Alpha 1 - COAST TO COAST!

Pampered, soft feet and an equal number of shiny new boots set foot onto the soft Caribbean sand, armed with a youthful exhuberance, were eager to go. 40 minutes in we had our first half-hour break – a luxury we would look back at wistfully!

The first half of the trek was over 130km of torrential rain, sliding in mud, fruit, fallen heroes (Tom, who later went to San Lucas Island), welcoming communities, Terciopello snakes, river swimming (a highlight!), and not being able to recognise our own boots! However we kept on going and finally arrived by a beautiful river, where we camped: we had survived the first half of our trek!

 During the second half of the trek, we entered the jungle and after this, we had another battle to fight – the mountains! They were endless and inclining, but getting to the peak of 2842m made it all worthwhile, despite the fact we couldn’t really see anything (we were standing in a cloud!)

 After living together for many days, the conversation topics could vary enormously, from religion and the meaning of life to who we could smell from the furthest away and needed to be wrestled into the shower (Mau).

Day 16 contained the last hill climb (or so we thought)  and ended in sunbathing and star-gazing at night, which we should have known was too good to be true as the next day we encountered so many hills we started to doubt whether we’d ever get back to sea level again...

However, we trekked on all the way to the last km, during which the sea breeze and salty air were tantalisingly close but forever hidden by a layer of trees. At the first glimpse of the beach we forgot about our blisters, the280km and the weight on our backs and just started sprinting towards the sea, throwing off our bags and storming fully clothed into the roaring sea. We had reached the Pacific and crossed a continent. 

Our best moments included:

Fighting, Oliver Twist-style, over mashed potatoes and energy bombs.

Josue playing his drum to keep us going on trek.

Mau getting us coconuts, sugar cane, guavas and mangoes.

Lizzie being the alarm clock and mother of the group.

The ongoing snoring competition between Carlton, Richard and William.

Lu Ying being the only one able to blow out the trangia.

Pura Vida!

Alphas say Cheese...and become Romeos...

Romeo allocations are being announced today and the changeover handovers will begin from Alpha Groups to Romeo Groups - watch this space for allocations and also the final Alpha project round ups for Alpha 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.

Meanwhile feast your eyes on this likely lot - the whole of 12G including the new Explorers who arrived on Sunday.

Good looking bunch, eh?

Alpha 4 - The Final Score!

La aventura inicio con un increíble paseo en bote hacia la Isla, con buena música incluida por supuesto. Al l llegar nos recibió un majestuoso lugar repleto de arboles, rocas, arena y mar. La primera noche la pasamos en lo que solía ser el dispensario u Hospital de la cárcel, ¡algo imponente en medio de tantos arboles!  EL resto de la semana transcurrió entre bambú, cuerdas, herramientas, sudor, enojos, risas, comida, metal, madera, basura y como podrán imaginar muchos zancudos y mosquitos.

The Adventure started with an incredible boat trip towards the Island, with very good music included! Once there, a marvellous place full of trees, rocks, sand and sea was waiting for us. We spent the first night sleeping in what used to be the “dispensario” or Hospital of the Prison. A impressive building in the middle of all those trees. The rest of the week went through bamboo, strings, tools, sweat, arguments, laughter, metal, wood, rubbish and as you can imagine, many mosquitoes!

Hicimos el campamento en la Jungla, icon 13 camas tipo basher; en realidad 11 y ½ porque Iván quebró la suya y Óscar terminó con la mitad de la suya en el piso.

We built up our Jungle Camp, with 13 basha beds, well, actually there were just 11 and a half, because Ivan broke his and Oscar ended up on the ground.

Limpiamos 7 lugares que solían ser las casas de los reos de mínima seguridad, cuando en los años 50 la cárcel cambió a centro penitenciario agrícola.

We cleaned up 7 houses which used to be the minimum security prisoner’s houses, when in the 50’s the Prison became an Agricultural Centre for inmates.

Olger el guarda parques muy amablemente nos dio el recorrido histórico por la cárcel, muy interesante por cierto. La segunda semana el grupo estaba más animado, todos felices por trabajar y disfrutar de la compañía el ambiente y claramente la comida.

The ranger Olger gave us a interesting historic tour around the Prison. On week two the group was a lot more enthusiastic about working while enjoying the good company surrounded by such nature - and obviously the food.

Ley puso una sonrisa enorme en la cara de Lotti cuando le dijo que “ya esta listo el postre” (Arroz con leche) esto sólo por destacar un momento mágico; pero en realidad esa semana comimos como nunca, increíble. En cuanto a trabajo de la semana,  limpiamos el sendero hacia la playa Tumba boles y sacamos 6 bolsas de basura de la playa.

Ley helped getting a smile on Lottie’s face by saying; “Dessert is ready!” It was rice pudding, her speciality. That week we worked cleaning up a path that goes straight to “Playa  Tumba Boles” and also took 6 massive bags full of rubbish out of the way.

Al final de un gran día de trabajo tuvimos el placer de refrescarnos en el mar y nadar. En ocasiones jugamos bola en la playa Cocos, hasta morir de cansancio.

At the end of a great day of work we had the pleasure of getting in to the refreshing sea water and swim.  We played some beach football at Playa Cocos as well!

En fin estas 2 semanas han sido estupendas. Día a día, todos aprendemos y valoramos la dicha que tenemos por ser parte de Raleigh, de tener la satisfacción de crecer como personas al mismo tiempo que colaboramos con el medioambiente.

Anyway, these two weeks have been brilliant! Day by day, we’ve all learned and appreciated the gift we’ve got of being part of Raleigh. The satisfaction of personal development is evident when you you can picture the improvement and conservation you’ve helped to do for the environment.

No hay palabras para describir la aventura de compartir crecer y trabajar.

No words could possibly describe the adventure of growing up through hard work and good new friends.

Increíble.

Incredible.