In July 2025, I headed off to join Hands With Heart Foundation, on their humanitarian mission to deliver free healthcare to children with disabilities, and their families, in hard to reach regions of Costa Rica. I documented my time there in a series of articles in the Almería Living Magazine, published monthly from November 2025 to April 2026 .
Madrid to Costa Rica
On the morning of June 28th, I threw my rucksack into the car, set the satnav for Madrid-Barajas airport, and headed off to begin the most amazing adventure.
An adventure that would take me from the mist covered streets of Cartago, to the heart of the Talamanca jungle; to the indigenous Bri Bri people.
I was headed to Costa Rica on a humanitarian mission, and I was close to exploding with excitement.
Over the course of the next 2 weeks, as a member of the Hands with Heart Foundation team, I’d be working alongside 13 other volunteers, including Osteopaths from Spain, the UK, Finland and Italy, Osteopathic doctors from the USA, and Osteopathic medical students, delivering free healthcare to children with disabilities and their families, often in hard to reach areas, with limited access to healthcare.
This was going to be the most amazing opportunity, not only put my skills and experience to the the test, and to learn and grow, but it was also going to be an opportunity to do something really important, something worthwhile – it was a chance to make a difference.
Landing into the Costa Rican capital San José, 32 hours after I’d left Madrid, I immediately hit the road south-east to Cartago, for the final leg of the journey.
Early the next morning at the on-site team briefing, I picked up my Hands with Heart uniform, and met the group of folks I’d be spending the next 2 weeks of my life with. After fuelling up for the day ahead with the calorie explosion that is a traditional Costa Rican breakfast – Rice and beans (Pinto Gallo), scrambled eggs, fried plantain, tortillas and the sweetest, most delicious fresh pineapple that I’ve ever tasted! – we headed off to begin Stage 1 of our mission, at the Escuela de Educación Especial Carlos Luis del Valle, on the outskirts of Cartago city.
Over the course of the next 4 days, the Hands with Heart team delivered an incredible 160 treatment sessions to the students of the Carlos Luis del Valle School for children with disabilities, working closely with the in-house physiotherapy team.
Some of the children had already received treatment by Hands with Heart volunteers on previous missions, but for those of us who were seeing the children for the first time, we had Marco, Xavier and Vivina to bring us up to date with each child’s diagnosed conditions and treatment history.
The conditions the children were presenting with were varied. Some children were registered blind, some deaf, some had Down syndrome, hydrocephalus, microcephaly. Many presented with cerebral palsy, some had epilepsy, autism, developmental delay, others had a combination of conditions, some had developmental growth issues.
As a result of these conditions the majority of the children had compromised musculoskeletal systems, with weakness, spasticity, digestive system problems, breathing difficulties and movement restrictions; some were wheelchair bound.
But in all cases, the amazingly skilled team I was so honoured to be a part of, was able to make a positive contribution.
A great example of this is gorgeous Jaquel, the little chap sitting in front of me in the photograph below. His condition means that although he is actually 6 years old, his body is more the size of a 2 year old. As we assessed Jaquel, we noticed some distortion in the mid region of his spine, which was restricting his freedom of movement, and altering his posture, so that when he was standing, his spine was slightly flexed forward.
Working alongside Veronica Geri, an amazing paediatric Osteopath from Italy, over the course of 2 sessions, we were able to correct what became clear was a postural distortion only i.e. something that could be successfully addressed osteopathically, allowing us not only to restore movement, but also for Jaquel to be able to stand completely upright.
This is only one example of the amazing things that the team accomplished during our time in Costa Rica, but seeing the profound change in that little boy, really is something that I’ll never forget.
As we finished up our final treatment sessions at the end of our 4th and final day at the school in Cartago, it was time to make the 5 hour road journey east to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast, for a much needed rest day.
Arriving into Puerto Viejo just as darkness was falling, we pulled up outside our home for the next 2 nights, RocaWelch Hotel. Room keys collected, dinner arrangements made, a deafening chorus of cicadas rose to a crescendo, as the coastal humidity hit us.
The next morning just as the sun was coming up over Puerto Viejo, a few of us wandered down to a cove for an early morning swim in the Caribbean, a couple of fisherman dragging their hauls onto the sand, a huge squadron of wading pelicans to keep us all company.
Then it was off to tiny family run bakery and cafe ‘Bread & Chocolate’, for a flagon of delicious freshly juiced guanábana, homemade pastries, and a tray of their wickedly moreish speciality ‘bean to bar’ chocolate truffles.
Then a short amble to find a few tuk tuks to squeeze us all into (I really shouldn’t have had that last truffle!), 15 minutes on dirt tracks between the mangroves, and we were at our destination for a day of relaxation and recuperation, Playa Cocles.
That night the whole team regrouped in Puerto Viejo town (some of the more energised of us had spent the day on a sloth hunt) for a dinner of traditional home-cooked Costa Rican Caribbean food, every morsel made with love, at ‘Lidia’s Place’.
As we wandered back to the guesthouse we talked about what was to come during the next few days, what to expect ‘in the jungle’.
We hit the sack early, ready to rise with the dawn chorus, and after another belly busting Pinto Gallo breakfast, we were packed, the minibus was loaded, and we were off on our journey deep into the heart of the Talamanca jungle.
