Blink and you'd have missed it

So another Raleigh phase has gone by quicker than a meteor flashing over the Cheviots; here’s a run through of the endeavours of those fine Raleigh guys and gals’

Our trek groups have routed their respective routes. X Ray 1 delved through the heart of Costa Rica, almost coast to coast. Beginning in Barbilla National Park they have breached the continental divide and are celebrating their success at Punta Judas. Whilst Turrisantos may sound like a beach resort, apparently its completely the opposite. And you need to like peanuts. and tang. and getting slightly lost. but mainly peanits.

X Ray 2 conquered the Corcovado, tackling the eponymous national park and La Amistad in the hot and humid southwest of Costa Rica. They finished with three days striding the sands at Playas Madrigal, Carate and Piro.

X Ray 3, up in Nicaragua, mastered the Miratombo trek, with their final days in the Maribios Volcano chain, enjoying stunning views of Volcan Momotombo and Lake Managua. They visited many communities along the way, were treated to food by smiling hosts, slept on volcanoes, traversed deserts and rivers, all celebrating in style at Lake Asoscosas.

X Ray 4 have completed their work on the ‘Quebrada Bonita’ trail in Carara National Park, enjoying a day trip to Playa Hermosa, and celebrating several birthdays throughout the phase. The traditional celebratory energy bomb cake was pimped with addition of oreos. Must have been some huge sugar crashes down in Carara after that...

X Ray 5 in La Amistad have also been productive on the ‘Gigantes del Bosque’ trail (Giants of the Forest’. They have enjoyed various outings to the swimming pool in Altimira, a local farmers market, and to the Valley of Silence Ranger station where Raleigh undertook a project a few years ago.

X Ray 6, after 18 days of pouring rain, finally had a day of sun! They have been working at Volcan Tenorio, undertaking an overhaul of the path to the waterfall on the aquamarine Rio Celeste.

X Ray 7 have continued the work of Alpha 7 on the adobe brick houses in La Naranjita, mixing mud and ‘old man’s beard’ to create a ‘cement’ between the bricks, alongside trips to Esteli and visits to X Ray 8...

...who have completed the community centre in San Jose! This was celebrated with a fiesta yesterday afternoon, featuring all the classics - pass the parcel and some rather competitive musical chairs. They too undertook trips to Esteli, visiting the cigar factory and there was a barely a dry eye when they said good bye on Tuesday morning.

Finally, X Ray 9 in Dorbata. In their one phase, they whipped up a school building faster than a Groundforce montage and have enjoyed the good life in the beautiful surrounds of Chirripo Indigenous Territory. The school is already in use and the group enjoyed a game of football with the locals, the torrential downpour during the fixture making the Brits feel truly at home.

They’ll all be back at HQ tomorrow for all the fun and games of changeover so stayed tuned for the latest goings on at Raleigh Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

X Ray 7 La Naranjita

As we’re swiftly approaching our last few days at La Naranjita – admiring our (nearly) finished house – which we energetically constructed with a ‘little’ help from Alpha 7 on phase one. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by. We’re also incredibly impressed by the resident cockerel –that rather amusingly is government protected (it was a gift) and has terrorised victims relentlessly; including Fiona who received a vicious peck to the ankle.

The work has been hard, but we’ve taken it in our stride and there’s never been a dull moment, especially with mud around. It has done wonders for our skin, and some would say it’s like being on an extended spa weekend, minus the relaxation element, with a hardcore workout substituted in. Unsurprisingly, the boys have been trying to outdo each other by carrying the most bricks – current record holder is Johnny, who managed 3 on his shoulders.

We’ve all taken to life in La Naranjita and really settled down with our families, although this took longer for J our village ‘Goldilocks’, as he was determined to find a bed that was just right. A few of us have even woken at the crack of dawn to milk the cows; Istvan and Emma collecting an impressive 5ml of milk between them, which is more impressive thatn A-Bomb’s feeble attempts – and Eika who got lost and never showed! Luckily we had an expert in our midst, so we were all able to enjoy a fresh glass of hot milk with sugar and cinnamon – delicious!

On Saturday afternoon we had a visit to a picturesque waterfall around 30 minutes from the village, enjoyable despite the shockingly cold temperature of the water. Harvey aka Harvinator, stole the crown for best swim-wear. His pizza hut delivery boy chic, sourced from Ropa Americana, for the equivalent of £2. The trip was for many, the first real shower, and in Amanda’s case, her only shower – as hers has 3 sides and a clear view to the rest of the village.
On Sunday we had the opportunity to visit Uriel’s home town Sontule – 2 hours walk away (actually 4), but it was well worth it, even if it did mean having to run 7km mainly uphill to return in time for Raleigh Radio!

