Will Graves, Costa Rica 2024

I am writing to give you an update on how I used the money I got from the Pawprint Trust this year. I used the money to purchase a large bag for all my kit and a smaller bag for use
during the day, I also got additional lightweight clothing for the expedition.

My trip to Costa Rica was an amazing experience. I travelled with other students from school through Camps International. We stayed at 5 different camps over 4 weeks.

In the first camp, Uvita, our project work included painting school gates, sign making and tree planting. We were able to experience snorkelling in the reef where we saw turtles and
sharks. We had fun on the beach in our downtime, and evenings getting to know each other in the group. Local wildlife included parrots, howler monkeys, lizards and crabs.
Unfortunately, we ended up with sand in our sleeping areas that I wasn’t so keen on.

Next, we moved to Camp Pinuelas, where we worked on restoring the camp which had been damaged by recent weather, this included making new paths. We also learnt about the local
turtle project and supported their work and helped with restoring a cabin for a local government organisation. We were able to spend one night in a hammock in the hope of seeing turtles, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any. The rest of our time we had to sleep in a nearby hostel as the camp wasn’t fit to stay at.

Then we moved to Camp Terraba. At this camp we helped with a projected building steps to the scared stone site and the stream. A highlight was making chocolate at the camp with the help of locals. I also discovered a love a new fruit called rambutans, so tasty. Here I had my first encounter with a snake. This was a busy site and very hot.

We followed this by heading to Camp La Amistad. Here we learnt how coffee is produced and were building walls to protect the local community from landslides. We enjoyed evening campfires. At this camp, it got cold very quickly in the evenings and we had to walk a long way to and from our project work.

Lastly, we were at Camp Negro, where we enjoyed a night walk to experience the local wildlife including owls. During the day we also saw frogs and wild horses. We were also involved in building the path to be used for future night walks as well as dock restoration before enjoying a river experience. We were based close to the community however it was were we all suffered lots of bug bites.

I hope this has helped you get a feel for my four weeks, the equipment I purchased with your funding was essential to my trip and will continue to be used through Scouting now I am
back in the UK. Thank you for your help.