CEDRELA (CRC-49)

Type: Environmental/Green Projects: Ecologically friendly agriculture - Country: Costa Rica

Brief description and main aims

Cedrela EcoLodge is a family run hotel. We are from Santa María, the nearest town to Copey. In 2013, our family decided to share this magical place full of nature and tranquility with people from all over the world, turning our farm into a touristic project as well. Since our family produced coffee and avocado, we saw tourism as a way to diversify our economy and contribute to the sustainable development of our community.

Since we truly believe that nature and tranquility are essential in our lives for our wellbeing. Here at Cedrela, people can have the opportunity to truly connect with their surroundings. That is why, our promise is to share this piece of precious land and to use our natural resources in an environmentally sustainable manner. Every day we strive to build a resilient economy based on tourism and agriculture through our project.

At Cedrela we want to show the authenticity of our area; the great connection we have with the earth, which we take advantage of and preserve, value and care for. The opportunity to connect and to be able to communicate is what we want to show our visitors, the essence of who we are, what has motivated us to seek this tranquility and magical peace. Peace that can be found in every corner of the property, that gives us the possibility of connecting with those around us and feeling alive, close to nature.

Within our property we have a 3 km trail. The first part crosses 9 ha of protected forest in recovery. The forest is located within a strip of altitudinal vegetation where the premontane forest (1000– 2000 m) and montane forest (2000–3000 m) find each other. Part of our conservation work is to know and understand the diversity of plants present in the forest. Therefore, a floristic inventory was carried out to learn about the entire plant component. Within this small space, 360 species were found, of which 348 are native to Costa Rica.

The low percentage of exotic species (3.3%) indicates the good state of the natural ecosystem. In addition to the native species found, 11 are endemic to Costa Rica. The second part of our trail goes through our coffee and avocado plantation. The coffee we grow, is catuaí, one of the most common varieties in high altitude coffee plantations. Since coffee needs shade to develop properly, we decided to plant avocado, also seeking economic diversification and increasing biodiversity in the field.

Just 10 min from our Lodge, is Coopedota, one of the most important cooperatives in our area, where most of the coffee produced in Dota is processed. With more than 900 associated families and over 50 years of history, Coopedota and coffee production are part of our culture. If you like coffee, we recommend you take a tour of the cooperative, which will help support all associated producers. 

Volunteer tasks

Working in the kitchen: assisting the cook.

Supporting in the restaurant: assisting the waiters with the guests.

Administration: check-in at the reception.

Gardening: supporting the gardeners in the herbal gardens and the greenhouses.

Working in the trails: maintenance and construction of trails. 

Volunteer requirements / Skills

Proactive (very important), volunteers are not always given specific tasks, so they have to search and ask for them.

Sociable person in order to get to know the people working in the project.

Interest in the service sector, working with people and talking to them. There is a lot of variety when working with tourists.

Empathic and considerate.

Good level of English. Spanish is not that important as most of the guests are international, however, volunteers can practice their Spanish when talking to the staff.

Knowledge of German is welcome as there are many German guests, but not necessary.

Independence: consider that in the rainy season only few guests arrive and there may not be that much to do, so the volunteer has to be able to find something to do to in order to not get bored. Sometimes, it can become lonely. During the dry season it can be the opposite, as there are many visitors at the lodge.

Location

Quebrada Grande, Copey de Dota, 11702, Costa Rica 

Hosting Situation (Board and Lodging)

Hosting situation provided by the Project.

The volunteers have their own room within the staff house of the lodge and a shared bathroom with the other staff members. When there are guests, meals for the volunteers are prepared in the restaurant, if not, there is a kitchen in the staff house where they cook for themselves. Vegetarian food can be provided. One big dog and a cat live at the lodge (outside).

More Information

Vacations are flexible and have to be communicated with the coordinator in advance. Long-term volunteers in general have 2 days of vacation for each month (in total 12 days for 6 month-volunteers and 24 days for 12 month volunteers)

8 hours per day usually from 6 am to 2 pm, varies depending on the season. If there are many guests (basically from December to April), the volunteers’ schedule might start later (and finish later as well).