When traveling abroad and if you know you will be spending a good amount of time in one area it is good to find out about volunteer work.  It is a way of giving back to the community and it also helps to educate you on culture and needs for the community. One way to find out about volunteer opportunities is to search on social media.  We have found that help is always needed and all you have to do is ask.  Volunteering is also a good way of meeting new people who are like minded, which was our case. 

We decided to volunteer with a local animal rescue non-profit organization called “Riviera Rescue”, which is a 100% non profit animal rescue service in Puerto Morelos. Specializing in rescuing local dogs, finding them new homes; they also providing temporary shelter for strays, abandoned, and surrendered animals.  Their ultimate goals is to finding suitable, permanent, caring, and loving new homes.  They also have a program for rescues from other from other countries. 

On our volunteer day, we met up with Jorie who was the Director of Riviera Rescue and coordinated a carpool for group of volunteers to reach our location which was a shelter located of the highway in the jungle. We helped clear out a kennel that was being prepared to house more dogs as the needs for more space was increasing.

We had a great time volunteering and made a couple new friends.