X-Ray 5: The Long and Winding Road

X-Ray 5 are clockwise from top left: Pauline, Jeff, Berny, Daniele, Harini, Flo, Tom, Bella, Cas, Jac, Anthony, Simon, Angie, Hibbe, Iona, Chris and Drew

San Lucas, a beautiful island rich in history and adunbant in wildlife, became home to 13 Venturers and 3 PMs for 19 days as they set out on their environmental project last Sunday. A short boat ride from Puntarenas we pulled up on the shore of the former prison island, slightly uncertain but eager and excited to meet our Ranger to find out how we could help.

The pier on Isla San Lucas where prisoners used to arrive as did X-Ray 5!

Our first job was to clear the old library, which had become a jungle and was covered with litter and debris. Within 2 days we had restored the library removing all of the litter and uncovering the original green tiles. Although the Ranger said that sorting out the litter into groups wasn’t necessary we insisted on separating plastics and metals in order to allow the women on the mainland to earn money from recycling and to make a positive environmental impact.

San Lucas is abundant in wildlife, howler monkeys are currently under threat from poachers

The following day we were given our plan of action for the coming 2 weeks. Our aim is to improve the paths on the island, first by evening out the slopes to make them level and then the plan is to cover it in sand to compact the soil and for durability. The work has been difficult, the soil is hard and the heat is intense but X-Ray5 have been powering through and with great determination and teamwork we have covered 400m in 3 days.

X-Ray 5's camp is right on the water, basher beds are made out of bamboo and a hammock

The Ranger has been truly impressed by the high standard to which we are working to and has congratulated us on our progress so far. Our work will not only improve the island and make it more accessible but also encourages tourism so that visitors can be educated about the prison and it’s history. At one stage there were plans to change the island into a resort but luckily the motion was denied and the island has stayed a conservation area with some restoration of the prison.

The view from camp out over the water which is filled with stingrays and turtles alongside phosphorescence

The work X-Ray 5 have been doing has been really rewarding so far, our hard work has paid off as the paths are noticeably better and we can see the positive impact we are having on the environment. While being here, we’ve had a tour of the prison and heard some of the brutal stories of the prisoners in the past as well as having access to the book that was written by one of the inmates of the prison, the island of lonely men. We all feel extremely privileged to be living on this island and to be helping conserve the environment as well as being part of the work that the rangers do to encourage sustainable tourism.

Today's blog was written by X-Ray 5s Project Communications Officer Bella Jones

Hello from X-ray 5

X-ray 5 - building houses and friendships

In 2011 hurricanes devastated communities in Miraflor when heavy rain left many families homeless.  Raleigh has a longstanding relationship with these communities and was keen to get involved in the disaster relief initiative.

X-ray 5 are launching the project in La Arenilla.  They will lay new foundations, create adobe building blocks and build the walls and roofs of the new houses.  By the end of the expedition many families will move into new homes rather than live in makeshift accommodation.  This will make a huge difference in getting this community back on its feet.

At the moment X-ray 5 are divided into two groups; one group digging the foundations for the first house and the other group making the mud bricks. 

One adobe brick, two adobe bricks.....one hundred and sixty five adobe bricks....

Everyone is enjoying staying with their new, Nicaraguan families.  Max is proving a particular hit as he entertains all with his virtuoso guitar playing.

On Saturday afternoon there was a party to celebrate Max and Eveline's birthdays.  The whole community was invited, and the whole community came!

Twister!

The village was introduced to the Raleigh favourite of Ninja, which manages to transcend language barriers and makes everyone look just as silly as each other.  As a special surprise the community arranged a birthday cake for our lucky venturers which went down particularly well....after all you need an energy boost when there is construction work to be done!

X-ray 5 - rock stars?

Quick update - X-ray groups are go

X-ray 1 got to Nicaragua safely, staying the first night in a school in Jinotepe.  They've now started trekking and are requesting extra porridge to keep their strength up.

X-ray 2 arrived at Playa Hermosa and got stuck into turtle patrols straight away.  Rumour has it there was  film crew there yesterday so they could have 5 minutes of fame, at least in Costa Rica.

X-ray 3 have been moving rocks and building paths in Carara National Park.  Oscar, the ranger there, has given them a wildlife tour which everyone enjoyed.  They have upgraded their accommodation to include an outdoor hammock area.

