Role Call: The Volunteer Project Managers

Expedition 13As Volunteer Project Managers (PMs) have arrived safely in Turrialba. 25 slightly wide eyed but excited PMs are ready for 14 days of intensive training and induction into the world of Raleigh Costa Rica and Nicaragua. 

Our fabulous staff team:

Back Row (L to R): Julian, Emma, Colin, Greg, Simon V and Sacha
Middle Row (L to R): Keiner, Kate, Vanessa, Zoe, Gemma, Shane, Holly, Chris, James, Sarah, Victoria, Katharine, Simon B, Louise, Sarah M, Pauline, Alice and Lena
Front Row (L to R): Liz, Clive, Claire, Sally, Marie, Paul, Angie, Helena, Marissa, Dav, Pedro, Rich, Antonio and Gabby
Also VMs on expedition: Denise and Jess

A&E doctor bromance from Dav and James

Chris, Kate, Helena and Vanessa thankful for their arrival at Fieldbase

Fieldbase's Vanessa welcoming Denise to Raleigh

Simon, Country Expedition Manager, indoctrinating the PMs into the 3 bowl system

The 13A Staff Team enjoying their first breakfast together

Greg, Lou and Marie: Pedro must have used a pun...

Intently listening PMs, that's what we like to see: Angie, Tor, Clive, Paul and Dav

The PMs taking a stroll around Turrialba, their new home

The lie of the land...12L project recce

Each of the PMs, newly formed in their Alpha groups, have spent the past couple of days visiting their projects to familiarise themselves with the lay of the land.  This is an opportunity to check that everything is as it should be and generally get ahead of the game before the Venturers arrive.

The Nicaraguan groups (Alpha 2 and Alpha 5) have just walked in the door, but Alphas 1, 3 and 4 came home to Fieldbase yesterday.

Here is a little flavour of what they got up to.

Natalie, Dave and Nicole raring to go

Alpha 1 had the opportunity to walk part of the Coast to Coast Trek with a local guide, sleeping out along the way.  Boots got muddy and t-shirts got sweaty but the view was the reward.

Natalie watching her footing on the Coast to Coast Trek.

Early morning on the Coast to Coast Trek.

Alphas 3 and 4 are looking after the first Environmental phase based in Carara National Park and at Playa Hermosa.  Whilst at Playa Hermosa the guys got a chance to stay up for a night patrol where they collected 800 turtle eggs and then the next morning they were able to help release 47 turtles back to the sea where they would have the best chance of survival.  Not your average Monday morning, but this is Raleigh.

Releasing turtles and Playa Hermosa

Turtles heading for the sea.

The magic sorting hat of Turrialba

Each PM, as nervous as any new wizard to Hogwarts, took the stage to don the sorting hat of project selection.  How will the hat pronounce?  Will it be environmental, community or a trek?  Who will be your team mate/s?  Only the magic hat can decide.

Jae receiving pronouncement from the sorting hat

In a Harry Potter/Ready, Steady, Cook mixed metaphor the first task for the new teams was to create a pudding with store cupboard ingredients in 20 minutes - marks awarded for taste and presentation of the dish.

Pedro and Barney - judging pudding

Alpha 2 succeeded on taste - with David (call me Heston) and Claudia presenting a tropical flapjack.  Alpha 1 took presentation to extravaganza levels by bringing bunny ears and gold sequins to the table.  Fieldbase scored for team effort with Phil being the actual table, Joss being the waiter and the girls providing the crunchy bottom, fruity layer, velvety chocolate and zesty topping of their Fieldbase Fantasy.

Alpha 5 in the dance off

It all had to be decided with a dance off and Fieldbase pipped the competition at the post.  There may have been strength in numbers, and we have had an extra week to bond - but personally I put it down to sheer skill and creativity.

So, now fully bonded over cooking and dancing, the teams are assembled and ready to go.  The running order for the Project Groups is as follows:
Alpha 1 - Coast to Coast Trek, Costa RicaNicole, Dave and Natalie
This Trek has taken various forms over the past few years, but Expedition 12L will feature a particularly exciting version, starting at the Caribbean Sea and ending on the Pacific Coast.  Crossing a continent as well as a country.

