Look north!

While our intrepid PMs unpack their rucksacks and catch their breath, I’m going to tell you about the other bit of our Central American odyssey. All our expeditions start from fieldbase in Costa Rica but Raleigh’s intrepid tentacles stretch beyond the borders of this green paradise, up, up and away into a lost land of lakes and volcanoes. Welcome to Nicaragua!

Costa Rica’s northern neighbour is less developed and less visited but is often a highlight for Venturers and PMs alike. It’s a more rugged experience but this place has serious soul – it gets under your skin quicker than a botfly larva and is twice as hard to forget. Gaze out from the silvery shores of Lago de Nicaragua to Ometepe Island - the largest freshwater island in the world - and home to the smoking cone of Volcán Concepción and its sleepy sidekick Maderas; head up to Granada and León, colonial cities packed with incredible architecture, churches and culture. Beyond this you enter a hinterland of crater lakes and cloudforests, lofty peaks and frothing waterfalls down which Central America's mightiest rivers tumble. Did I mention the sun-soaked beaches, Spanish fortresses and pirate havens? And the colourful communities that inhabit some of the remotest outposts in the north? Well, that’s exactly where we’ll be heading…

What will Expedition 10B be doing in Nicaragua?

High in the hills above Achuapa, in one of the poorest most remote areas of Nicaragua, Expedition 10B will be working on a series of small projects to bring clean and safe drinking water over 500 people in the community of Los Tololos. The group be living directly with families in the village and will help out with their day to day tasks, as well as damming small streams and digging trenches to pipe fresh water into local houses.

We’ll also be running a project in the Miraflor nature reserve – 206 sq km of beautiful mountainous terrain with various different ecosystems such as tropical savannah, dry tropical forest and mountain cloud forest. Communities here live through subsistence farming and gain income from coffee growing, cattle farming and some small tourism initiatives. People have few resources and lack access to basic services such as health and education, so we’ll be building two community centers in the villages of Cana Florida and El Terrero. These buildings will form a social hub, acting as pre-schools for young children and a meeting point for both farmers and women’s cooperatives.

Back at fieldbase, we got stuck into a full day of health and safety training to make sure our adventures are exciting for all the right reasons. Speaking of which, we’re off to Jungle Camp tomorrow - so check back soon for Ray Mears-style action as the Expedition 10B VM team takes on Mother Nature.