Here are the Alphas and their projects!

Hectic, hectic, hectic is the only way to describe the past few days here at fieldbase. We've had 18 hour days and non-stop action but thankfully we're still smiling. Which is lucky as all the Alphas are about to head off to their projects very, very early tomorrow morning. Which is why they're learning to salsa, and some have decided to get their heads shaved tonight. Madness!

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So, without further ado, here are the full Alpha teams and their projects:

Alpha 1 - Corcovado trek, Costa Rica

In Alpha 1 are: Daan Apeldoorn, Eliana Maria León Vargas, Fabienne Ouwehand, Gemma Hall, Hazel Foley, Ian Haggerty, James Lee, Jenni McGowan, Katharine Drake, Martha Gray, Rolando Talavera Perez, Sarah Ward.

Starting in the stunning montane La Amistad National Park, the largest national park in Costa Rica and a UNESCO World Heritage site, the trek gets the chance to walk through beautiful mountain scenery and towering cloud forest. After passing by waterfalls and hot springs the group will cross the Coto Brus valley to the Fila Costena – a chain of mountains that run parallel to the sea. Once they are out of the mountains the group will finish the trek by crossing the famous Corcovado National Park that straddles the Osa Peninsula, walking through the best preserved tropical rainforest in Central America. The group will have a chance to see monkeys and Tapirs before the walk along the beaches of the Pacific Ocean for three days to meet the bus home.

Alpha 2 - Guanacaste Trek, Costa Rica

In Alpha 2 are: Benjamin Stamp, Clemmie Anderson, Eleanor Spicer, Emily van de Blunt, Freya Lemon, Holly Edwards, James Donger, Lucía Salazar Sánchez, Max Chalong, Richard Cronheim, Sabina Bridge, Winceslao Perez Valenzuela. 

The setting for this trek covers a huge variety of different ecosystems from cloud forest above 3000 metres down to one of the last remaining stands of primary dry tropical forest left in the Americas. The group will start close to the Arenal volcano and see its lava run down the sides at night before circumnavigating Volcan Tenorio via the Caribbean slopes visiting Turquoise waterfalls and moist rainforest. After passing by Volcan Miravalles the group will head to Rincon de la Vieja national park to climb one of the volcanoes and to witness steaming mud pots, geysers, and hot sulphur springs. After several days of walking through the forest you will arrive at the foot of Cerro Cacao in Guanacaste National park where you will steady yourself for a climb up the volcano. The trek will finish at Playa Junquillal to relax by the beautiful calm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Alpha 3 - Cabo Blanco environmental project, Costa Rica

In Alpha 3 are: Adam Chalkley, Alex Backhouse, Angharad Bevan, Anita Boyd, Anne Havenga, Chuk Hang Bianca Chan, Daniel Saborio Romano, Harm van der Wal, Jakhya Rahman, Josseling Zeledón Bravo, Sophie Abdy, Yuri Nishikawa.

Situated in Costa Rica’s very first protected area, Cabo Blanco Absolute Reserve, Raleigh will be working alongside the rangers to maintain the park infrastructure. This reserve, situated on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, was originally set up to protect an area of rainforest that was being threatened by illegal logging. Today the park is teeming with wildlife both within the rainforest and along its stunning beaches. The group will be working with the rangers to maintain the trail network, paint part of the ranger station and remove unwanted waste from the beaches.


Alpha 4 - La Cangreja environmental project, Costa Rica

In Alpha 4 are: Anabella Karelia, Andrew Brown, Catherine Ewins, Charles Chichester, Charlie Hockless, Duaa Al-uzairy, Joanne Blackwood, Lesbia Vásquez, Maddison Owen, Mari Jones, Megan Illingworth, Sander ten Haven, Stijn Teves.

La Cangreja is Costa Rica’s newest National Park which owes its name to the striking 1,305 metre peak Cerro Cangreja. The park has a mixture of Tropical Humid forest and Pre-Montane forest with a number of species of plant found nowhere else in the world which makes the area important for research purposes and for conservation. The park is also blessed with amazing waterfalls only to be found through exploring the forest. At present the government is developing the facilities in the park and during the expedition Raleigh venturers will build a viewing platform near to the main park headquarters that looks over the national park and a trail for local school groups and other visitors.

Alpha 5 - Quebrada Honda (Achuapa), Nicaragua

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In Alpha 5 are: Alette Jansen, Amy Ratcliff, Andrés Cambronero Rodrígue, Byran Bryan, Carol Maria Fernández Herrer, Caroline Murray, Hannah Leach, Ian ter Haar, Mae Chester-Jones, Michael Buie, Nicola Swinburn, Teri Daly.

Close to the town of Achuapa, in one of the poorest most remote areas of Nicaragua, Raleigh will be working on a gravity-fed water project to bring clean and safe drinking water to 50 families in the community of Quebrada Honda. At present the local people get their water from the river which often dries up in summer or comes from polluted water sources. This project is a multi-stakeholder partnership with the local community, the Cooperativa Juan Francisco Paz Silva, Nottingdale International and Raleigh. The group will be working with the local population to dam small streams, build tanks to collect the water from where it can run through pipes to all the local houses. The benefits of clean water will be felt by many generations to come. The participants will be living directly with families in the village and will help out with their day to day tasks.

Alpha 6 - La Colmena (Miraflor), Nicaragua

In Alpha 6 are: Camilla O'Connell, Claudia de Wolfe, Dunia González Calero, Ed Smart, Emma Stiling, Chema Mario Mondragon, Kesiah Moss, Louise Simpson, Robbie Coates, Rosie Webb, Sylvie Myers, Tim Niehe.

The Miraflor reserve is 206sqkm of beautiful mountainous terrain with various different ecosystems such as tropical savannah, dry tropical forest and mountain cloud forest. Within the reserve there are a number of communities living through subsistence farming and gaining income from coffee growing, cattle farming and some small tourism initiatives. However the people have few resources and lack access to basic services such as health and education. On this project the participants will be building a community centre in the communities of La Colmena which will be usedfor community meetings, cooperative meetings, adult education, pre-school education and recreational activities. We will also be working on a disaster relief project to rebuild houses in communities affected by hurricanes in the last few months of 2010.