I speak on everyone’s behalf when I say that we will truly miss our families and reminisce fondly of our time in La Naranjita. We can’t wait to get home, dig up our own back gardens with our newly acquired expertise, and build our own adobe brick houses. Now where to find some old man’s beard...

X-Ray projects, some background

Many of you undoubtedly read the previous post regarding X-Ray allocations and spied some new locations in amongst some familiar names. Well observed. Whilst some of the groups will be continuing the work undertaken by the awesome Alphas, a couple of new projects have cropped up which I will give you a background.

The Turrisantos and Corcovado treks, as you may have guessed, are the same as those that ran in Phase One, albeit with one new addition, the Miratombo trek, which will be tackled by X-Ray 3 during the phase. Starting up in the north of Nicaragua, near to Esteli. This route snakes its way through the Miraflor and Estanzuela wildlife reserve, and for the second half of its duration, the mighty Volcan Momotombo remains within sight; the trekkers celebrate the trip’s climax in the crater lake of Asososca.

Environmental efforts continue at Carara and La Amistad National Parks, with X-Ray 4 and 5 respectively, however the new kid on the block is Volcan Tenorio, visited by X-Ray 6. Located in the north of Costa Rica in Guanacaste province, it is notorious for the ultramarine Rio Celeste, which attains its colour due to mineral deposits and the emanation of sulphur from the volcano. Whilst in the park, X-Ray 6 will be repairing access trails alongside constructing a stair case down to a waterfall on the Celeste. This is one of several projects Raleigh will have undertaken on Volcan Tenorio; previous Raleigh groups assisted with the constructions of a bridge and Latin America’s first disabled access pathway in a rainforest.

X-Rays 7 and 8 will carry on the community projects undertaken in La Naranjita and San Jose up in Miraflor, Nicaragua, whereas X-Ray 9, in a new project, have swung south to Dorbata, in the Chirripo Indigenous Territory which is located on the Caribbean slope in the Matama area. Populated by the Cabecar indigenous people, one of the largest groups in Costa Rica, X-Ray 9 will be constructing a school in the area, which due to its remoteness, is generally only accessible by foot. The majority of the population are subsistence farmers, with one notable import to the community being football boots!

We will of course, bring you news and views from the projects as they break. If you haven’t already, whet your appetite by checking out the fantastic photo review of phase one (see the link on the left hand toolbar), composed by Ale. I can assure you it only gets better the more you watch it.

X-Ray Exodus

In the mere blink of an eye our Alpha groups have returned, eaten us out of house and home, regrouped, and flown the nest in the form of X-Ray groups. Phase Two is underway. Just two days ago, all was calm at Fieldbase. In a jam packed schedule we’ve welcomed and initiated our Explorers at ‘jungle’ camp, taken the Expedition 12B photo, seen our groups relay the story of phase one in their skits, reformed and ‘broken the ice’ with our new X-Ray groups, and last night celebrated the end of changeover with a super-heroes and villains fancy dress party. They’ll be off for 19 days on a variety of projects, some of which involve continuing work undertaken by the Alpha groups in phase one, some of which are new for expedition. The groups are as follows:

X-Ray 1 – Turrisantos Trek

Clare Wright
Daniel Saborio
Francesca Hodge
Elliot Gordon
Callum E Hunter
Danielle Dowding
Diana Hindle Fisher
Jack Bannenberg
Jose Pablo Castilo Halabi
Lauren Davidson
Phoebe Mackenzie Smith
Savan Shah
Sophie I Jenkins
Lisa Steinmetz
Sam Horbye

X-Ray 2 – Corcovado Trek

Afsana Tahirova
Joseph Donovan
Harry Verma
Dougal Mackenzie Smith
Erika Lobo Sánchez
Louisa Treadwell
Mary Dashfield
Max de Kroon
Valeria Vasquez Cruz
Jonathan Sacarello
Alexi Meghir
Joshua Biggs O'May
Fosca Meyjes

X-Ray 3 – Miratombo Trek (*New*)

Caroline Bolt
Jonathan Baguley
Kelly Mcpherson
Oliver Thomas
Wing Tung Wong
Deyanira Monterrey Centeno
Jarol Jassiel Tercero Morales
Jessica Emerson
Mark Wardle
Rosemary Henry
Samuel Marsden
Sian Lewis
Thea Mikkelsen
Ting Phoa
George Batt

X-Ray 4 – Carara National Park

Alexander E Dennis
Katie Philpott
Lucinda Ryan
Charlotte Rombaut
Ileana Boyes
James Barlow
Julian Heckmatt
Liam J Ward
Mark J Fearon
Nicole R Waller
Sjoerd B Baardman
Tess P de Jongh
Véronique Driebeek
Daniel Meza
Markus Hjorth

