110km down, how many to go X-ray 1?

We are over halfway through our trek which means our little legs have covered over one hundred and ten kilometres over the last 12 days.  Yes, our legs and feet are sore but we begin each day with a warming up stretching session.

Some of the 110km covered...

We have passed through the many tiny villages of the Nicaraguan mountains, we cooked dinner and played games with children from the school, devoured eggs, plantain and coffee from a little restaurant and stopped off for cake at multiple pulperias. Momatombo is slowly appearing closer and more spectacular whenever we look into the horizon.  

Cerro Negro - the final push

Our PMs organised a surprise fancy dressparty, halfway, to celebrate our achievement so far. This has given us more energy to enjoy and complete this trek, with a smile on our faces and in good time!

by Anika, Project Comms Officer 

Delta 2: The Night Before Raleigh

The Delta 2 Momotombo trekkers are an artistic bunch. We've had a poem from Lucy Pearson and I've recently been handed this one from an earlier road trip visit. Part two is to follow after all the Delta groups have returned to fieldbase on Friday.

THE NIGHT BEFORE RALEIGH
By Simon Keirle

T'was the night before Raleigh and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
Their clothes were packed in drybags with care
In the hope that the venturers soon would be there.

So Delta 2 had formed, the viagra posse
They walked in the heat and through mock river crossings
The whole first day passed without any such glitch
And all soon rejoiced for they had found the football pitch.

They sat in a circle and reviewed the day clapping
and then fell asleep to the rain's gentle tapping
Delta 2 were nestled, all snug in their tents
As thoughts of pork and beans danced in their heads.

While out on the field there arose such a clatter
Delta 2 sprung from their sleeping bags to see what was the matter
Away to the tent door they flew like a flash,
Ripped open the zip and threw open the sash.

Anchored by pegs at 45 degree angled skews
The tents shone brightly in the fresh fallen dew
When what to their wondering eyes should appear
But a glorious figure of a man, clad in fresh hiking gear.

The tall slender silhouette, so quick and so lively
They knew in a moment - it must be St Ivy
He cried "the valentines tip of the day is to stay single!"
This was certainly no Santa Claus, St Nick or Chris Cringle.

More rapid than eagles, St Ivy he came
And called all Delta 2 ladies by name:
Vamos Claudia! Vamos Lucy!
Vamos to Jessy! And Vamos Tooty!
Hurry up Vicky! Get ready Chrissy!
The same applies to Sem, Sarah and Lizzie!

He sprung with his spade, through his rucksack clip gave a whistle
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle
With luminous tape holding together Will's boots
They still found no shop selling fresh veg or fruits.

Their backpacks were full, littered with carabina clips
And filled to the brim with Ivan's top tips
For all through the day, they walked with profound glee
And dreamt up strange creatures - a hairy dolphin and a shaven monkey.

They sailed over mountains with great ease and flair
But nothing was so inspiring as Kaz's "OH YEAH!"
When darkness fell and the group was hard of sight
Andres led the way, for his nose was so bright.

The blurry old  map told of the good progress they had made
So they took a quick nap in the cool breezy shade
They walked all day long, off the beaten track
Until what should they find, but a haunted radio shack.

And as St Ivy stayed to make the evening phone call
The rest pattered down to the crisp waterfall
After four ghosts in the kitchen made Vicky scream
Ivy gently whispered "Goodnight to all, living the dream".

Delta 2 in da Momotombo house

The Bravo 1 landy (with Laura, Tom and Bob from logisitics) is out on the dusty road in Nicaragua visiting groups to bring them food, requests and blog comments from home (so keep them coming - all will be passed on). We ´re like sunny santas without the beards. Your blogger Gerry has sadly waved goodbye to Alpha 6 (more on that soon) to join their road trip.  

We met Delta 2 a couple of days ago. Here´s a rhyme from Lucy Pearson about Delta 2 ´s experiences on the Momotombo trek. It was her birthday yesterday - Feliz Cumpleaños Lucy!

Boarding the bus in tropical rain
getting this phase into motion

Early panes of condensation
clear to reveal

The first piece of Toberlone
Momotombo.

What a sweet deal.

Eating porridge
to give us courage.

Let´s get started
we´re going strong
since we departed.

Delta 2
That´s the crew.

If you look, you´ll see us strollin´
´cross Nicaragua we´re patrollin

Pioneering
Cheering
No fearing.

We´re rich in Cola
high on puritabs.

Lovin life
despite
the pain and the strife.

Tired feet
covered in Deet.

Sweat and suncream
grim as it seems
protect us from UV rays
on these long, hard, hot days.

Thought we´d get lost
but we got the map.

Thought we´d be thirsty
but we got the tap.

Thought it would be dirty
but we purified it.

Thought we couldn´t make it
then we found the cola shack.

We are survivors.
We´re gonna make it.

We´re gonna trek it.
We´re gonna get there!!

Pictures: Simon Keirle
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Message from Lucy to her twin sister Ruth on their birthday

You and me
now 23!
birthday bone
no mobile phone
spending the day with a great group
could only be better if you were here too
nice for me, nice for you
nice for us.xxx

Pam recounts the journey of special project X-Ray Papa

We were a special project – X-Ray Papa. But really, I’d like to think of us as X-Ray WOW. And now looking back on the last 13 days of our journey through the northeast of Nicaragua I think we certainly earned that praise.

