10 Weekers Alive and Kicking (and, needless to say, doing brilliantly!)

*A note from DEL Oli: We love receiving your comments, but if you use bad language we will not publish them, so please keep it clean! Thanks guys.

RETURN OF THE MAC

A mega-blog today as Oli & Bec have returned from their 7-day extravaganza across Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

The Becxter cleans the awesome "Bravo 1" post off-roading from Alpha 2

We were lucky enough to see all four Alpha groups and are delighted to report back that they are in great form, settling in brilliantly with their communities and have already achieved a great deal on their various projects.

The Indefatigable Alpha 1

Alpha 1 had battled a few days of rain but were smiling through their sogginess and were wolfing pasta and tomato sauce when we arrived. They collectively agreed that they would like to put their Project Manager Chloe ‘on snooze´ when she gets them up in the morning but are doing a sterling job of rolling out of bed at 3:30am.

Alpha 1's Uber-PMs: Deadpan Dave & Wonder-Chloe

They had an amazing evening at La Casa Benita with Hussein and his family who provided them with a sumptuous feast of fried plantain, fresh peach juice, banana cake and coffee. They´ve trekked through some stunning scenery and had seen both toucans and hummingbirds.

Holman Contemplates Life on Trek

The locals that they come across are intrigued by these intrepid explorers, trekking with them for parts. They´ve done four river crossings and Fee has done one spectacular belly-flop in the mud from which she gamely picked herself up and brushed herself off, post-several hundred photographs being taken (she's not smiling in this photo but she was in the other 978!).Poor Henry´s guitar (Mia) took in some rain and has had a special song of apology written to her which we were lucky enough to hear.

Henry & Mia giving James Blunt a Run for His Money - You're Beautiful.... la la.....

The Alpha 1 photos are courtesy of the lovely Harry who has been snapping away and was kind enough to donate his memory card.

Alpha 4 contemplate their story so far...

Our next pitstop was with the Alpha 4 crew at Miraflor who were on storming form. They are pushing on with digging out the foundations for the Community Centre and Museum and will commence the footings for the building shortly.

From L to R: Ross, Ben (PM), Bec (Driver), Jake (now with Alpha 2), Oli #2, Adrian & Will

Sam is a demon with a pickaxe and Bumble Bee would make the A-Team envious with his tree-pulling techniques.

Ben demonstrates his manly building poses

Their “house mothers” bring them individual lunches at midday so there is an enjoyable ´lunch envy´ session each day.

Laura & Dawn with PM Gemma

Laura was doing a fabulous job of Day Leader (or Alpha 4 Optimus Prime, as they prefer) for the afternoon we worked alongside them, and we visited a local waterfall in the afternoon.

Brandon & Tessa enjoying lunch

They were muchos excited about going to a baseball game in Esteli the day after our departure during their first and well-earned Day Off, and had recently enjoyed a disco with the local community. It was great to catch up with PMs Ben, Gemma and Zoe who were kind enough to have us to stay with their community family, and who organized a cow-milking trip at 5:30am the next morning before a delicious breakfast of rice, beans, avocado and tortillas with coffee and bananas.

The Alpha 3 Project Site in Achuapa, North Nicaragua

After a happy 24 hours with Alpha 4, it was time to visit their fellow Community Project, Alpha 3 in Achuapa. Again, we were blown away by how hard these guys have worked.

Oli #3 & Crew Dominate the Digging Scene

The team have dug trenches for the new waterways and built concrete damn walls for the fresh water supply which will provide the local community with more abundant and cleaner water.

Alpha 3 Human Chain

After a hard day’s work, the group headed down to the river in Esteli for a literal cool-down before gathering at PMs Laura and Alex’s house in the evening for some group chat, games, to stock up from the Raleigh shop and to read their comments from the blog.

Alpha 3 Quite Literally Chillax

We left them hard at work the next day as we drove across to our final stop with Alpha 2, the Maribios Trek.

Alpha 2 are currently traversing Northern Nicaragua. They are doing brilliantly and have covered a lot of ground in some pretty humid conditions. They are all enjoying the various opportunities to swim along the way and are lucky enough to be climbing a number of volcanoes (Volcano Cosaguina yesterday!) before finally finishing on a beautiful beach at Mechapa. They are supported by Cucumber-Cool PMs Carl and Lisa.

As the re-supply Landie, Bravo 3, set off yesterday and is heading their way, we will bring further news via Guy, Tim & Rach shortly.

Zero Listening Out.....