General Internship

I stayed at Hoja Nueva for two months doing a general internship. I decided to go there because they run a really vast variety of projects ranging from Herpetology and Mammal Ecology to the reintroduction of all kinds of animals. This gave me the absolutely perfect opportunity to figure out which area of biology I later want to specialise in! Next to this, I really love doing wildlife photography and staying at Hoja Nueva gave me plenty of opportunities to take macro shots of so many different species of reptiles, amphibians and other animals. Living in the jungle doing fieldwork pretty much every day I could gain so much invaluable experience that will come in really handy in the future.
I know, it’s such a cliche thing to say that volunteering abroad changed me but when you live in the jungle for a longer period of time, how can it not? Everything around you is alive! Animals, plants, fungi are all competing against each other and you can literally observe all of those different survival strategies (which can be absolutely insane sometimes!) and see how and why they have evolved. Seeing all of this happening and how everything in that system influences one another was unquestionably the most valuable thing that I could gain in the jungle! I came back home with a much better understanding of biology and how ecosystems work, which could never be acquired by reading tons of books or learning about it in lectures. You simply had to be there!
To be honest, one thing that I was a bit worried about before I got there was the living situation and what the people over there will be like. But now that I'm back, it’s one of the things I miss the most about this place! Everyone (including the cats and dogs!) was so welcoming and supportive from the minute I arrived and no questions that I had were left unanswered! Also, all the other interns were absolutely amazing people and how can it not be a great experience when you live in the middle of the rainforest with a bunch of biology nerds?
Overall, it was such an amazing experience and I had a really good time! I can’t wait to come back one day!
(And if you’re still thinking about whether you should go or not, just go for it! Trust me, it’s amazing!)