By the end of Phase 1, I’d been asked if I would like to be part of the recce team to scout a new trek in Nicaragua for a future expedition. We would be led by James and joined by former host-country venture, Sofi.  My main role was as interpreter; we wouldn’t just be guided by 30-year-old topographic maps and a compass throughout the trip but also by directions from local folk. We would have to knock on doors to ask for board and water, sleep in schools, churches, community centres; any place, really. Always game for a challenge, I happily accepted the role – I didn’t think it was an option anyway because a Spanish speaker on the team was crucial, although Sofi is Tica, but hey, two is better than one.

Setting off in Bravo 1

Volcan Momotombo

With Bravo 1 team

The wonderful lake, where this trek should theoretically end

The thought of covering 200km in 10 days, mostly on foot did freak me out a little bit. Seeing the battle scars of the other trekkers from Phase 1, I had vivid images of painful blisters and my toenails falling off from too much boot abrasion. I asked every medic on expedition for foot care advice.  You can never have enough zinc oxide tape so I literally mummified my feet. Dr Sarah’s advice probably saved my fragile size 37 trotters – daily dressing, apply talc at night and be liberal with the Vaseline.  Later on I would extend to taping my hips and my shoulders too.

Bound feet for protection

We set off to cross the border with Bravo 1. It was an easy few days. We spent a night at Leon, had a lavish dinner (I qualify that all things are relative), and we circled Volcan Momotombo, the beast that we would have to conquer in about 10 days. The drive ended in the village of El Rodeo, Miraflor where we spent the night with X-Ray 7; and from where the real journey would begin. 

We were dropped off at EL Coyolito, a village just 3km from EL Rodeo, at about 6am the next day.  We headed for Las Brisas, a mountain 1,600m above sea.  James did not ease us in and I had a first taste of what trekking with a high-octane mountain leader was like. We did 22km that day and it soon hit me that this wasn’t going to be a hike for sissys. We beat another 20k or more on the second, and the third, and the fourth, well you get the picture. It was on day three, during a coffee break from the grueling 25k hike we were to do that day that we realized the hardest was yet to come. James took out the maps and showed us that we had only done a quarter of the trek. We spent the night in El Llano with a lovely Nicaraguan family. It was also the day that Sofi ran into foot complications … pobre cita…  A huge blister had formed beneath her big toe and its nail was threatening to fall out.

The cow whisperer

A rare siesta for James

The fourth day got even tougher for us two muchachas. I took a fall and bruised my knee although nothing serious, and Sofi hit her dreaded wall. James had an unwavering will to push the limit and I tried to keep up, although hardly ever able to match his stride.

It was hard but I never once felt like giving up so I kept pushing it. It wasn’t always fun, though and some days were harder than others because I felt like I was battling it alone. However, being awoken by James’s coffee and porridge every morning did help to ease the beginning of each day. The nights always rejuvenated me because we never failed to encounter the kindest Nicaraguan families willing to share their humble homes with us. Being invited into a Nicaraguan home, to share their food and shelter and chatting with the family were some of the best moments of the trek. I remember Rafaela, who offered us a night at her sister’s house which was near a pond in which we swam. It was a real treat to have fresh fish and to laugh at the irrepressible curiousity of her little girl who was fascinated by my short hair, foreign accent and belly button piercing.

We busted on to La Mojarra on day six and then got a ride to Tamarindo by a driver named Chupahielos which literally means “ice-sucker”. Amusing names, the Nicas give themselves but it seemed appropriate, under the sweltering heat. We then caught a bus to Malpaisillo and then to El Papagonal to meet our guide, Payin, for Volcan Momotombo. On the bus, we got to chatting with Maria Ines who by a stroke of chance turned out to be the sister-in-law of Payin. Our shelter for the night was sorted.

By then I began to sense the creeping fear from the thought of our colossal hike up the 1,297m volcano. But there was little time to fret. At 4:30am the next day we made our way. It took us two hours to get to the base of Momotombo and we had to bushwhack through a lot of terrain. It was a three-hour steep and hellish climb with me mostly on all fours. The thick sulphuric gas at the top stopped us from lingering on for more than 15 minutes at the summit. But I remember thinking, that this was the craziest thing I had ever done. It was so satisfying to know that we made it to the top. We hurried down by 20m from the peak to stop for lunch and enjoy the view of Momotombito, a smaller volcano on an island on Lake Nicaragua. Descending Momotombo felt like an eternity but it was made easier by chatting to Payin. He told me about how he fought with the Sandanistas in the civil wars when he was a young man of 18. He spent three-years of guerilla warfare in the jungle. Now weathered and 43, Payin has no steady income after being laid off by a farm where he used to work.

I did it mostly like this

Payin, our guide

We got back to Payin’s by 3:30 pm and were told that we’d made a record climb and descent. No one had ever conquered Momotombo in such a short time. I guess so far, no one has had walking-machine like James leading their expedition!  We spent another night with Maria Ines and her family, cooking dinner and watching Latino soaps. I politely declined a marriage proposal from her 20-year-old brother, pointing out the huge age gap between us, to which Maria cheekily remarked “Para el amor, no hay edad.”

The next day we beat a path for Leon for our bus back to Costa Rica. Our last test of the trip was one of patience as we had to wait for a dreary four hours in the sun for our bus. But we were duly rewarded with executive class and meals on a coach back to San Jose.

The experience has been altogether stupefying, awesome, incredible and insane. I left for Nicaragua with nail-biting apprehension and fear, but returned feeling like Demi Moore in GI Jane.--Pamela Martinez