education program

Trekking: All itineraries of our student programs include at least one day-long trek or hike through the hills, lush rainforests and beaches of the Osa Peninsula. These treks are testing, designed that way to push these young people in ways most have not been pushed before. For some, it expands the realm of their perceived capabilities, for others it engenders in them a thirst for adventure exploration, which many will carry into their later lives. For all, these treks give a sense of fulfillment and achievement – despite their aches and pains, and wet and muddy boots!
Night Tours: Another adventure, and novel experience to most students, that Osa Aventura includes its programs is going out at night looking for nocturnal creatures. This activity never fails to excite the young, inquisitive minds of our students. When shown how to use their flashlights to find strange animals by eye-shine, a whole new world of wonders opens up to them!

Although there is a blurred distinction between recreation and adventure, the following activities are contracted out by Osa Aventura to specialist, licensed operators who comply with the strictest safety regulations. The following is a selection of the recreational activities that we can include in our itineraries:

Canopy Tour with a five – stage of zip-line through lush rainforest.
Boat Tour is a hay-day cruise of the Golfo Dulce. The itinerary includes whale and dolphin watching, snorkeling & swimming in the morning.                                   Kayaking on the calm waters of Golfo Dulce mangrove in the afternoon.

Community work for students is an option Osa Aventura avails to high school students. This work includes painting and minor repairs to community schools, providing schools with educational materials, clearing trails and building tent platforms for community eco-tourism projects, erecting fences to protect live stock and building chicken coups – with the increase in wildlife on the Osa Peninsula, as a result of effective conservation measures, many of the community farmers are now suffering losses to their live stock and farm produce to jaguars, pumas, ocelots, peccaries and tapirs!

Osa Aventuras’ “Education Program for High School Students” suggests that school groups come armed with individual or class projects. But, keep these project simple, and as an aside to the core educational aspect of the program. While small projects do add another dimension of interest to the students’ visits to the Osa, they also illustrate the difficulty of asking questions of an environment unfamiliar to them. In our experience, many of these small projects fail to answer the question they ask (because of the mismatch between theory and practice), which in itself can be more instructive if the reason its failure is analyzed – especially useful to students who wish to pursue a career involving field work!

Depending on the duration of your visit, our “Education program for High School Students” will visit several venues. A list of activities will be customized for you based on the persons (for example scientists, artisans and native communities) and places (for example research centers and archeological sites), where you can learn local know-how.

Unleash your creativity and we will help you get there!