Nicole, Dave and Natalie - Alpha 1

Alpha 2  - Miratombo Trek, Nicaragua 
David and Claudia
Starting in the far north of Nicaragua, near to the Honduran border, the Miratombo Trek meanders through the diverse landscapes of Esteli and Leon.

David and Claudia - Alpha 2

Alpha 3 - Environmental, starting in Hermosa, Costa Rica
Jim, Clare and Tracy H
Working to preserve the turtle populations of Hermosa beach, this project will collect turtle eggs, ensure that they hatch safely and release the turtles back into the wild where they have the best chance of survival.  This team will spend the second half of their phase at Carara National Park (see below).

Jim, Clare and Tracy - Alpha 3

Alpha 4 - Environmental, starting in Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Pauline, Jae and Sarah
Starting in the Carara National Park this group will work to clear the Lago Meandrica trail, previously inaccessible in the rainy season.  This work will enable many more visitors to the park, and therefore increase the revenue for the Park and allowing them to continue their other environmental work. This team will spend the second half of their phase at Hermosa (see above). Where they will be joined by Charlie.

Jae, Sarah, Pauline and Charlie in the background - Alpha 4

Alpha 5 - Achuapa water project, Nicaragua
Sarah,  Florian and Vic
This project group will work with the local community of Los Loros in Achuapa to develop a gravity-feed water system to bring clean and safe drinking water to 40 families living there.

Sarah, Florian and Vic - Alpha 5

Bienvenido – the 12L project managers have arrived

Our numbers at Fieldbase have increased as the project managers all landed safely in San Jose last night.  They managed to get some brief but well earned sleep before taking the 2 hour bus journey to arrive here this morning.

They were welcomed by a traditional Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto cooked by Araceli, our cook and new best friend.  The queue for the shower is going to be a little longer, and the cooking pots are a good deal larger but the buzz about the place is the most noticeable difference. 

Everyone is catching up with the familiar faces that they met many moons ago on that training weekend in August (can't believe it was only a month ago!).

This week will be spent with various inductions, training and briefing sessions.  We kicked off with the swimming assessment, to understand each person's level and make sure that no-one gets out of their depth.

Some training sessions are mostly chalk and talk, 

and some will mean getting out there and learning things for ourselves.  

There is a lot to take in and learn but the adventure starts here.

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....

Advance Week ends, and a new era begins - bienvenidos PMs!

Last night, the Advance Team at Fieldbase had our final evening of peace and quiet - AKA our last evening of 'rattling around the place'! Not only were we getting used to the fact we had to share our space which we have got used to swinging a large cat around, we were also reflecting on what's been an absolutely belting week. To help with this reflection, the Photographers put on a slideshow of some of the shots and videos they've taken of induction (with a feature embarrassing moment of myself) which I'll try to put up tomorrow!

At 0730am the next (ie this) morning, after an excitedly short sleep and an hour of intense cleaning, marquee erecting and getting the place ship shape, we welcomed a bus full of giddy (and slightly jetlagged) Project Managers, emerging out of the dust of the farm road towards the office, after a night on the floor of a school in San Jose and a 4.45 start! Their red eyes were wide however as they took in the gorgeous surroundings of the farm and the amazing base we have here in CATIE.

Hugs, handshakes and chest-bumps were exchanged - some people being reunited after the development weekends - and there were a few minutes for chit chat before the most amazing (and much needed) breakfast of gallo pinto was served up to the troops - om nom NOM.

After breakfast, a quick tour of Fieldbase, then it was straight down to the CATIE pool for cooling down and swim assessments - we don't mess about here! The schedule we've got for the next 2 weeks is pretty breakneck, just so we can get all of our training done before the arrival of the Venturers. So the first step for the PMs was them getting their kit off (no time for airs and graces either!) and showing us what they've got in an aquatic sense, followed by a quick 10 mins of splashing around just for fun.

Once people had showered (some for the first time since the previous morning - and previous country!) we took them straight back to Fieldbase for a delicious lunch and some admin, before heading straight into the next training session - comms and radio training. Cue many funny messages such as 'Hello Zero, Hello Zero, this is Alpha 4, Serial Charlie, we would like to have a massive party tonight please...'

Dinner was served at 6pm and then at 1900 hours, Ross delivered a presentation on the projects, resulting in gasps, whispers of 'I want THAT one!' and muchos excitement at the locations, people and tasks that await us in 2 weeks' time. Who is going on which project though is up for grabs and won't be revealed until next week. We'll just have to wait!

