X-Ray 6: Racoon Ramblings

X-Ray 6: Greggae, Jeannina, Roger, Charlie, Rakeem, Katinka, Merle, John, Fran, Catherine, Tom, Amy, Rosina, Don, Colin and Vic

A morning with x-ray 6 begins with a chorus of howler monkeys, and cries of ‘the raccoons have struck again!’ from the weeping breakfast makers. What at first appeared to be a harmless fluffy friend has become the staking terror of the night. So far this light fingered mammal, or ‘the beast’, at it has come to be known, has stolen 2kgs of sugar, a bag of salt, a vat of powdered milk, biscuits, tang, noodles, ibuprofen, underwear and mascara.

X-Ray 6 enjoying an R&R day on the playa

Venturers lie, clenched, in their beds at night, too scared to go to the loo clutching ther possessions as the nocturnal raider weaves between the basher beds, loosening the knots and cutting holes in our mosquitoe nets. In the day it lies in it’s nest in a sugar induced stupor, with fabulous eyelashes of course.

On our path building expeditions through Cabo Blanco’s lush jungle we have encountered a few less pesky animals; armadillos, anteaters, a large snake, scorpions, and a third named Nigel a beautiful blue bird (who steals our crackers) have all been spotted on the ½ km wheelbarrow run. We have morning yoga sessions to energise us, saluting the sun as it rises over the Pacific, and eat starfruit from the tree to keep us going throughout the day.We make between 22 and 36m’s each day, 272m down, and 3 days to go. All is well.

One of the rocks that X-Ray 6 and Artist Holly painted to line the path

X-Ray 6 Art

Artist Holly went to visit X-Ray 6: They have been working on the Alberth Ingalls path and had in mind to paint and decorate the rocks lining the new trail, leaving their own personal Raleigh legacy.

What with the nature of the project, we aim in our art programme to be as unobtrusive to the environment as possible and select materials from our immediate surroundings. We experimented with printing using found objects and created some beautiful designs and compositions by painting leaves and transferring them onto card; we even incorporated this method onto the rocks, which gave a really striking effect.

Smiley PM Colin

Fran printing with leaves

Blog written by John X-Ray 6's project comms officer who conducted(!!) his blog with a lot of humour NB everyone is well and looking forward to returning at changeover - the clutching of possessions was John's poetic licence!

Alpha 6 on Cabo Blanco

Our project communications officers Alexandra Braun & Ottalie Westerink on Cabo Blanco and their environmental project:

Get up stand up we need to go back to work. With Nachos wakeup call Alpha 6 plucks up the courage to begin a brand new day. Everyone jumps out of bed towards jungle camp to attack the beloved porridge. After greeting the sun and the speech of the motivator of the day, it is time to go to work. Everyday Alpha 6 tries to make work as enjoyable as possible by personalising the rocks or by singing Disney songs during our rock change. We even ended up by having our own creation of the Moulin song.

After a hard working day we often take advantage of the fact that our jungle camp is near the rocky beach, and run into the endless shallow pools. One day after a nice bath in the Pacific Ocean we saw something that looked like Jimbo’s (James Taylor) sandals floating in the water. But Jimbo was not in the water, it appeared to be a harmless nurse shark that somehow ended up in our shallow pools.

On one of our free days we went to Cabo Blanco beach, it was a beautiful trip through the jungle. After a long walk we arrived on the amazing white beach, it seems like our own private beach which we shared with a massive group of Pelicans. After a nice lunch, swim and some tan time we walked back. ‘Back home’ we discovered that the mini medic did not fulfil her role because everyone’s back was bright red; Dom even ended up with white hand marks on his red back.

On Valentine’s Day we organised a dress up with your date party. Everyone made crazy costumes out of jungle materials. The best made costume was Nacho’s and Alex’s who were Pocahontas and the Talking Tree.

Alpha 6 strongly believes in the need of the path and as a team we manage to reach our goals. Proud and satisfied we are ready to leave the incredible Cabo Blanco experience in the hope that the next group will finish what we started.

Cabo Blanco and Social Justice

We, Alpha 6, think that protecting the environment has a positive impact on social justice.  First of all, because we totally rely on nature.  Without all the resources that nature provides us we could not live in the society in which we live today.  Over-exploitation of resources which are not sustainable, such as logging wood lead to the destruction of a world in which social justice is possible.  It’s a result of destroying the environment that will result in us not having a future at all. This in turn will disable everyone from growing up with equal chances.  As a consequence, the population will struggle with competition over resources meaning that the wealthy can afford but the developing world will not be able too, destroying the concept of social justice. 

Alpha 6 concluded that protecting the environment is an action that must be undertaken by more and more young people to maintain social justice. The group strongly believes that educating people has a positive impact on creating a socially just world. Through education, people will understand that they have a right, a voice, and can choose their own political direction instead of being disempowered.  Because you do not have knowledge about your surroundings or society you will have limited power and little can change for you.  If you educate people they will have more skills, so it becomes easier to take part in their society and find employment.

