Amadeus supports on its tours various social projects such as the primary school and kindergarten Curubande, in a small rural hamlet on the way to the remote Rincon de la Vieja volcano, in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

The school currently has 103 pupils, of which 22 are in the kindergarten and 81 in elementary school (grades 1-6). Most children come from very poor backgrounds and some have to walk up to 1.5 hours each day to reach the school.

During a short visit to the school of about 30-60 minutes, we meet the dance group in their traditional costume who perform 4 -5 dances that are typical for region and are also representative for the whole country. This dance group with about 18 members consists of students of different age groups and is an initiative of school. The group was founded a few years ago when some students won a dance competition in the town of Liberia. With the prize money the school bought the first traditional costumes for the dance group.

Before or maybe after the show a teacher or the director of the school leads the tour group around the school grounds with visits to the classrooms during class, as well as the kitchen, which provides each day and at government expense each child with lunch. The school campus consists of five classrooms. Each guest can ask as many questions as they like, and may even participate in classes depending on subject and teacher. Photos are welcome everywhere, and some guests send the children copies, which is a nice memento for the children, as they don’t usually have access to cameras. Finally, there is homemade juice and a snack, usually tortilla with cheese.

Each Amadeus traveller provides the school with a donation of $15 USD via the tour charge, which allows us to visit. The donations have been used for school supplies such as copy paper, fax-copier-scanner, renovation of classrooms (building materials), cleaning products and new dance costumes. A future project is to improve the school computer room.