The last word - part two! Alpha Six to Alpha Ten...

Alpha Six's Richelle Stacer signing out for the last time from Isla San Lucas...

Hello blog, hello blog. This is Alpha Six, this is Alpha Six. We have a SITREP for you, over.

Alpha Six, serial alpha: Sunday 28th February

Alpha Six serial bravo: Returned from San Lucas Island to Fieldbase, over.

Alpha Six serial charlie: Left the sunshine and tropical storms behind, only to be greeted by pouring rain in Turrialba, over.

Alpha Six, serial delta: A Jungle Camp talent show including card tricks, salsa, national anthems and weird bodily phenomena, plus survival night on the beach. Also a coconut fashion show that revealed a bit more than our creative side. Our last supper was on a floating restaurant – the fresh fish platter was a welcome change from pork and beans! We celebrated our last night by jumping off the pier to experience phosphorescence – glowing algae that shimmer in the water as you move. And last – but not lest – we completed the terrace with high spirits and a sense of huge achievement, over.

Alpha Six, serial echo: Will enjoy some down time in Turrialba, and some internet access! Looking forward to Phase Two, over.

Alpha Six, serial foxtrot: Had an incredible 20 days on the island. We’ve shared blood, sweat and tears as a team and are now bonded by this experience for a lifetime, over.

This is Alpha Six, Alpha Six, listening out.

Alpha Seven's Natalie Nakkas and Isobel Roscoe say goodbye to Los Tololos

20 days have flown by in the friendly community of Los Tololos. It feels like yesterday that Alpha Seven embarked upon their journey to dig trenches. We felt a great sense of achievement as the trenches measure up to an impressive 1227m. We definitely felt our muscles grow but still stand in awe of the endless strength and motivation of the Nicaraguans. We equally enjoyed teaching local kids – it was so enriching especially when they greet you singing “if you’re happy and you know it...”

Don’t worry – it wasn’t all work and no play. Our families gave us tortilla-making lessons, some attempted to milk a cow and we explored the local ‘The Sound of Music’ hills though it was more like The Lion King looking upon a patchwork of greenery and spectacular views of the volcano. All in all, our time in Los Tololos was some of our best – we had a very emotional farewell party with lots of singing and dancing, and we had the most delicious last supper. We all cried as we had to part from our home away from home. Thank you Raleigh for an experience of a life time.

Joshua McWilliam and Hannah Johns reflect on Alpha Eight's time at Miraflor

We survived! It was a tough few weeks for Alpha eight on the hills of Miraflor but certainly one to remember. In the three weeks we were there we succeeded in building all four walls of the community centre up to head height after 2 days of clearing the area and a week of preparing the foundations, including meter deep concrete footings to insure an earthquake proof structure!

In addition to working on the community centre, Alpha eight succeeded in immersing themselves in a totally different culture by taking part in many of the community’s day to day tasks - for example, learning how to make cheese from the milk that was freshly collected by the venturers that morning. We also tried our hand at lassoing cows and spent many an hour teaching the local children English!

Living with these families, communicating only in Spanish quickly developed our language skills (and appetite for rice and beans!). It also strengthened the bond between Raleigh and the community as we got to know each of our family members personally and they developed an understanding as to how Raleigh works with them. We all had a good relationship with the community leader, the famous Don Jeiro, who took us on guided tours of points of interest such as the local coffee plantation. He also loved to get involved in a lot of our social gatherings and having his picture taken, posing at any possible moment!

To sum up Alpha eight’s experience would take pages that we do not have. It was unimaginable and unforgettable, and the mighty Alpha eight will forever hold the village of Miraflor in their hearts.

Farewell thoughts for the Conte Burika community from Dan Willis and Alpha Nine

Nothing could have prepared alpha nine for the humbling reality of the guaymi culture! Despite the absence of running water and electricity they showed us a way of life so unique that none of us can quite sum it up in words. Jobs that seemed so basic at home became a task that brought an entire community together which is something lacking in the modern world. As a group we learnt many new skills, team bonding / cooperation as well as labour skills. Within three weeks we had made an ever-lasting relationship with an indigenous community, one which hadn’t received such help in the past.
 
   

Hola, gracias, hello, thankyou,
I hope you’ve had a great time as I’ve had with you,
From carrying logs to chopping wood,
Wondering if we’ve done any good,
Surreal sunsets, awakening sunrise,
Monkey’s howling as we open our eyes.
We have PM’s Nacho, Su and Ness,
Who like to complain that we made a mess,
From amazing tortillas, to the same rice and beans,
We have passed our time using all of our means.
So here we are packing everything away,
Adios, farewell and have a nice day.

The might Macho Ten team on three weeks of trekking across Costa Rica...

