Expedition 08A Blog 9 - End of Phase 1, featuring Alphas 1, 2, 3 and 4

Hello again from Turriabla. The silence is deafening here as we have just sucessfully completed our first changeover. All our partipants arrived back from their project sites on Saturday. Yesterday, Field Base belched and discharged them all off onto their next phase. But before they headed off, each Alpha group filed the following reports to update you on the progress of their projects. Here are the first 4 updates - the remainder will follow tomorrow so you don't read it all at once!

Alpha 1: The Corcovado Trek
By Phoebe Strawson
Photos by Floris Baas

The united Alpha 1 arrived at Progresso eager and willing to begin the 250km trek stretching from the Panama boarder across mountain ranges, treacherous jungle and tropical beaches to reach the breathtaking Corcovado National Park.

The trek began in high spirits whilst the enormity the challenge had yet to dawn on them. The group would be confronted with numerous challenges along the way that would test them all both physically and emotionally. Over the first few days Alpha 1 struggled to acclimatise to the high temperatures, walking with heavy backpacks and treating blistered feet. Relieved and rewarded upon arriving at Aguas Calientes we enjoyed lunch and relaxing in the hot springs – despite a thundering rain storm!

Over the next few days the progress of the group became evident with each individual day leader tackling the difficulties of navigating with outdated Costa Rican ‘maps’ which showed neither roads, paths or towns. As we entered the mountain phase of the trek the group morale was high. Unfortunately falling a day behind we seemed to run into problems. Ranging from the guides useless directions, resulting in us being lost in the jungle, to various injuries and illnesses and mysterious disappearing paths. Despite all the odds being against us, a big team effort involving back bearings, recce groups and just pure guess work enabled the entire team to summit at 1000m and conquer Cerra Pelon.

After almost two weeks of tackling mountains, rivers, jungles, waterfalls and mosquito bites we made it to Los Patos – the gate way to Corcovado National Park!

From this point we knew the end was in sight and were eager to reach the irresistible beaches of Corcovado. Spotting some fantastic wildlife on the way including spider monkeys, anteaters and racoons we reached our final destination of Porto Carbanara enjoying our well earned rest on the beach. Bring on the next phase!

Alpha 2: The Dragon Trek
By Alison Toczek
Photos by Loué Hamami

Descending through ethereal cloud forest, battling our way through dense jungle and climbing mountains under the scorching sun, the Dragon trek certainly pushed us to our limits.

Along with sweat, tears and blisters, there were some fantastic highs on the trek. Finally conquering ‘The Dragon’ peak (2,506 metres), climbing our final mammoth hill and ultimately reaching our gorgeous deserted paradise, the beach at El Rey, being just a few. The sense of achievement from having from travelled on foot across Costa Rica to the Pacific Ocean was enough to take our breath away, especially when watching a stunning sunset across the waves.

At the end of this epic 275km trek, our team had climbed the height of Everest from sea level, seeing crocodiles, monkeys and more insects than we’d ever imagined. Despite the exquisite scenery, we were most struck by the generosity and kindness of the local communities, who regularly welcomed us into their homes, giving us a real insight into the Costa Rican way of life.

Alpha 3: The Rio Macho Trek
Words and photos by Thomas Beelaerts van Blokland and Charlie James

Alpha 3 have completed their epic adventure, crossing across the majority of Costa Rica. High spirits were maintained throughout, despite all the testing scenarios that were faced. Our team have bonded and become a close knit family.

The first five days proved the most challenging; with fitness levels not at their highest. We all had to deal with the shock of the enormity of the task at hand - trekking with large loads on our backs for eight to ten hours a day.

Alpha 3 – renamed ‘The Party Trek’ - did well to stay positive during the middle section of the trek, when the route was not exactly known (euphemism for “we were completely lost”). Mountains were unnecessarily climbed and camps had to be pitched in gale force winds, but nonetheless our morale stayed high.

Despite our dishevelled appearance and less than sweet smell, our group enjoyed the generous nature of the Costa Rican villagers on many occasions, who often found a roof for the travellers to sleep under and even provided us with food on one occasion.

With the beach in sight, ‘The Party Trek’ marched on, finishing with an intense 26km day. This meant that we arrived at our destination a day early with our bodies just about holding together. Collapsing into hammocks and on the sand, we enjoyed our well earned two days on the picturesque, deserted beach at Punta Judas.

The trek was tough, traumatic and testing. However, the suffering seems like a distant memory now and every member of Alpha 3 looks back with pride on their achievement. We know that we would be lucky to ever have such an amazing experience again.

Alpha 4: Barra Honda
By Eleanor Chalmers
Photos by George Naylor and Anna Meikle

This is the first time that a Raleigh expedition has been to the stunning Barra Honda National Park. It’s 2,295 hectares of wild vegetation which sees virtually no rain from September to April and then torrential downpours for the rest of the year.

After 2 days of setting up camp and meeting the park’s rangers we started to dig a 70cm by 70 cm trench. This is to prevent flooding during the we season which can prove a great danger to the park, washing away buildings, roads and fauna.

Our next project foused on refurbishments to the school room and volunteers room. Our sanding, sealing and varnishing techniques are now well honed, but our clothes, hair and various body parts have paid the price!

As Barra Honda is usually rain free in February we enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in hammocks under the stars. The part was teeming with wildlife including scorpians and giarobos, but some members of the team were not too happy about being woken up by the cries of howler monkeys every morning.

Our multicultural group consisted of one lazy Frenchman who can’t cook, two hottie Scotties (known as dirty Scots to the rest), one ultra-competitive northerner, a nicer than nice Dutch girl, a crazy Hong Kong dude, some chilled out Central Americans and the remaining Brits completed the Adam’s Family of Alpha 4. We were met with huge warmth by all the park rangers, but primarily Prima. She expressed her thanks as follows: “A huge thank you to Raleigh for their wonderful work, which is very important for Barra Honda National Park”.

Check back in tomorrow to find out the progress of Alpha 5: Piedras Blancas, Alpha 6: La Cangreja, Alpha 7: Achuapa, Nicaragua, Alpha 8: Miraflor Pre-schools project, Nicaragua and Alpha 9: Conte Burika.