Project allocations part two…

Welcome back to the second installment of project allocations, starting with our environmental projects…

Alpha 4 – La Cangreja

Rob, Adriana and Charlie will be living right in the middle of the jungle in La Cangreja, Costa Rica’s newest National Park, which gets its name from the striking 1,305 metre peak Cerro Cangreja. The park is home to a mixture of Tropical Humid forest and Pre-Montane forest and a number of species of plant found nowhere else in the world, making this an important area for research purposes and conservation.

At present the government is developing the facilities in the park and during the expedition Alpha 4 will be building a trail from the Rio Negro River that crosses the national park.


Alpha 5 – Horizontes Experimentales

Catalina, Kirsten and Philly will be the first Raleigh team to work in this fascinating national park in the Guanacaste province, which is largely made up of dry tropical forest. The national park is used as a research area that was set up to study the reforestation of dry tropical forests.

During this expedition, Alpha 5 will be monitoring the growth of the different tree species and maintaining the research plantations as well as building trails for visiting tourist groups who want to find out what it takes to reforest the natural forests of Central America. The group will be camping in the jungle and will get a chance to learn about the importance of conserving these amazing forests.


And last, but definitely not least we’ve got our adventure groups, Alpha one and Alpha two…


Alpha one – Corcovado Trek

Nick, Stu and Anna will be starting in the stunning montane La Amistad National Park, the largest national park in Costa Rica and a UNESCO World Heritage site. They will then walk through beautiful mountain scenery and towering cloud forest. After passing by waterfalls and hot springs the group will cross the Coto Brus valley to the Fila Costena – a chain of mountains that run parallel to the sea. Once they are out of the mountains the group will finish the trek by crossing the famous Corcovado National Park that straddles the Osa Peninsula, walking through the best preserved tropical rainforest in Central America. The group will have a chance to see monkeys and tapirs before finishing the trek with a spectacular three-day walk along the beaches of the Pacific Ocean.


Alpha two – Macho Bares Trek
James Bader and Lisa will lead our final Alpha group on the Macho Trek, which starts at Raleigh’s Fieldbase in Turrialba. In the first week they’ll trek through the Rio Macho Forestry Reserve passing through Tapanti National Park. After climbing up to nearly 3,000 metres the group will then follow the ridges of the Fila de Bustamante towards Cerro Dragon. From here the group will aim for Cerro Turrubares before heading down to the sea at Playa Hermosa where the groups will spend a couple of relaxing days at this beautiful beach, famous for its nesting turtles.

So there you have it, I’m sure you’ll agree that all seven projects sound absolutely amazing and I for one can’t wait to get out there and visit everyone.

We’re expecting the first project teams back tomorrow evening and then the rest on Sunday morning when they’ll all get cracking on writing their reports on each of the projects, along with some well deserved hot showers! I also heard a rumour that Libby may be undertaking a mammoth baking session to include Carrot Cake and Banana Chocolate Cake to welcome everyone home :o)

Project allocations part one

It’s been quiet at Fieldbase over the last few days since all the Project Managers left for their project planning visits.

Radio reports from all the Alpha teams confirm that everyone has arrived safe and well, and that they’ve all got beautiful sunny weather, which hasn’t quite made its way to Fieldbase yet!

So, here we go with some of the allocations so far and pictures of our happy teams as they set out on their PPVs, starting with our community projects…



Alpha Seven - Achuapa

Katie, Mike and Natalie will be working high in the hills above Achuapa, in one of the poorest most remote areas of Nicaragua, to bring clean and safe drinking water to families in the community of Los Playones.

This project is a multi-stakeholder partnership with the local community, the Cooperativa Juan Francisco Paz Silva, Nottingdale International and Raleigh. At present the local people get their water from the river which often dries up in summer or comes from polluted water sources. The group will be living directly with families in the village and working with the local community to dam small streams and build tanks to collect the water from where it can run through pipes to all the local houses.



Alpha Eight – Miraflor- Cana Florida

Lizzie, Spiller and Sarah will be based in the Miraflor reserve, 206sqkm of beautiful mountainous terrain with various different ecosystems such as tropical savannah, dry tropical forest and mountain cloud forest.

Within the reserve there are a number of communities living through subsistence farming and gaining income from coffee growing, cattle farming and some small tourism initiatives. The people have few resources and lack access to basic services such as health and education. In the community of Cana Florida, there are currently no facilities for very young children to learn and the community perseveres with basic lessons in people’s houses and so the team on this project will be building a preschool.



Alpha Nine – Conte Burika
Situated on the remote Burika peninsula near the Panamanian border, Kirsty, James Burnham and Helena will be based in Alto Guaymi, in the Conte Burika Indigenous Reserve. The community is extremely remote – to get there you have to walk 8-hours along a beach and then up into the hills behind.

The Ngobe (or Guaymi) Indigenous people who live there are subsistence farmers who maintain the cultural traditions of their ancestors. Currently there is one secondary school in the indigenous reserve built by Raleigh previously, but it is heavily over-subscribed and they have don’t have enough classrooms and so this project will construct a school building from wood which will provide a pre-school for the youngest members of the community.

We'll update the environmental and Trek ones shortly so check back soon

In the jungle…

Sorry we haven’t been in touch for a few days, it’s been a whirlwind of training since we last wrote - I’m not sure how we managed to fit so much in!

We were all up and out at 5am on Monday to trek to jungle camp, where we learnt and practised all sorts of Ray Mears type skills like how to pack your backpack, map reading, how (or how not to) to cross a river safely…

Camp set up and safety…

How to build a basher bed using a hammock and bamboo…


Aside from the rest of our teams, we also shared our night in the jungle with a myriad of creepy crawlies including tiny frogs, a scorpion, and a giant spider which apparently ‘jumped’ into the girls’ tent and chased them around it resulting in a lot of screaming at about 5am.


Bright and early yesterday, we practised our CASEVAC training on what was the sunniest day we’ve had so far. However this was not the best weather for lugging the heaviest members of our group on a stretcher for 500 metres to the nearest road. The activity was really effective in making sure we’re prepared in case of a real one, but I don’t think our casualties will win any Oscars for their acting abilities.

After we’d all made it back to Fieldbase there was a race for the showers - after one night in the jungle we were all incredibly filthy, I dread to think what it will be like after three weeks!

Finally, in the evening we got the news everyone had been waiting for, project allocations for phase one! Everyone seemed really excited about their teams and where they were going and that they would finally get out into Costa Rica and Nicaragua over the next few days on their Project Planning Visits, or PPVs.

We’ve got seven amazing projects running in phase one so while everyone is out visiting their sites, we’ll put up some info about the various projects and who is going on which ones so keep checking back to see who’s going to be doing what!

Thanks to everyone for all the lovely messages we’ve had on the blog already, it’s great to know you guys are reading it, and hopefully enjoying it – feel free to ask if you want any more info on anything or if you have any questions and keep sending us your messages!