Day 1
We were thrown straight into the deep end as we started our trek with an epic 17km day in the blistering sunshine. We were quickly acquainted with heavy backpacks, aching muscles and zinc oxide tape. However, we stayed at an amazing ranger station with an incredible view of the jungle. Eeek!

Day 2 and Day 3
We raced through knee deep mud through the Barbilla jungle as we tried to keep up to our guide. Everyone was a little edgy after seeing the first deadly snake- a tereiopelo, and we hastily made our way across rivers and faced constant attacks from branches and vines whilst trying to climb near vertical hills. We finished the jungle phase of our trek and arrived at our humble abode for the night- a perfect blue house on the top of a hill surrounded by horses, cows and chickens.

Day 4
After a long morning, we were motivated by the possibility of treats from the local Pulperia. After crossing a very creaky bridge we had lunch by the river and dipped in to cool off for a well deserved relaxation session.

Day 5
Once the critical shock of waking up and realising that out PM’s had left us, we ventured our trek alone. The day didn’t quite go to plan with our 2 hour lunch loungy session and with the locals buying us melons but we had a very amusing time singing songs whilst tackling epics hills.

Day 6
We had to step it up a gear today as we had yesterday’s 5km to cover but the group remained focused and we had our 1-2-1 sessions with the PM’s to discuss our reasons for coming on Raleigh. We had another 2 hour lunch break (getting pretty good at these) where we gauged in some fresh fruit and then travelled on to the local school we were staying in right by a gorgeous river.

Day 7
Another tough day trekking with a lot of downhill! Although the uphill can be a truggle with 20kg on our backs and sweat dripping into our eyes, the downhill definitely takes a toll on the knees and toes. The afternoon was spent playing football and having grass fights with the local children.

Day 8
Today we started our trek up macho, climbing over 1000m to over 2400m. It was quite cloudy and wet up Macho- reminded us all of home and the typical English weather. Sigh! We pulled out our tents we had been carrying with us and set up camp under a Pylon where we had our very own disco as we all sang our favourite tunes at the top of our lungs under the stars huddled together with our rain jackets on.

Day 9- Valentine’s Day
We awoke to screaming as a couple of the romantic venturers had made a heart out of rocks and sticks outside the tents. We started the day high-spirited singing love songs through the rain and thinking of what to give our secret valentine. We reached the macho peak, cold and tired and were surprised by our PM Becca with heart lollipops. It made the day and we were greeted by the field base staff for another food drop and everyone’s day ended with a little ‘surpressa’ Brilliant!

Day 10
It was a loooooong walk along the Pan-American highway- lots of beeping by all the cars and trucks! After a relaxing lunch in a cafe (lush) we made our way to El Embalme and stayed in a superb community centre.

Day 11
Our earliest morning yet- we had started trekking in time to see a beautiful sunrise across a mountain ridge. The afternoon was a bit of a struggle since we were high spirited after seeing a sign that mentioned it was 6km to our destination when in fact we had a further 15km to go. After filling up our water bottles from a ‘haunted house’ we set up our tents for the second time on trek in a windy field.

Day 12
Weather conditions we were unable to climb ‘The Dragon’ but ventured up ‘The mighty Walrus’ instead.

Day 13
Trekked along a mountain ridge with incredible views and slept outside a church under the stars – amazing!

Day 14
A shorter trekking day to what we usually have. We met field base staff at our accommodation for the night which was a house with a pulperia next to it- Amazing. Spirits were high and we made a video diary of our trip to date.

Day 15
Started off the morning with a yummy pastry to keep us going through yet another blistering hot day with yet again more hills. Macho 10 hearts hills!! Definitely was one of the hardest moment’s for everyone since we had to take an hour break for the mid day heat to cool off before we could start trekking again.

Day 16 and Day 17
This was when the maps of Costa Rica from the 1970s went wrong! We tackled a huge hill, thought we went wrong so walked down it only to find we were right and had to walk back up! We slept on the porch of a gorgeous house in preparation for walking up a hill to watch the sunrise – incredible chance to reflect on the trek so far.

Day 18
Our last day of trekking! But a very hard one – we walked a lot! Spirits stayed high and the group stocked up on snacks at every pulperia to keep us going to the end. We finally made it at around 9pm, and were greeted by some of the Fieldbase team who had kindly cooked a BBQ for us – a perfect way to end an exhausting day and an incredible trek!

The past few weeks have been a completely new and unique experience to every member of Macho Ten, and definitely one that will never be forgotten. Each day we faced new challenges, and although there were times where it felt impossible to put one foot in front of the other, we all made it together and have come out physically and mentally stronger, and ready for the next challenge that faces us.

That's all for our Alpha phase... next time, we kick off the next adventure: Phase Two!