Monday, 19 November 2012

A day in the life of X-ray 3

After working like ants up and down the paths of Carara National Park we are loving our time in the paradise that is Playa Hermosa, where we are saving turtles and enjoying the beautiful setting.  Most of our work is done at night with shifts at the turtle hatchery and beach patrol.  Getting up for work at 11pm gets easier after a few days...
Turtle hatchery, Playa Hermosa
Turtle hatchery
In the daytime, as well as helping the rangers, we are making the most of X-ray 3's creative ingenuity by building up our basher bed home.  It has a fitted kitchen of driftwood, a candlelit dining room and a long drop... with a real toilet seat!
Lilian at Playa Hermosa
Lilian in the fitted kitchen, planning her next prank?
In our free time we get on down to the beach for a group game of volleyball, rounders or the X-ray 3 favourite - quidditch (complete with homemade snitch and bludgers).  Don (Dave) and LaLa's (Lillian) prank-athon reaches new levels and cloudy-pool-paradise is the perfect location for relaxing.  We eat dinner watching the sunset and then head down to the hatchery to spend a few more hours in the company of baby turtles.
Turtle patrol watching the sun rise... Dave, Floor and Claudia

 
by Shannon Potter, Project Comms officer

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

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.
Miratombo Trek
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
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 

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. 
Adobe blocks
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!
Birthday party games
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
X-ray 5 - rock stars?