10 days later

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.

San Juan del Sur

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.

Siares

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

This made us slightly apprehensive about sleeping out on a tarp, but we survived our 2 nights and enjoyed a day exploring the surrounding beaches and jungle trails, including the path being built by the project group. When the park was set up initially it was completely off limits to visitors, however more recently certain trails have been opened to allow limited access, to get the benefits of income from tourists and provide an educational opportunities on interpretive trails. The path Raleigh are working on will allow easier access for those with limited mobility to explore part of the reserve and learn about the native flora and fauna.

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.

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua

A bit of calm has returned to Field Base after a very hectic 2 day changeover period between the end of phase 1 and the start of phase 2. Changeover is a busy time for logistics, making sure equipment is returned, tent poles mended, broken tools replaced, new food ordered and issued, and everyone is allocated to new projects. It's also when the groups can share their project experiences with everyone through the infamous 'skit' presentation. Field base staff didn't miss out on sharing their own view of phase 1, premiering our very own video of 'You're Unbelievable' to an audience of venturers and project managers (for anyone that has seen questionable photos on facebook involving shell suits and side ponytails, it was all in the name of quality video appearances). My attempts to upload the video here have failed so far but I will persevere...

Just before changeover we were joined by 14 more venturers who take part in the expedition for two out of the three phases. Before everyone else returned from projects, Gabby (our comms officer) and I, keen to re-live previous experiences as project managers (Gabby in Borneo, me in India), took the new recruits out camping for the night, giving them a taste of trekking, casevac practice, using the radio, setting up tents and using trangias. I think some of our enthusiasm was slightly lost on the group due to jet-lag induced exhaustion, but we were pleased that the day ended on a very positive note after a good review and a helping of energy bombs (a mix of oats, chocolate, nuts, raisins and condensed milk - essential for trek recovery).

Getting to know the new venturers, and about to play a game of 'evolution'

ready for trekking

Phase 2 began in very much the same way as phase 1 - a 3am start, feeding 150 tired people breakfast, encouraging 150 tired people to do some cleaning, packing them off into buses bound for the corners of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, finishing cleaning, cooking an epic breakfast for ourselves, then spending the day recovering with frequent naps.

Yesterday I got back from a night with the Xray 1 team (in phase 1 all teams are 'alpha', phase 2 'xray' and phase 3 'zulu') doing the coast to coast trek. It was lovely to go back into Barbilla National Park, which I visited to see the Alpha 1 trek group as well, only this time it was in thick fog and felt a bit like driving across Dartmoor. It didn't disappoint though and we got some great toucan sightings along the way.

The morning after the fog

view on the drive back to Turrialba

The next activity on the agenda for me is more exciting - I'm off on a 10 day road trip to visit 4 of our projects, 3 of which are in Nicaragua. So I'm now writing from the lovely coastal town of San Juan del Sur after a long day of driving up to the border, going through the lengthy border crossing, then being rewarded with spectacular views of Momotombo volcano across Lake Nicaragua and reaching San Jan for a stunning sun-set.

Tomorrow we'll leave the towns behind and head for the much more rural setting of San Ramon, about 4 hours drive from here, where the Xray 8 team are continuing work on building a pre-school. I can't wait to get out to the project sites, spend time with the teams and get to meet the beneficiaries - photos to follow once the road trip returns!

This is zero, this is zero, do you copy? Over.

I'm sitting in the radio room at field base and the radio is crackling with white noise in the background. I'm still waiting for 5 of our project groups to call me (or call zero, our call-sign at field base) with their daily afternoon sitrep (aka situation report), though most of them tuned into our first broadcast of 'Radio Raleigh' earlier this afternoon, so I suspect some of them have forgotten they need to call in again. Radio Raleigh is a weekly broadcast to all static project groups, using 2 channels on HF radio, bringing teams a bit of news, updates from other groups, football and rugby scores, and whatever else the team at field base want to include. It's quite good fun for us this end, and we enjoyed our local news section about an escaped bull in CATIE grounds being caught by 2 cowboys who galloped past the office yesterday, a new bird species spotted just down the road, and the latest antics of our dogs Splatches and Stupid Little Dog (really, that's his name, and he lives up to it). I'm going to be in this room until 8.30 tomorrow morning (well, I am allowed out but have to take the three landline telephones with me so can't stray too far), on duty overnight in case any groups need to call in and ready to take scheduled calls from 6am.

I did manage to stray a bit further from the office last week, visiting 2 of the trek groups - Alpha 1 trekking the Coast to Coast, and Alpha 3 on the Turrisantos trek. It was great to catch up with the teams and see how they're getting on - and beneath the sweat, dirt and blistered feet they are doing fantastically well. All the treks are tough and for many participants they are far more challenging than they could ever have imagined. They are all rewarded however with incredible scenery, interesting wildlife (I saw 4 toucans and heard howler monkeys on my visit to Alpha 1) and a huge sense of achievement on completion. The other teams in Costa Rica and Nicaragua are progressing well too, building trails, a pre-school, a health post, sustainable housing and a gravity feed water system . Here at field base we love hearing their daily updates and got quite excited with recent news from the team at Carara National Park that one of the project managers spotted a puma.

Marisa and Vanessa on our day trip to visit the Turrisantos trek group

driving back from Barbilla National Park

Early morning view in Barbilla

Field base is significantly quieter these days, following the organised chaos of venturer induction, dishing out of kit and food and packing everyone off into buses at the crack of dawn on 3rd February. Now we are finally settling into a bit of a routine here and have time to plan ahead ready for venturers returning for 'changeover' where everyone descends on field base for 2 days between projects, and then deployment for phase 2.

Pauline, one of our Logistics coordinators, in the Bodega (aka my second home)

Next phase I'm looking forward to getting out on one of the big road trips to visit some of the more remote project sites, after spending most of phase 1 here to get work done and act as duty manager for a few days while the other staff are out visiting projects. It's been a busy few days so I'm very much looking forward to more people returning to field base so I can have a day off at the swimming pool.

Until the next post this is zero, listening out.