Making people more conscious about the problems in the world and how small changes can make big differences. Making them aware of health care and how to take care of nature will have a long term positive effect on our global community.

Alpha 4, 5 & 10

It has been an amazing couple of weeks for Alpha's 4, 5 and 10 and our bloggers Emma, Josh, Olly and Glyn have given updates on their progress.

Alpha 4, Carara National Park by Josh and Emma

It has been wild since Day 1 here at Carara when we came under tarantula 'attack' and met our resident iguana that we have named 'killer' for the first time. We quickly embraced our luxurious new home fully furnished with beds, showers and the occasional tree frog.

Alpha 4: Henry, George, Ben, Josh, Ollie, Emma, Celine, Emilie, Cecilia, Amy, Lewis, Adriana, Lou, Jos, Emma and Hidde

Once everything was set up we were ready to hit the ground running, lining over 100m of path with rcks. Since then our progress has continued and we have renovated many 100s of metres since including raking,gravelling and stone moving. One of the most rewarding parts of working in Carara is the instant gratification from the hundreds of tourists who visit each day and are always interested in and thankful for our work. We have felt perfectly at home here, having thrown Celine a birthday party including a magnificent biscuit cake, and have since held a jungle party with Tang cocktails and a quiz.

Ollie hard at work

We are all fighting fit and plan to continue working hard, until we cannot gravel anymore! We feel blessed to have seen all the wildlife in this magnificent park including Scarlet Macaws, an anteater, Capuchin monkey, hummingbirds, snakes and multiple agouti alongside witnessing an iguana eat a tarantula and a rare sighting of the illusive Carara puma. Every day we experience more and are so excited about our final few days and what they will bring. Pura Vida!

Alpha 5, San Lucas Island, Olly Wolrond

Celebrating St.Valentine's Day

It's hard to believe that I'm writing this blog entry on day 12 of our inhabitation of San Lucas Island. Although the phrase "time flies when you're having fun" does apply, I think it's more a case of time flies when you're working very hard. However, the palm lined Playa de Coco (literally Coconut Beach) on our doorstep does a little to ease the aches. The beach is also a reminder of our mission here to protect and conserve this beautiful island and it's habitat.

Alpha 5: Sally, Jade, Greg, Kate, Gina, Holly, Nick, Olly, Matt, Emily, Kat, Anna, Ben, Charlie, Paul and Job

We hope to keep the island as untouched as possible, preserving it's status as a nature reserve and allowing future generations to enjoy it as we have; while at the same time helping the Rangers to protect the island from poachers who take trees and animals from the islands beaches and forests. By far the most vocal species of animals at risk from poaching are the Howler Monkeys (surprisingly tiny for their loud calls), we thought they were massing for attack the camp however we have since become used to the maniacal calls that occur throughout the day and night.

Hard at work on the trail

Monkeys however are not the only animal to contend with on the island; ants, stick insects and most memorably a tarantula have all wandered into our kitchen. We've also seen an armadillo, hundreds of hermit crabs, have been set upon by bees whilst working and we also share our food store with bats! However we have also seen the other side of the islands natural habitat stargazing on the jetty and seeing for the first time the island's fluorescent water plankton which gives the sea a sparkling glow.

Howler monkeys up in the trees around camp

In building our trail across the island we hope to protect this habitat by providing a new path for the Rangers which will allow them to better patrol the different beaches from the threat of poachers as well as clearing and maintaining the beaches from rubbish which comes on shore from the sea. Taking down buildings is also part of our task and we hope that we will create an environment which will attract responsible tourists to the island both to view the infamous prison and admire the unspoilt natural environment. In terms of global impact we hope that our part in promoting conservation areas in Costa Rica will add to it's global reputation in providing the right way to protect the natural environment.

Alpha 10, Arenilla Miraflor

Raleigh is working alongside the local community of La Arenilla in Miraflor to build sustainable housing. This encompasses levelling the terrain, laying foundations and making adobe (mud) bricks to build new houses.  These solid, low-tech and durable homes replace makeshift accommodation that cannot withstand the storms and rains.

The view from our homes

Raleigh’s Expedition 13A Alpha 10 group came to La Arenilla with the aim of progressing building work on 60 to 70 percent of the locals’ new housing. That aim is near completion.

This project is to provide the people of La Arenilla with safe and stable housing. This project is not just to build sustainable housing, it is to secure a future for the children and grandchildren.  Somewhere for them to study, somewhere for them to be safe and confident that when the wet season comes their homes will not be washed away.  We are proud that Alpha 10 has helped this community realise its ambition to adapt to the climatic conditions, to withstand the rains and to carry on into the dry season without rebuilding every year. 

Tomorrow a social justice blog from Alpha 8 and an update from Alpha 7.