Gecko Trail Adventures and Jaguar Rescue Center

Placement organization

Name of organization: Gecko Trail Adventures and Jaguar Rescue Center
Town/city: Puerto Viejo
Country: Costa Rica
Website: http://geckotrail.com/

Name of student: Anouk van Duijn

Specialist area: TM
Placement period: 2011-2012

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Touroperator
Organization’s activities: Gecko Trail Adventures :
Office organization , Working with drive, Work with clients , Creating new tours, Translation excursions descriptions, Update news/special offer section on website, Checking service notes, Checking transportation routes

Target group of the organization: All clients, they have a wide selection of tours and excursions.
Company culture: Nina: General manager.
Alex: Teamleader/coordinator: operations, accounting and vendors
Ernesto: Team leader/sales agent
Staff: Administrion and Sales team

Nina is the general manager and she is also really the boss. She makes the decisions together with her partners Alex and Ernesto. She hardly listens to her people, her staff has not much too say. She is really the boss and you have to listen to her. You can say the hierarchy is really formal.
Number of employees: 15
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes they did

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? During my internship I had to work at the department products. I had to check our products and when something was wrong I had to changed the information about the products. Further I had to make new tours toghether with my Dutch colleague. We went to different kinds of companies and were looking for potential new tours/excursions.

Further I had to take care of the translation of our excursions books. I had to translate it from Spanish to English. Those were my big tasks at the office and further I had to take care of the office stock and the administration of our bookings.
Brief description of your daily activities: Taking care of the office stock/office administration
]Working with drive
Work with clients
Creating new tours
Translation excursions descriptions
Update news/special offer section on website
Checking service notes
Checking transportation routes

Brief description of your company assignment: Translation tourist books from Spanish to English.
Beach cleaning traject
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor Nina was really busy and a lot of times I had to ask for work. Weekly or somethimes montly we had little meetings were we discussed my work. She gave good feedback and that helped me to be better in my work. Later she went back to Switserland and I had a new supervisor named Nadja for a couple of weeks. Nadja was helping me even better and checked my work daily. She helped me also more with my tasks.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independet, flexible, work under bad conditions
Additional company requirements for this placement? HTML, writing skills excell skills.
English: Intermediate
Spanish: Basic
French:
German: Basic
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane and bus

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? By my school friends who were already in Costa Rica; Merel and Nienke
How did you go to work every day? By bicycle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Agency
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? one month
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? two months

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800
Accommodation (monthly): € 150
Local transport (monthly): € 0
General costs of living (monthly): € 200
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation of 400 dollars.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Reading books of the culture of Costa Rica
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: anoukjj_@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: If you wan’t to work for this company you really have to be patient and listen to your bosses. Employees have not really mucht to say and if you do they don’t always appreciate it. You have to be a strong person to work for this company if you want them to listen to you.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Travel Agency Terra Venturas in Puerto Viejo
Travel Agency Mystic travel
Fox Travel

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link