X-ray 4 successfully made their way to Achuapa and then on to their community where everyone came to meet them and helped carry the tools and equipment back to the site.

X-ray 5 enjoyed an awesome welcome party hosted by the community and have spent time getting to know their new mums, dads, brothers and sisters.

Introducing the new X-Ray groups

So everyone is on their way for Phase 2!

Even though early mornings are becoming quite routine now, 3.30am is still quite brutal especially after the Halloween party the night before.  No complaints from the new X-Ray groups though.  Everyone made their packed lunches, ate breakfast, stuffed their rucksacks and loaded the buses ready for a prompt(ish) departure.

So the X-Ray groups are as follows:

X-Ray 1 - Miratombo Trek (Nicaragua)
David M, Vic L, Charlie
Marco, Gustavo, Louis, Luke, Jonas, Matt Whiteside, Carlyn, Anika, Anna, Tiggy, Victoria M

X-Ray 2 - Environmental (starting with Playa Hermosa)
Claudia F, Jim, Nicole
Diego, Ben A, Jack, Harley, Ben H-D, Ben P, Jacklyn, Mela, Suwen, Puck, Aisheth, Hester

X-Ray 3 - Environmental (starting with Carara)
Pauline, Martina, Sarah F/Natalie
Matt Wilkinson, Jose, Omar, Claudia A, Floor, Dave R, Vera, Lilian, Shannon, Nick, Alex

X-Ray 4 - Los Loros water gravity project (Nicaragua)
Florian, Claire S, David A
Pedro, Hidde, Callum, Ziggy, Archie, Henry, Yorleny, Laura, Frankie, Lydia, Patrice, Andrea

X-Ray 5 - Miraflor house building project (Nicaragua)
Sarah C, Jae, Katie
Jonathan, Angel, Rory, Paul, Ben B, Max, Arlenne, Bodyl, Vinnie, Eveline, Sophie

If you could mark your blog messages with these X-ray groups it will help us get each one straight to your loved ones.  (Even though messages aren't being published on the blog at the moment we still print them all out and get them out to venturers just as soon as we can - so keep up the words of encouragement, they mean a lot.)

And speaking of the Halloween party here's a picture of Barney to put you off your breakfast...

Pretty in pink?

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!

X Ray 5 Rock Achuapa...continued...

So, our time was upon us. Eighteen X Men, and a load of Charlies (1 and 2) undertook one last, nervous practice before our big debuts!

Up first was Thomas (actually on Friday night) playing guitar and singing the Libertines, and next on the Friday was Trae freestyling on the guitar with Fu from ICS on the flute...

Thomas´s solo

Adam and Trae (X-Ray 5) with Ant and Fu from ICS

Then, on Saturday night, the whole of the X Men (as X Ray 5 are now better known) sang "Where is the Love" by Black Eyed Peas with the words changed to a song about reforestation, in English and Spanish. A few new talents for rapping were discovered!

Following that, Trae, Chris and Leanne performed "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, and then Adam swapped in to beatbox with Trae and some of the Charlies in a wonderful fusion of rock and hip hop, with a bit of body popping thrown in.

Leanne, Chris and Trae

Charlie 2 and the Agua song

The mighty X Rays are a bit of a talented bunch if we do say so ourselves! And amidst all the fun we´ve learned masses about our community here in Achuapa and hopefully helped them to think about how to become more sustainable in order to benefit generations to come.

X Men and Charlies say ta ta for now...

We waved off the Charlies this morning and are just about to trek up to our community in El Portillo to be welcomed by our families. Can´t wait - wonder if they'll recognise us from the stage....

X-Ray 5 Rock Achuapa Music Festival!

X Ray 5 (AKA X-Men) arrived in Achuapa yesterday afternoon after 2 days travelling to Nicaragua to a massive welcome from Julian and the Charlie groups and the community of Achuapa including the community leader, Brigido Sosa. As we were just in time for the Achuapa Music Festival, there was plenty for us to do!

The music festival in Achuapa is an annual 2-day event which aims to raise awareness of global and local issues such as climate change, water supply and sanitation and environmental awareness, and how people can become more sustainable in order to tackle them. It´s also an opportunity for the community to get together and have a good old knees up.

