For many years, Outward Bound Costa Rica students have completed meaningful service learning projects across the country of Costa Rica as well as in parts of Nicaragua and the Caribbean coastal region of Bocas del Toro, Panama. Recently, our team jumped at the opportunity to get involved with a service opportunity that hit closer to home: a community project located in the nature reserve surrounding our rainforest base in Tres Rios and hosted by la Escuela Municipal del Agua y el Ambiente or the Municipal School for Water and Environment.

About the Tres Rios Reserve

Known officially as la Finca Municipal Los Lotes, the Tres Rios reserve is a protected area located in the region of La Union, in Cartago Province. Just across the small brook beyond our student dorms lies this preserved land that provides the local municipality of Tres Rios with a fresh, purified source of water. Recently, the Tres Rios municipal school has begun using this area to educate young students and the local community about the local ecology of this biodiverse reserve that supplies their region with potable water. The vision of the current project further develops the community’s vision to create a place that school groups and residents of Tres Rios can come and enjoy.

OBCR’s Involvement

Our ongoing participation will not only benefit the local community in realizing their goals but will allow our students to gain better understanding of an untouched, non-touristic region in Costa Rica. Though our volunteers will be playing a key role in its development, there will also be high school students from the town who will be lending a hand; allowing both groups to benefit from a unique cultural exchange. The Tres Rios municipal school’s lead coordinator Gloria Muñoz Gonzalez explained that OBCR’s collaboration will help in maintaining and cleaning trails, improving access, planting trees, and collecting garbage, among others things.

If interested in getting involved, contact us to learn more about our related 2013 Summer Adventures or email our Custom Course Manager about designing a course that features this project!