Alpha Four - La Cangreja National Park environmental project

Alpha Four PMs Richard and Jenny brief us on their new jungle home

Heading west from Turrialba, Alpha Four have their hands full with an incredible environmental project in Parque National La Cangreja. Sandwiched between Pacific Coast and the Cordillera de Talamanca mountain range, this spot is a perennial favourite for Raleigh; the area only gained National Park status in 2002 so is still truely in its infancy. But its a proper peach - 19sqkm gem of tropical and cloud forest which owes its name to the striking 1,305 metre peak Cerro Cangreja. We’re talking jungle par-excellence – delve into the lush undergrowth and you’ll be rewarded with hidden waterfalls, a menagerie of wildlife and many species of plant found nowhere else in the world - making the area important for research purposes and conservation.

By now, Alpha Four will already be getting to know this hotbed of horticulture pretty well as the camp they'll have built from bamboo and canvas hammocks is right in the thick of things – a unique opportunity to live literally in the middle of a jungle. It's gonna bet hot, humid and deliciously sticky - but nothing the formidable PM team can't cope with: we're predicting that set designer Richard might get a bit creative with the camp layout, but doubtless he’ll be kept in check by Raleigh veteran Jenny who really wears the trousers in Camp la Cangreja. More of a challenge for Jenny might be the team’s new neighbours - ranging from snakes and spiders, jaguarundi (a small jungle cat) and agouti (a rodent), to armadillo, sloth, kinkajou (honeybear) and even the odd white-nosed coati. At the end of a hard day though, they can rinse off in the nearby Rio Negro where a natural pool makes the perfect spot for a dusk (or dawn) dip.

Our fresh-faced forest is already a success story - land previously cleared for agriculture is now officially under protection, and the rich ecosystems are slowly regenerating. But facilities are still sparse – path infrastructure needs improvement to offer better access both for the rangers to patrol on their zippy quad bikes to keep an eye on poaching and logging, and for visitors to reach the beautiful natural resources of the area. Several watercourses cross the park, making infrastructure a real challenge. And that’s where Alpha Five will come in very handy… they’ll be digging ditches, installing drainage pipes and re-routing some of these rivers before constructing some excellent new trails to link up existing trails. It’s going to be tough work – they’ll be digging, raking and flattening before implementing their giant plumbing network and topping it all with some serious concreting. Time to roll up your sleeves Alpha Four and get stuck in!

Tomorrow: we head further west to the balmy shore of Camaronal to visit Alpha Five