Roaming 'round Nica

On Monday 20th August, fieldbase trio Björn, Jen and Carina set off on a road trip in the trusty Raleigh landy ‘Bravo 3’. Our goal was to visit all of the groups working and trekking in Nicaragua to deliver food, messages and support.

Day 1 – Challenge 1: Navigating the Nicaraguan border
After presenting copious amounts of paperwork, showing our passports four times, and having the vehicle searched, we breathed a collective sigh of relief when we rolled across the Nicaraguan border a mere two hours later! Reaching our destination of San Juan del Sur, we rested for the night before continuing on to La Tunosa to meet the trekkers, X-Ray 2.

Carina, Björn and Jen, San Juan del Sur

Day 2 – Happy trekkers!
Arriving in La Tunosa, we were greeted by the happy – and I should say, very clean - faces of X-Ray 2 who had reached their destination and had time to wash before our arrival.

Teydi, HCV from Nicaragua

Before settling in for the night there was a quick dash into the city of Esteli so that Zichari could replace his broken walking boots – it turns out that duct tape is a useless substitute for a boot sole! Having distributed the mail and blog messages to the delighted recipients, we ate a meal of macaroni cheese with fresh veg. With water melon for dessert, a very well fed group fell into bed at the grand old time of 7.30pm.

These boots are made for walking...

After rising at 4.30am we waved the trekkers off at 6am and set off for our next destination.

Day 3 – The Charlies - Raleigh's ICS programme groups
We visited Charlie 2 in the community of La Quinta, Miraflor, where the group is putting the finishing touches to a water gravity system to bring fresh water to the community. As well as completing the gravity system, the group are working with the local community to ensure that the system is maintained in the long term.

In the afternoon we had to make an emergency trip into Esteli to replace a child’s football after it had met a tragic end under the wheel of Bravo 3! Luckily, a new ball was obtained and a smile was returned to the faces of the local children. Having spent the night with a local family, it was another early rise before continuing our journey to El Portillo.

Day 4 – X-Ray 5 and their water project: latrines!
Awaiting us at El Portillo, Achuapa, was the very lively X-Men 5s who are working in the community to build eco latrines. We caught up with the PMs Becky, Leanne and Istvan and learned that the group have also been engaging in other work such as planting trees and helping out in the homes of their host families.

PMs Becky and Istvan

Having settled into the community well, the group are in high spirits and are very much enjoying life in El Portillo, spending time teaching at the local school, playing Mafia, and taking classes in Capoeira with Sofia.

Super loos!

Day 5 & 6  – Charlie 1
Continuing onto San Nicholas, Achuapa, we arrived armed with a large amount of paint to enable Charlie 1 to decorate the community centre that they are currently building. The group are working hard and are determined to complete the large building on schedule. Having designed a beautiful mural for the outside, we are sure that it will look fantastic come the opening ceremony.

Community centre, San Nicholas

Day 7 – Feeding the trekkers!
We headed to Cerra Negro Ranger Station to leave three large sacks of food in preparation for the trekkers’ arrival a few days later. The sacks contained delights such as macaroni cheese, pasta, tinned veg, biscuits and refried beans to ensure that the trekkers have the energy needed to keep going!

Cerra Negro is a volcano in the Cordillera de los Maribios mountain range in Nicaragua. It is the youngest volcano in Central America and as such is yet to grow vegetation, leading to its striking appearance and name meaning ‘Black Hill’. X-Ray 2 will scale the volcano as part of their trek and will no doubt return with some amazing photography to show for their efforts!

Cerra Negro

Day 8 – Home, Sweet, Home
After spending one last night in Nicaragua, we headed to Cartago to rendezvous with the Logs Manager, Nick, so that I (Carina) could continue on with the Costa Rican road trip. Björn and Jen returned to fieldbase to be welcomed home with a delicious meal of Lentil Dahl and homemade bread.

X-Men 5 - Masters of the loo-niverse

After the excitement of the Achuapa music festival, the giddiness was replaced by that of arrival at El Portillo. The group received a wonderful welcome in true Nica style before we were allocated to our families and we all went off to spend our first evening with our new madres, padres, hermanas and hermanos.

The next day the head of the community, Don Brigido, talked us through the eco-latrine project along with one of the maestro de obras. We learned how traditional ‘long drop’ toilets can flood and cause water contamination, hence the need for the new latrines which are much more sanitary, can provide fertiliser for the community’s crops and prevents diseases caused by dirty water supply. We also spoke to members of the community already using them who say they are a god-send. There was no rest for the wicked as we commenced work that very afternoon.

Since then we’ve been working very hard every day making concrete bases, brick laying, making roofs and generally building ‘super-loos’. We’ve also been interacting with the community, teaching english and health & hygiene to local children, making cuajada cheese and milking cows.

On Monday we were very lucky to receive a visit from Stacey Adams, Chief Executive of Raleigh, and Fiona Woolf, the future Lord Mayor of London. The X-Men and people of El Portillo entertained our visitors with traditional Nicaraguan songs and the story of the eco-latrine followed by fireworks and piñatas. We have two more days of work before all our efforts will culminate in a massive launch party on Saturday night with the entire community. Let’s just hope the rain stays off!

The Return of Bravo 2

Bravo 2 have returned from their, and it would be fully justified to say here, epic road trip to northern Nicaragua, where they have visited our community phase groups up in Miraflor and Achuapa. Starting with a couple of days collecting rocks and teaching English in San Jose with Alpha 8, they also had the opportunity to visit Los Apantes where Claire and Dave had assisted in the construction of a Community Centre in Expedition 11G/H - the whole village turning out with refreshing drinks and papas fritas for all.

A whirlwind 20 hours with Alpha 7 in La Naranjita followed, with a dip at a local waterfall before literally mucking in with the construction of adobe bricks; former city slicker Tim Salt described it as the most laborious morning's work he had ever undertaken in his life... Their final stop was with Alpha 6 in El Portillo where they (sheepishly) took a share of the praise lauded on A6 by the community for their hard work during the phase, although they made up for it through their vocal backing during the national anthem and The Beatles' - Twist and Shout at the evening’s fiesta, where speeches, singing and salsa were in abundance, along with the customary piñata.

One blip on an otherwise magnificent trip occurred on the final morning as Bravo Two were left feeling utterly dejected that their Nicaragua - Costa Rica border crossing took 44 minutes, some 17 minutes slower than Ross Mckenzie's notorious 27 minute scintillating slalom through the mayhem of international border bureaucracy back in the balmy summer of 2009.

At this point I wish to inform you, dear readers that your blogger is back (cue sobs of relief/three cheers as you see appropriate). Sadly low numbers at base, tied in with a bug that left many members bed-bound, subsequently left you under informed. This will be rectified asap. I personally wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused, and hope our updates in the coming days serve to slake your thirst for all things Raleigh in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Pura Vida!