What’s Spanish for Tractor? (The Final 07M Project Recce)

As you will have read below, there are four exciting and extremely worthwhile projects waiting to be completed by the staff and participants of Raleigh International’s summer programme in Costa Rica. These projects were all identified by Julian Olivier (Country Director) and all needed to be visited and planned in great detail. So over the last few months the Raleigh vehicle has toured the country doing exactly that. Three weeks ago, Julian, Marco (Logistics Manger) and I (Ross McKenzie - Country Programme Manager) headed out for the final recce of the last three projects (Julian and I had completed one visit the week before), and we had quite an adventure.


Julian likes to make an early start, so we left San Jose at five in the morning. I used to think this was to make the most of the clear roads and then arrive at the destination in plenty of time, but it is clearly just an excuse to visit all of the good cafes on the long road north. Two breakfasts, one lunch, a milkshake from the world famous Dinosaur Soda and an ongoing game of the genius Raleigh road trip game known as ‘iPod Rules’ later we were in Liberia, the last big town before the border to Nicaragua. From here we continued off the highway and onto out first destination – Volcan Tenorio. Julian had agreed the work we were going to do a while ago with the MINAE (Ministerio Ambiente y Energia) Administrator for this National Park, but we still needed to agree on the exact area, the accommodation, and meet Danillo, the community representative from La Paz. He was kind enough to give us a tour of the park - it’s an incredible place with all sorts of wildlife and spectacular landscapes. There is obviously a lot of minor volcanic activity in this area, so the rivers, streams and waterfalls are a brilliant shade of blue. Julian and I took full advantage of the natural, steaming hot-springs – a great way for the groups to bathe at the end of a hard day’s work. After a few hours of talking it was decided that the group will set up a camp in La Paz, making the project an interesting mix of community and environmental.

Project recces can be a very exciting time. It’s the first time we see the locations, agree upon projects and make new partnerships. Sometimes we will stay in hotels or cabins, but when out and about in more remote areas, you never know where you might end up. The hospitality in Costa Rica never fails to amaze me, so when we were offered a bed in a local surfer’s house we were delighted. Even more so when he decided to invite all of his friends that kept us up to the ´wee´ hours regaling us with stories of stings, bites, impalements and broken limbs experienced while riding the waves.

Another early rise saw us on our way to our most remote project, Playa Nancite on the North West coast. We arrived at Santa Rosa National Park just as the rangers were beginning their working day. With us in the Land Rover, the ranger led us on his quad bike along some of the boggiest tracks in Costa Rica – although as we would discover later that week, not the boggiest. Eventually the roads ran out and we set off to cover the last section on foot. Even though it was early, the heat was already incredibly oppressive. The walk from road to beach is a dry, open and rocky track, with some of the most stunning views in the country. We didn’t see another soul for the rest of the day, and that is how it will be for group that are there. We visited the work site and the ranger station where the group will be living, and made work plans with Jose our friendly guide. I tried my best to make friends with the large lizards that are in abundance, but unfortunately they were not interested. With everything in place, we made the journey back down the coast where Julian and Marco decided we were going to go upmarket and stay in a $15 a night hotel - sheer luxury!


Day three was to be a very long day of driving….and then walking. The aim was to fully recce an area of Costa Rica where we may or may not be as part of the mystery adventure challenge! In the knowledge that Costa Rican maps are not the most reliable in the world, we wanted to know exactly which roads and tracks actually existed, and what new ones have been created – this particular section of maps dated back to 1976 and has ´nubes´ (clouds) on top of a large blank background over the areas that were covered by clouds when the original aerial shots were taken! The first half of the day had been excellent. We had made great progress and our updated sketch map was looking good. However, we were soon to discover that one of the major tracks was indeed no longer in use. By this time, it was too late to turn back so we continued in the hope that we would come out at the road on the other side. This area had had a LOT of rain recently, so the roads were exceptionally muddy – added to the fact that they were on very steep hills, and it produced some very challenging off-road driving. Eventually we got to a part where the road had been completely destroyed by the recent weather, so we attempted to turn round - of course there was no way we were getting back up the hill. At that moment the skies opened and we were in the middle of a huge storm. To cut a long story short, we ended up hiking a long way until we picked up a lift to the nearest town. Soaking wet, we were dropped off at the town pub, which was in the middle of a power cut. To highlight the Costa Rican hospitality yet again, within five minutes the owner of the local soda (café) had opened his shop, was cooking us dinner and had arranged with his tractor-owning friend to tow us out of the quagmire first thing in the morning. If that wasn’t enough, he also put us up in his spare room for the night.



The next day we returned to find the Land Rover stuck in the mud. However, the skill of the tractor driver astounded the three of us and by mid-morning we were back on the road. Track recce complete, we dropped Julian off at the bus station to send him on his way back to San Jose. Marco and I were offered a pool hall to sleep in that night and we took no time to accept. The next morning we put our packs on and headed into the hills to establish some trekking routes for this summer. The sun was scorching and the hills were steep, but the views more than compensated. Having decided that we would try to get back the time lost the previous day, we did a 12 hour dusk to dawn yomp, taking no more than half an hour break all day. We must have looked pretty exhausted on arrival at our destination, because before we even had a chance to take the tents out of our bags, a local farmer had invited us to sleep in his spare room - unbelievable! We had been carrying our tent for five nights now and still hadn’t used it!

Day six and we headed back to Turrialba to collect Julian again, before heading to Quetzal to meet representatives from the Chirripo Indigenous Reserve. The committee here are highly organised and passionate about improving the education of the local population. They showed us their designs for their new school and we were very impressed. After a few hours of finalising the plans, we said goodbye in our best Cabecar (indigenous language) and drove back to Field Base to catch up on some well deserved kip!

So now you have some insight into just a tiny bit of the preparation that goes into organising Raleigh projects. Included are some pictures from our trip.