10 days and 2000 kilometres later we're back at field base, after a fantastic road trip to see three community projects in Nicaragua and one environmental project in Costa Rica.
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| San Juan del Sur |
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| San Juan del Sur |
After my last post in the very chilled out San Juan del Sur (where, FYI, there is probably the best ice cream in Central America) the road got a bit dustier as we headed north to the village of Siares, San Ramon, where the team are building a pre-school for the community. The volunteers are hosted by local families and we were delighted on arrival to find that they had arranged a homestay for us for our two nights here - much more tempting than pitching the tent.
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| Siares |
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| The new pre-school taking shape |
Our family were incredibly welcoming and Holly and I soon felt at home, getting to know a few of the 10, soon to be 11 members of the household, including gorgeous 14 month old Alicia, whose mother is expecting a baby in a weeks time. Needless to say with this many people in a 3 room dwelling, privacy wasn't high on the agenda, but we were comfortable, and pleased to have had an early night when the cockerels, wood chopping and tortilla bashing began in the adjacent kitchen at around 4am. Breakfast was on a general Nicaraguan theme of rice and beans, accompanied by incredibly good coffee, served traditionally black and sugary, and the company of a family of chickens wondering through the house across the mud floor. The San Ramon area is in a coffee producing region, and the dad of the household proudly told me about working in the local coffee cooperative, producing allegedly the best coffee in the world.
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| Holly outside our homestay |
After a relaxed day with the group on their day off from project work, we were on the road again, on our way to the community of Arenilla in the Miraflor reserve. The journey into the community can only be done in 4x4, on foot or on horseback - thankfully we were in trusty Bravo 3 and navigated safely down the steep and rocky track, to be greeted by muddy, smiling venturers and a stunning view across the valley. The project here is sustainable housing, making adobe bricks from mud and 'old man's beard' which grows in abundance on surrounding trees, constructing new houses for families whose former dwellings had suffered severe hurricane damage. It was fantastic to spend a day in the sun surrounded by beautiful views, getting stuck into the project work (both literally and figuratively, there was a lot of sticky mud involved) and although we slept at the community centre, we had fantastic food at David the community leader's house.
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| Market in Estelí on the way to Miraflor |
The next stop on our road trip was the small and remote village of Matapalo, Achuapa. A few hours drive from Miraflor, there was a stark contrast here in temperature and landscape. Getting out of the car after driving for 45 minutes down a narrow track (again only accessible by 4x4, horse or walking) we were hit with a wall of intense heat, which only felt hotter as we walked the 20 or so minutes into Matapalo. The saving grace for the heat of this project location is a beautiful river, providing daily relief and rejuvenation to the volunteers who are sweating it out each day digging trenches to construct a gravity feed water system. Previously the residents of Matapalo had to walk some distance to collect water, but thanks to this project houses now have a direct supply of clean spring water. It was incredible to see this change happening on the ground, arriving at a stage of the final pipes being installed, tank cemented and the anticipation of taps being connected to a water supply. Since visiting, the project has been completed and Antonio one of the Project Managers has been telling us of the emotional scenes of the beneficiaries at the moment of the final connections of the pipework - an introduction of a basic technology that could be life-changing for the community. Here again we stayed with a family, and could see for ourselves how beneficial a direct water supply to the house could be. There is more about the project and its benefits, with particular regards to improving lives of women, on the Raleigh CRN blog.
Onwards from Achuapa we were back to San Juan del Sur one last time, via Leon, to break the long journey back into Costa Rica.
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| Leon |
Our next and final destination was the beautiful Cabo Blanco reserve near Puntarenas. Cabo Blanco is on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula and was the first protected area in Costa Rica. It is a haven for wildlife and surrounded by a gorgeous coastline; we were stunned on arrival and immediately fell in love with the area, and felt quite envious of the project groups getting to live here for 19 days at a time. We had some close encounters with howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, pizotes, raccoons an anteater (which I was particularly excited about, though sad not to get a photo - I wasn't prepared for this sighting to be on my way to the toilet!), and to add to this amongst other things the group have had some rather sizeable snakes around camp.
We were sad to leave this beautiful corner of Costa Rica and see the road trip come to an end, though it can't be denied we were looking forward to some of the relative comforts back at field base. It was a fantastic 10 days, putting into context the projects I have been following the progress of over the last month, and giving motivation to the purpose of my role at field base, coming away feeling very humbled and inspired about the communities and partners we work with and what can be achieved by volunteers.
Now it's changeover again and the crowds are back at base. The next and final phase is not far off and I'm looking forward to whatever adventure it holds.
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