other volunteers, and enjoy a simple life. A unique, ethical, and life-changing volunteer experience awaits you.

What you offer

20 hours of help per week

Animal Care: Help look after and take care of animals.

Building & Repairing: Help with a wide range of repairs or building.

Farming: Plant crops, sow seeds and help in outside tasks.

Gardening: Help grow plants and cultivate gardens

Additional fee required

Amount: US$ 33 Per day

Fee pays for: Benefits for travelers, Materials for volunteer activities, and Donation to project

Description: This is a non profit organisation so fees are use to maintain the camp, pay food and material for the activities.

What you get

2 days off per week

Shared Dorm: You will have a bed in a shared room, which means you will share the same room with other travelers.

Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.

Lunch: You are entitled to a free lunch, every day of your stay.

Dinner: You are entitled to a free dinner, every day of your stay.

Discounts on Tours: Get discounts for tours and excursions around town.

Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.

Fast Internet Access: High-speed internet for you to work remotely

Requirements

Beginner English or Beginner Spanish

Over 18 years old

Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers

What's not included

Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa

Program Details

This program aims to protect monkeys and preserve biodiversity in general.
The mains actions are :
- do Monkey monitoring in order to get to know the population, its evolution and their behavior.
- reforest the area to offer them more food and habitat.
But we also have much more to offer!
❤️ Rooted in the Land
In the heart of Barra de Pacuare lives a family who has called this place home for generations. Long before eco-tourism, they were already caretakers of the land — protecting its animals, preserving its forest, and living in harmony with nature. Doña Lilly was born there 80 years ago and given this land by her father. With Don Bill they grew 7 children in Pacuare. Freddy is the one who lives there all the time.
🌱 A Living Legacy
This project is not just about conservation. It’s about sharing a way of life that respects the earth. The family’s deep knowledge of biodiversity, plants, local traditions, and natural cycles is passed down with love — and now shared with you.
🐒 Volunteering with Heart
When you join, you don’t just help the planet — you become part of a story. A story of resilience, wisdom, and commitment. You’ll work hand in hand with people who truly care. You’ll see the forest not as a landscape, but as a living being.
🌊 A Hidden Paradise
Barra de Pacuare is one of Costa Rica’s last untouched treasures — no roads, no mass tourism, just pure beauty. A place where monkeys swing freely, frogs sing at night, and time follows the rhythm of the nature.
✨ An Invitation to Meaning
This is your chance to give back. To learn something real. To slow down and reconnect. Your hands will plant trees, but your heart will carry the experience forever.

Activities & Shift

This program aims to protect monkeys and preserve biodiversity in general.
Monkeys monitoring aims to get to know as much as possible the local monkey population, their way of life and their needs.
Monitoring consists in going at any time, have a walk to look for them, then observe and write what we meet and see.
Those datas will be very helpful.
In addition, we work on reforestation with native tree species to offer monkeys the food they like, good habitats and ways to move.

Typical day is :
Breakfast at 8 AM.
Work from 9 to 11 AM.
Lunch at 12 PM.
Work from 3 to 5 PM.
Dinner at 7 PM.
The rest of the time is mostly free time.
Monkeys monitoring should be at any time (even before breakfast) because it's better to observe them at different times.

Rules

There is no interaction with the animals, we are not a rescue center.
We work on prevention and preservation.
We really believe is not good for wildlife to have interaction with humans, we just want to offer them good living conditions and make sure the population don't decline.
You have to pay part of the price in advance, and the rest at least the day of your arrival. No refund.
You have to respect the place, the others and the working times.
You have to be very careful with the sea and the jungle.