I live in Rancho Quemado, and I am part of the Biological Monitoring Community Committee. Currently, I am the president, and our group is focused on monitoring the flora and fauna surrounding our neighborhood. All of this led to the creation of a nursery of endemic or endangered species of trees. We are restoring spaces that are degraded. During this project, we met the Saimiri Foundation, which has been of great support to our survival and objectives. By purchasing our seedlings for reforestation, our organization has been able to maintain and grow our nursery. We have gone beyond our community, it has been a great experience, full of hope in Osa Peninsula.

The Monkey Watching certification has allowed me to provide interesting and up to date information to my clients. Also I can promote awareness about the importance of primates in an ecosystem and the threats they are dealing with.

You can say I grew up in Drake Bay and I remember, as a child, watching the animals everywhere. I always wanted to study something related to Nature. Now I am proud to see it was worth getting trained in order to show all the beauty we have in the country, more so when they visit Osa Peninsula. Thanks to organizations such as Monkey Watching, through their courses, I can provide, with certainty, reliable and timely facts about primates.

I am an expat living in Guanacaste. I took the course on Monkey Watching to know more about monkeys. What a nice experience! I learned a lot and gained awareness about the dangers that monkeys are dealing with: urban expansion without planning, “guides” getting too close and offering human food until the monkeys weaken… As Mr. Ronald said:. We destroy what we love”. But at the same time this course and the national counting give me hope, because there are many people fighting to protect the flora and fauna of Costa Rica.

Knowledge transfers power. I am grateful to the professors for this opportunity!

By partnering with CEPA and Fundación Saimiri, our service-learning study abroad program to Costa Rica was an impactful and memorable experience for our entire group.  Daniela’s connections throughout the Osa Peninsula allowed our students to quickly feel part of the Rancho Quemada community and have an authentic experience of Costa Rican culture and life.  Her expertise and passion were compelling for our entire group and helped all of us shift our perspective to a deeper awareness of the natural world.  It was a great benefit to have someone local handling the details and working with us to designing a program that met the objectives for our course and was within our budget. Our students continue to talk about their experience in Costa Rica, and we are excited to take another group soon!