Alpha 2 - Under the Nicaraguan sun

For the past 9 days I have been lucky enough to join Alpha 2 as they follow the Maribios Volcano chain towards the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua, on their 16 day, 280 km trekking adventure. While this was my fourth trip to Nicaragua it was my first time trekking here and it was a whole new experience. The beauty of this country and the friendliness of the people never ceases to amaze me, and treklking certainly gives you a chance to experience it up close and personal.

Alpha 2 is made up of the most amazing group of young people who each demonstrated incredible strength and commitment to overcome the many challenges we faced. Challenges like feet filled with blisters, an incredibly hot sun, very basic living conditions and long days carrying some decent size packs. They did this with a great energy and sense of fun and were incredibly supportive to each other. I loved getting to know them all and enjoyed the banter and conversations, I learnt a lot and shared many laughs. It was a brilliant experience for which I am very grateful. I know that their progress is being followed closely by their support crews back home, and I just want to say that you should be incredibly proud of these guys, I certainly am!




Day by Day Round Up


Day 1 - Bus to the border with Alpha 1 & 3 - first taste of Nicaragua and a glimpse of the magnificant Lake Managua. A slight hold up as we found ourselves in the middle of a political rally for one of the parties vying for votes in the local elections.

Day 2 -An American yellow school bus takes us to the town of Esteli to drop off Alpha 3 and then on towards Achuapa where we left literally by the side of the road to begin our trek. A somewhat leisurely lunch of tuna and crackers followed by a couple of river crossing, a bit of up hill and we arrive at our first destination - the back yard of local family where we camp amongst the menagery of pigs, dogs, cats and cockrels.

Day 3 - Nicaragua is a great place to trek as every stop comes equipped with alarm clock in the form of those cockrels I mentioned, they start at around 3am and don't really seem to stop. This was our first long day and a taste of what was to come, with some long dusty roads which gave our unaccustumed feet a bit of a pounding. We arrived at Achuapa our destination close to sunset and stayed in a building that Raleigh helped to build a few years ago. Taking advantage of our location we dined out at a local comedor and then joined some of the local children for some skipping and a bit of salsa dancing (led by Ross and Niall who had their own special interpretation).

Day 4 - headed west out of town, and up into the hills where we arrived in the early afternoon and headed straight to the river to cool off and get rid of the dust. This was probably one of my highlights, we were all so happy and kept the locals entertained with our antics!


Day 5 - The Mayoral Election days in Nicaragua meant that few people were around as they had headed off to their closest village to vote, we saw just a handful of people all day. A big river crossing was a highlight as was reaching our final destination after treking through an intense rain storm.

Day 6 - We covered a lot of ground, and led by Ollie arrived pretty exhausted at our local school where we were joined by the entire village, fascinated by our trangia cooking. Each night we chose from a 4 day menu of rice and beans, pasta and sauce, pork and beans and mashed potato and macaroni and cheese. Natalia and Val are probably leading the way in terms of cooking ability, they certainly have the morning porridge down to a tee.


Day 7 - Our first sighting of Volcan Casita which at times seemed to taunt us by refusing to get any closer. Crossing a massive farm we were delayed for a couple of hours by some cheery and somewhat apologetic security guards who had to first check we were clear to go by an elaborate system of horn blasting. It was worth the wait, the farm we stayed in was like something from Gone with the Wind, our hosts very kindly allowed us to stay in an open barn and make full use of some excellent washing facilities - bliss

Day 8 - With Abbie leading the group arrived in record time at their location and spent a relaxed afternoon playing with the local children. The combined strength of our big guys, Al, Ollie, Niall, Mat, Stu and Scott was no match for the locals in a friendly tug of war however where it must be noted that the average age of the local participants was around 8!

Day 9 - Joined by Julian and Rachel, we summited Volcan Casita and enjoyed the amazing panaromic views. A chance to look where we have come from and indeed where they are now going.

From back - Niall (Northern Ireland) Mags (Scotland) Al (England) Ollie (England/Canada) Abbie (England) Holly (England) Val (Germany) Rose (England) Scott (England) Anna (Australia) Natalia (Costa Rica) Ross (Scotalnd) Cam (England) Matt (Wales) Stu (The Isle of Egg)

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” - Miriam Beard