X-Ray 5 – La Amistad National Park

Danielle Percival
Matthew Jewers
Gareth Price-Baghurst
Alfredo Salas Garro
Valeria Celeste Polimeni Solís
Anthony Gallagher
Julie Balfour
Kevin Ho
Neneh Mae Whiting
Phillip Houghton
Rachelle Bent
Louis Manders
George Moody
Amelia Christie-Miller

X-Ray 6 – Volcan Tenorio (*New*)

Amanda Payne-Danson
Roeland Terpstra
Mohammed Benyamin Chowdhury
Maria G Gerono
Mercedes White
Benedict J Maclean
Allegra Dowley
Edward M Lilley
George K Cosgrove
Gustavo Badilla Araya
Hannah Voisin
Pamela Quesada Gutierrez
Simon Webb
Sonia Deiters
Timothy J Welander

X-Ray 7 – La Naranjita, Miraflor

Alex Beaumont
Fiona Arakelian
Amanda H Petersson
Amy Craddock
Claire F Edgley
Eika S Webb
Istvan Josue Sepulveda Hernandez
Jack T Griffin
Joni Antonio Moreno Gonzáles
Marvin Uriel Perez Villarreyna
Thomas S Edney
Louis J Worrall
Harvey Burgess
Emma Tivey

X-Ray 8 – San Jose, Miraflor

Jemma Grundon
Jessica Soane
Victoria Brennan
Andrew C Sweerts
James J Wildgoose
Anna Blackwell
Azelle Egbe
Charles A Pilkington
Georgina H Webster
Hanko Gerritsen
Holly K Courtier
Jezreel Lezama
Michael Modesto Romero Herrera
Roisin M Carson
Fleur Jansen

X-Ray 9 – Dorbata, Chirripo Indigenous Reserve (*New*)

Adrianna Rodriguez
Daniel Walsh
Jayshree Jadav
Robert F Sutton-Mattocks
Alexandre Bello
Frederik van Landegem
Brayan Lobo Fallas
Ciara Atkinson
Dara M Sternberg
Josephine Killen
Matthew F Moore
Ravenna A Westerhout
Sophie G van Woerkom
Yzza R Slaoui


From hereon in, if you wish to send a message, please put the NAME OF RECIPIENT and their X-RAY GROUP. Makes admin a little easier. Thanks!

X-Ray 7 Photoblog

A view of life in Miraflor through the lens of 10L pixman, David.

Dirt shovelling

There goes the maestro

Dr Sarah's on top of it

Cecy

Caballero

Adam

Happy Alex

Muchacha de El Rodeo

Corrine

Jan loves the sun

Charlie

Cavallo arriba!

Cavallo arriba! Arriba! Arriba!

X-Ray 7 update

This is comms officer Maryann reporting from the road in Leon, Nicaragua. I've just joined Bravo 1 on their Phase 2 mission after spending five days with X-Ray 7 at El Rodeo, Miraflor.

The team are enthusiastically working on the community centre and are dead set on completing it by the end of phase. Dee's artistic skills and Tim's gardening expertise will come in handy for the finishing touches.

At the time of my departure the group had already settled into their adopted homes and were getting used to a daily routine of waking up to a cacophony of farm animals crowing, mooing and snorting by 6am. They meet at the work site at 7am to receive orders from Don Juan, the maestro de obra, on what needs to be done for the day. The team then rotate between pick-axing and shovelling earth to be transferred to the building's interior, making scaffolding out of steel rods and, much to the reluctance of Don Juan, brick-laying. So far only Adam's impeccable finishing has manage to impress the skeptical maestro.
The team beaver on til about 11:30 am every day when they walk back to their respective homes where their moms have lunch ready for them. The diet in El Rodeo is largely a staple of rice, beans, cottage cheese and tortillas. A few lucky venturers living with exceptionally generous families, have been fed meat on several occasions. Lunch ends at 1pm and the group are back at the site to labour on until almost 5pm, by which time squeals from excited village young 'uns signal for a game of footie down at the field and the end of the work day. A review of the day is done just as the sun begins to set on the majestic horizon and the group retire home to their families for dinner before recharging for the next day.
Life is simple at El Rodeo where its residents have few possessions, and basic necessities such as water and electricity are scarce. But the lack of creature comforts seems a small price to pay for the phenomenal views and unforgettable experiences shared with the Nicaraguan families. I have not seen a happier and more inspired group of venturers and special mention goes out to PMs, Elena, Sarah, and Esteban for deftly managing what is turning out to be another successful project.

Apologies for the absence of images. Unfortunately, I'm not able to provide a more vivid account owing to limited resources at hand. We promise richer posts when we get back to fieldbase.