Blogs from Turrialba, Volcán Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

its monday and it is 2217 ive been working since 0830, but it will be worth it we have packed or fully loaded two vehicles full of kit including a boat and engine and we are heading off tomorrow to San Lucas Island the place with the prison. WE are arriving tomorrow the participants arrive Wednesday for their 4 day survival camp. Plus a lot of sillyness and fun games. I will down load the photos when i get back. I wont be on here for a while but it would be great to hear from you all thjose that haven't given up on looking at it now its working again. Well so long be safe and till next time enjoy.... read more

A new challenge greeted myself and hugh today at the morning meeting. We are to plan vehicle movements and kit allocations for the change overs, trekking and island phase. Simple i thought umm no, kit here, people there vehicles every where and some how we had to assign vehicles people and kit to alpha groups and campsites. Confusing: Yes. Easy : No. Head ache : Yes. Achieved it : of course. All planned laid out if it aint in its not going... Seeing will be believing if it actually goes accoding to plan.... read more

Hugh, Amanda and i started toget the kit organised for the change over. Hugh and Amanada had the far greater task of sorting the food. I was now in charge of radios and electrical equipment. My afternoon was spent packing for a road trip to visit Alpha 2 at the base of Vocan Tonorio up in the North of Costa Rica. I really can't wait to get out of FB getting cabin fever. Had cabin fever more like... ... read more

We awoke full of energy and raring to go for our first day on project. WE arrived on site at 0600, the locals had started at 0530. That was to be our start time from now on. Our day consisted of moving concrete building blocks 500m's from the bottom of a hill, even at 0700 it was extremely hot, up over the hill across a stream and a little further to the project site. Basically we had 300 blocks, one block per person, 15kg a block, a 1 km round trip, 30 degrees with no shade. Hard work no of course not, still happy of course... So all in all we shifted the entire stack by 1500, a total of 300 km's walked and individually about 25 km's. No mean feat!!! Were we all smiling at ... read more

Woke up 0445 Up and out 0520 on site 0530 (on time) Work today. Same route!!! Moving 4m timber today lengths of 4x3 heavy work again, but getting up early means we dont work in the heat of the day. Achievements: All timber shifted. Finished our out door shower which consisted of a wooden frame which supported a bucket with holes in. It worked wonderfully. Highlights. Swimming in the river and cooling off. Amanda , hugh and Yvette arriving from field base.... read more

Woke up 0445 Up and out 0520 on site 0530 (on time again) Work today. Same route, but when you stop and take it in its beautiful. To think we are in an indigenous reserve away from the so called normal way of life. We had to move 25kg bags of cement and sheets of 8x4 and 5x3. Fortunatley we managed to move the cemment up and over the hill in the Raleigh Landdy (thankfully). The Sheets we carried on poles two people to a pole. Although at the end we managed to get these on the roof of the Lanndy to. Achievements: All cement and sheets moved to site safely, although the stand Freddie built for the sheets collapsed so we had to rebuild that. Team thoughts: I had a sense of humour failure this ... read more

Woke up 0530 Up and out 0600 On site: we didnt have to today as very unfortunately we left Alpha 3, i didn't think i would be so disappointed but it was a real shame to leave the group and the project behind. Work today. Drive back to FB. Achievements: Made it back safely. Highlights. Cathcing up with everyone at field base. Having a semi-warm shower.... read more

Being back in FB is bit of a culture shock i wasn't ready for. The pace of life is so much different to that on project. Much slower, not as structured. It hit me quite hard. Missed being on project today. Highlight/ achievement: I built a 5m swimming pool with 6 desks, a tarp and some polythene. It was great, we bought some inflatables and found an inflatable strecher. Fun and games were had by all in our afternoon swim. Then i found the diving kit, a necessary item in 75 cm deep water. A quiet night really, caught up on emails etc...... read more

Hugh and myself have taken on the responsibility of clearing out, itemising and chucking things from the bodega. Have we taken on more than we can chew... Where did the day go? Uneventful day really still missing Alpha 3.... read more

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