After preparing the festival area then having meetings for the music committee, kids´commitee and bloggers´committee, we planned and practiced our first group song before heading off to bed at the end of what was a very long day. We also had to deal with the news that we would be performing our song on Saturday night! But not before we performed some other duties - day 1 of the festival would see us judging the singing competition and playing football with the locals.

Here´s the blog on the singing comp by Moy...

Three Raleigh Venturers and one ICS participant were bestowed the priviledge of judging the English singing competition in Achuapa this morning.  The room was filled with the family and classmates of the participants. After a welcome speech from our hosts, first up on the stage was Santo, Holy and Holy from Los Caraos School. The trio impressed the audience with their English and singing abilities and set the bar very high in the competition. 

 

Rafaela and Herrera were the second act up on stage to perform. Their song choice was familiar with the Raleigh Venturers sat in the audience. They offered their own rendition of “Chiquita” by ABBA. Both performed with confidence and passion. Offering an acoustic rendition of Tracey Chapman´s “Baby Can I Hold You” was Jay and Estiana. They offered an original take on the classic song, and impressed the audience with their singing and guitar skills.

Taking us back to the 90´s with the classic Backstreet Boys song “Larger Than Life” were Betsy, Alisson, Adda and Joselyn from Instituto Rodolfo Reyes Toruna. The girls worked the stage with their choreographed routine and singing performance. Last and by no means least was the final performer Susana Daraly Talaua Romero from San Sebastian School  who performed Whitney Houston´s “I Will Always Love You”. 

After a few moments of deliberation the judges announced the winner. Susana´s performance impressed the judges so much that she was crowned winner of the English singing competition. The judges decisión was well received by the audience who responded with a raptuous applause. A few of us even shed a tear!

A great experience and insight into the community in Achuapa, and proof that a future star can come from anywhere!

And here´s how the footie tournament went, I (Leanne) felt the pain first-hand...

“Gimme an R! Gimme an A! Gimme an L!” etc etc etc…

We began the Achuapa Music Festival 5 a side football tournament with a tin of orange paint, creating the boundaries within which we would play for our lives (or at least our Raleigh pride)…

Our boys were up first - Tomas, Chris, Emmanuelle, Ben and Istvan. Definitely 'outstripped´ in terms of outfits, they were up against an opposing team kitted out with a slick red and black kit with matching socks! 

 

And the strip was evidently a representation of the slickness of the team (not any reflection on the quality of our side of course that we failed to score once in a game of many goals…) The boys did us proud however with massive smiles throughout for the onlooking schoolchildren and for being excellent runners’up!

The X5 girls then stepped up – a little intimidated by the sight of our opponents strapping up their legs with duct tape and giving each other motivational punches on the arm…but we held our nerve and gracefully kicked off the game. 

We didn´t score one goal, despite a free kick for a terrible tackle on myself resulting in a big bruise on my posterior. We came off the pitch happy however having worked off the morning´s breakfast of rice and beans and having made a positive impact on the Achuapa community both with our happy ‘have a go’ attitude and the fact that we let them win (OK, maybe that second part is a porky pie…)

An awesome experience for all. Time for a shower!

X-Ray 5 in La Amistad

X-Ray 5´s Louis gives us an insight to life in La Amistad

X-Ray 5 are currently renovating the ´Gigantes del Bosque´ (Giants of the Forest) trail in La Amistad National Park, some of which has been renamed by the various work groups. ´Bill´ (a steep section where stairs are being constructed) has been given a makeover, roadwork´s have been undertaken on Sunset Boulevard and the whole trail has been Rambo´d (cleared of debris/fallen trees) from top to bottom.

Upon arrival at the campsite we took a day to install some creature comforts - we now have a makeshift stereo, hammocks, and our very own chillout area, dubbed ´el chante´.

The area has played host to some spectacular wildlife. So far we have spotted some gigantic butterflies and moths, hummingbirds and unconfirmed reports from George of monkeys as well; ´a brown flash and an ooh-ooh´ the only evidence to go on.

On the 7th we played host to the Corcovado trekkers, and the next evening we celebrated the 18th birthday of X-Ray 5 HCV, Alfredo with a pinata and marshmallows on a fire.

The group are bonding more and more and each day is full of laughs as we get stuck into the work.

X-Ray 5 out x