Alpha 2 (Guanacaste Trek) Blog by Eleonore Vellbregt

After a great four days induction including jungle training, first aid and getting to all of the other Venturers, we had a great party at Fieldbase to send us off. Sadly enough we had to wake up really early, finish packing our bags and get on the bus for the real thing - The Guanacaste trek!

 We were all a bit scared because we were leaving for 19 days but we were excited as well. We had to drive 5 hours to the start of our trek. We were making the best of the drive and had a good sleep because it was possible and we didn’t know what it would be like on the trek. We walked for 2-3 hours but then came to a river that we couldn’t cross as it had swollen due to the heavy rain. Having exhausted all options for another crossing point, we had to turn round and go back to the nearest camp site as it was nearly dark. We decided to go back to a place that we had seen earlier – there were hammocks but it was really close to the place where we had started... not the ideal start. The same rain that had filled the river had also absolutely soaked us to the skin. Because of the delay we had to catch up steadily over the next three days. We walked more than 12 km on the second day. When we finally came to a place where we could camp it turned out to be a school building that hadn’t been used for 6 years... a very random shack in the middle of nowhere! The next day was even tougher – lots of hills – however, we finally had a view because the clouds finally disappeared – the first blue sky in 4 days!

The next day we woke up at three again, walked from five to seven and in two hours were in the place where we should have stayed the night before. We walked about 17km that day. We got to the shelter early but everyone was feeling a bit broken! It had been so difficult because the storms had returned and it had rained all day. Because of the rain we have missed a couple of good views so that makes it even harder.  We’re finding that trek really is as tough as they say. One minute we are swimming in Lake Arenal and basking in the sun, refreshing our weary bones as the sun reflects off the mirrored surface of the lake, the next we are struggling up a muddy hill with what feels like a million tonnes on our back. By day 5 we finally got back on track and arrived really early so we had a good rest. The rain stopped againand we finally got a good view of Volcan Arenal – stunning! We’ve got a lovely group and we help each other out and push each other on to keep moving. Day 6 saw our longest day so far - 25km. We did the first 16km very quickly and the weather was nice. We walked around the lake and had a beautiful view of the volcano at the other side. We had a lovely lunch as well. After lunch it got tough again - we were all tired but we kept on moving.  That night we had a visit from Bravo 1 – it was great to have visitors, but it meant that our packs would be heavier tomorrow due to the food drop! Tomorrow marks the start of the jungle... everyone keeps saying this is the toughest part of the trek... we shall see!