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24 Mar 2025
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Description
Hola! We are a small guesthouse located in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica steps away from a beautiful black sand beach and a five minute walk to downtown Puerto Viejo. We offer an immersion into nature in a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. This is an authentic jungle living experience, we regularly have sloths and monkeys in the trees around the house. We have a beautiful garden full of medicinal and edible plants and fresh eggs available from our free roaming chickens.
We are currently looking for a two-person team to take care of the animals and the guesthouse while the owner is away for four weeks in June. We are a bit flexible with the start and end dates but the dates it is absolutely necessary for you to be here will be 25 May-30 June. For the first week and final days after the owner returns you will be staying in a private room in a shared house, the month that the owner is away you will have your own private house. We don't have any rooms with two beds so you'll be sharing a bed. There is hot water in the shower. We have high speed fiber optic internet, great for remote workers. This is a rustic, jungle living experience, beautiful and surrounded by nature!
The position involves checking in guests at the guesthouse, light daily cleaning of the guesthouse (no laundry), attending to guest needs, and general attention to the guesthouse making sure everything is in order, coffee filled, toilet paper stocked, etc. Animal care is also an important part of this position. The dogs need to be kept safe, fed, and walked twice a day, the chickens need to be fed and water filled once a day, let out of their coop mid-morning and closed back in after dark. The cat will come to be fed twice a day, her water dishes should be kept full. Between the two of you it shouldn't be more than 2-3 hours a day in total.
We need at least one of you to speak Spanish and one of you to speak English. Preference given to those with a background in hospitality or animal care, even better if you have a background in both! It is very important that you are animal lovers!
Our work-exchange positions leave plenty of downtime for exploring Puerto Viejo! We are in a great location right on the beach and an easy walk into town. You will have laundry and housekeeping service once a week, all the fresh eggs you can eat, and access to our medicinal and edible garden!
Types of help and learning opportunities
Animal Care
Help around the house
Hospitality/Tourism
House & pet sitting
Interests
Pets
Culture
Charity work
Plant care
Books
Languages
Photography
Gardening
Cooking & food
Writing
Animals
Nature
Camping
Mountain
Beach
Outdoor activities
Hiking
Cycling
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
The Talamanca region is one of the most culturally rich areas of Costa Rica, including indigenous and Afro Caribbean culture that is unique to our coastline. Staying on our property is an authentic jungle living experience, you will learn about the Caribbean lifestyle and the medicinal and edible plants of this region that we are growing on our mini permaculture farm.
Help
We have two different types of work-exchanges on our property, guesthouse help and pet care. Here is more information on each one.
GUESTHOUSE HELP: **Bilingual English/Spanish is needed for this position** This position involves acting as an assistant to the owner, helping to maintain the cleanliness and organization of the common areas of the house, greeting arriving guests and showing them to their room.
PET CARE POSITION: This position involves animal care, dogs, cat, and chickens. It is an absolute must that you are a true animal and nature lover! for someone to take care of my pets while I am away. While I am away you will stay in your own private house, during your training days you would stay in a five-bedroom guesthouse with shared kitchen and bathrooms. There are four dogs, one cat, and chickens to take care of. All of the animals need to be fed twice a day, their water changed once a day, the dogs need to be walked twice a day and given much love and affection as often as possible.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Intermediate
Italian: Beginner
Accommodation
Guesthouse work-exchange accommodations are in our guesthouse. It is a private room in a shared five-bedroom house with shared kitchen and bathrooms. The house holds eight people at full capacity. There are three showers, two toilets, and a large, well equipped kitchen. The house has 300 Mbps of high speed fiber optic internet and two of our three showers have hot water. It is an open air, Caribbean style house in the middle of the jungle and a two minute walk to a beautiful black sand beach. If you like camping you will love this experience, you can expect the same level of interaction with nature as you would at a cabin in the woods. All of our rooms are equipped with fans and mosquito nets. There is a beautiful garden with medicinal and edible plants.
Pet care work-exchange accommodations will be three nights in the guesthouse described above for training, then during the time I am away you will stay in your own private two-bedroom house also with 300 Mbps of high-speed fiber optic internet, a well equipped kitchen, and hot water in the shower. This is also a simply built Caribbean style house similar to a cabin in the woods. The dogs will be living in this house with you.
All work-exchange accommodations have free laundry service throughout your entire stay and fresh eggs from our chickens!
What else ...
There is so much to explore in the Puerto Viejo area! Beaches, waterfalls, national parks, wildlife rescue centers. You can visit indigenous territory and even do an overnight stay. Taste our amazing local chocolate and learn about the history of cacao in this region. It’s easy to get around on foot, bicycle, bus, or taxi.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have 300 Mbps of high-speed fiber optic internet
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets
Chickens and guinea fowl
We currently have a flock of seven chickens and two guinea fowl. They are low maintenance and beautiful birds, it's fun to watch them wander around the property. The fresh and delicious eggs are an added bonus!
Gingi (12 years)
Gingi has lived at Hidden Jungle Beach House longer than any of us! She belonged to the former owner who asked if I would keep her when I bought the place in 2018. Gingi is so sweet and such a little beauty that of course I said yes! She's extremely independent but still loves attention, she tends to bond with people who give her lots of love, and snacks of course!
Mami (9 years)
Mami is the newest addition to the Hidden Jungle Beach House family! On Christmas morning in 2025 I found Mami on the beach, all alone and scared. Thinking she'd gotten lost I took her home and tried everything imaginable to find her family but it seems likely she was abandoned on purpose. She settled in and became part of the family immediately without missing a beat. The vet estimates her to be around nine years old so she is the oldest of the four dogs and is the matriarch of the family. She gets tired faster than the others and she walks a little slower but she still loves to go to the beach with the family. She is a sweet and loving little dog and I love her deeply in return.
Coffee (5 years)
Coffee was found on the side of the road with a broken leg at less than four months old, luckily our wonderful rescue group Puerto Viejo Dogs was able to send him into surgery to fix his little leg. Originally we were just supposed to be his foster home during the recovery but he was so cute and fit in so well with Zenith and Guapo that I decided to keep him! He's the least social of the four dogs but he still likes a snuggle now and then. He loves to run and play, he's so fast and agile you would never know he had a broken leg as a puppy!
Guapo (7 years)
Guapo is a free-spirited and friendly rescue dog who is pretty famous for his solo adventures around downtown Puerto Viejo. Rescued off the streets as a puppy by our local dog rescue Puerto Viejo Dogs, Guapo spent about 8 months in his foster home before joining our family in 2019. He is playful and fun and has lots of friends all over town!
Zenith (6 years)
Zenith is a mini-pinscher/chihuahua mix, a small dog with a big personality! He loves attention and he loves snacks. He is incredibly special to me, he came into my life when he was ten weeks old and we have been inseparable ever since!