We'll just have to wait for the party too. After an intense day, at the current time of 2130 hours, most people have headed off to bed ready for the 7am start tomorrow (6.30 for the brekkie makers, me included!) so this is me, signing off, after the most intense but best day yet.

Hasta manana...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Love and Land Rovers

Brum, Brum...

No, it isn't the city of Birmingham in England to which I am referring, it is the sound resonating in our ears during intense 4x4 driving training for some of the Advance team! Ross, our Country Programme Manager, has been patiently and bravely taking to the passenger seat this week and letting us city slickers have a bash at driving Bravo 1, 2, 3 and 4, Raleigh’s trusty Landies, around the CATIE farm, Turrialba, San Jose and off-road (the weather overnight creating some interesting terrain to say the least!). As well as some tentative on- and off-road driving, we all went a bit Daisy Duke and got serious with a jack, lifting the 2 tonne vehicles and changing a tyre (a first for some of us - ¿Dónde está Kwik Fit?)

So, if you’re reading this and would like to wish us luck, please feel free to comment – we’re all excellent drivers at home (obviously...) but add in a different side of the road, Spanish road signs, opposite controls, some big rocks, inclines to make your eyes water and 8 hours of torrential rain and we need all the support we can get! It’s all so we can get everything, and everyone, to (often remote) project sites exactly when they’re needed in the next few weeks, very important I’m sure you’ll agree. Our learner drivers are Nick, Jen, Dave, Bjorn, Katie, Roeland, myself (Leanne) and Becky, all of whom will hopefully get some 4x4 fortune in our tests later this week.

Becky, one of our Logistics team, has another link to 'Brum'. She has been married for 2 years today to a lucky gent from that aforementioned part of the world – who just happens to be one of our Project Managers, Andy! So please join me in saying ‘Feliz Aniversario’ to Becky and Andy – you’ll be reading more about them and why they decided to join a Raleigh expedition together over the next couple of weeks.

Andy will also be our guest blogger tomorrow, if he survives ‘Anniversary Games Night’ here at Fieldbase!

Fieldbase antics and exploring!

Something you may or may not know is that there is quite a lot of jungle in Costa Rica! So it only seemed appropriate for Friday evening’s entertainment at fieldbase to be Sabrina’s (deputy project manager) own version of ‘I’m a celebrity….get me out of here!’.

Don’t worry, it didn’t quite come down to eating bugs and tackling snakes but Owen certainly won’t be wanting to see cinnamon for a while and Jed took on a pretty feisty chilli and came out on top….just!!


In other jungle challenges, Bruce (a new arrival and Costa Rican project manager) broke all kinds of records in putting on 32 different pieces of clothing, Daz was one of the many objects to be found in a treasure hunt, and the team members’ flexibility was tested to the limit in trying to pick up a cereal box with their teeth.
An entertaining evening all in all and I think we called it a draw!

 



 
 

Saturday brought a wonderful opportunity to escape fieldbase for a few hours and visit some stunning waterfalls. A 30 minute, somewhat sweaty, walk through thick forest was rewarded with the sight of a torrent of water and an inviting plunge pool. Suffice to say we all took the opportunity to cool off before heading further up to the top of the waterfall and…yes another quick dip!

Not satisfied with swimming under waterfalls, some of the more intrepid members of the team went to visit the self-titled ‘Snake man of Costa Rica’. Despite an under-developed sense of self preservation, this man did seem to know an awful lot about snakes and was kind enough to introduce us to the three most poisonous snakes in Costa Rica - one of which had a particularly evil glint in his eye. The snake man warned us not use flash photography around this one!! And we certainly kept our distance when we were introduced to the jumping viper!


All in all, a great day seeing more of Costa Rica’s stunning scenery and meeting some of its less friendly inhabitants.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Today, ladies and gentleman, is a hugely significant day in the early stages of expedition 11L as the project managers arrive in Costa Rica and will be brought to fieldbase on Monday morning. Like ourselves last week, they will no doubt be a little bleary-eyed but the enthusiasm and excitement will be bubbling away just waiting to burst out. And they will, of course, have Daz and Splatches to welcome them to fieldbase!


Until then Pura Vida!