Adrianna Keast's X-ray Eight update

High in the hills on northern Nicaragua, up the rocky pathways with views on Honduras, arrived a weary group of venturers and their PMs looking for a community centre building adventure. Caña Florida is a small community half an hour walk from the main road, consisting of a few wooden houses scattered over a hillside resembling an oil painting.

The venturers of X-Ray Eight were divided up between houses. These usually consist of a wooden wall and tin roof building of about 10 square metres, along with six family members and several animals. Most of us had a bit of a culture shock arriving here, to say the least, with host families seeming very shy at first and venturers with limited Spanish – but everyone seemed to settle into their new homes by the end of the first week.

Unfortunately for X-Ray Eight, the community centre – although started by the previous Alpha Group – was at a point in its construction where venturers were not able to work on it until some parts had been completed. This meant doing other tasks while this work was being done.

We set to work on the road running in front of the community centre, digging two tyre track trenches and filling them with rocks and soil to ensure the road was passable during the muddy winter months.

After sweltering hot days and a rainy thunderstorm, the track was nearly completed after day five. We filled our days with yoga lessons, cow milking, and a birthday party for venturer Harriet, an evening consisting of two huge banoffi pies and a village dancing session.

This weekend saw X-Ray Eight taking a leisurely 9km trek up to Laguna de Miraflor, walking through the beautiful Miraflor wildlife reserve and staying the night next to the Laguna, returning the next day. This week we’ve got several activities to look forward to, including a pub quiz, teaching in a school, cowboy Olympics, pilates, a football match and an afternoon spent at home with our families.