Buenas días!

Buenas días! from the 11C advance team in Costa Rica.

A sense of ordered chaos prevails here at fieldbase as we gear up for everyone else’s arrival. Word is, this week is the calm before the storm, but given we’re busier than geckos catching mosquitoes at a stagnant pool, next week looks set to be mental.

Talking of pools, we all took our swim test recently at a pool located in the grounds of beautiful botanical gardens nearby, which are owned by an agricultural research institute called CATIE.  Raleigh leases its buildings from CATIE so we consider ourselves truly lucky to be living in such spectacular rural surroundings. A few of us have already been for early morning runs, passing fields of coffee and macadamia nuts. Sweet.

Of course the commute to work is really taking its toll...

This is our five minute walk from the house to fieldbase. Jealous? I’ll stop there (for now).

Some of our other preparations include Tom, one of our logistics co-ordinators, diligently making an inventory of our expedition equipment:

And here’s Jess, our team coach, offering her organisational skills to Dr Sheila, our advance medic, to make up the project medical kits. 

Volunteer drivers have spent most days learning how to negotiate the Costa Rican roads so we’re all safe when we’re en route to project sites (towing and winching training thrown in as an added bonus). Here are Bob and Mark, two of our drivers, lovingly cleaning a landy. 

Don’t think it needs to be spotless boys as they won’t stay pristine for long!

After all this hard work, we've still made time for fun. Last night saw the first themed evening of the expedition which was Spanish night. We cooked Spanish beans with chicken and chorizo, raided the fancy dress boxes and later watched a film.

  

Although not strictly Spanish, we still managed to make ourselves look ridiculous, er, I mean interesting. 

A Spanish language quiz got us into the spirit especially when Team Uno translated ‘¿Qué tipo de libros lees?’ as ‘How much do you weigh?’ Charming! Certainly wouldn’t want to be asked that at a party (it actually means ‘What kind of books do you read?’). 

Other dodgy translations of Spanish sentences included ‘Would you like to bring a friend?’ for '¿Te casarías conmigo?' (means ‘Will you marry me?’) and ‘Cheers’ for the Costa Rican saying ‘Salado!’ (actually means ‘Bad luck’). Which is what poor Team Uno ended up with, losing to Team Dos in a spectacular, but highly entertaining, fashion. Rematch!

So it’s hasta luego (‘see you later’) from us until tomorrow.