On project planning mission!

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The photos I attached to the last blog were actually from our project planning trip. The majority of us took the bus into San Jose for an evening on the town on Tuesday. Stewart and I were lucky because our bus south was 7am, unlike the poor 3am-ers going to Nicaragua. After a 7 hour bus journey we reached Villa Briceno on the Interamericana highway and were picked up by two of the rangers. We were both steaming a bit by then, not used to the heat of the south... and so it was not the most conducive to the best spanish ever. We went to La Gamba station in a dusty town of the same name on the outskirts of Piedras Blancas. Met and chatted with several of the rangers, talking about evacuation procedures and working hours. I made my first big boob... mistaking THE head honcho, Don Juan Luis, for another ranger Luis since when he introduced himself that was the only name I heard and I knew there was a Luis. I apologised and we all laughed about it.... this was after two telephone calls en route to his secretary where I probably should have clocked what the plan was... too much spanish all at once! Anyhow, it was mostly onwards and upwards from there. We set off to El Bonito, the ranger station in the park where we will be based, driving along a very low river and seeing lots of birds, and were introduced to the 5 or 6 permanent rangers at the station. They are a typical crowd of lads working together anywhere.. lots of banter most of which I am glad to not understand!

We spent two days there with them. They took one look at our powdered beanfeast and porridge and fed us very well on the usual rice and beans, with plenty of iced tea, fruit juices and hot chiles. We got taken on a forest walk through secondary forest, the primary cloudforest is higher up the mountain, and were fed on a forest feast of guava, fresh coconut and cocoa... a succulent sweet white flesh. We checked out the various campsites on offer, agreed project scope and timetable, and played the maddest game of football ever against some very impressive younger tico talent... and a few much larger beer bellies! It took us half an hour to figure out who was playing in which direction (as we were playing), noone ever changed sides, and it appeared that one side was so much better than us we had been given a 5-0 lead! It was very very hot... our largest challenge on the project will be heatstroke, dehydration and motivation I think.. but we will give it a go!

The rangers have employed a 'maestro de obras' (construction foreman) for the work we will do and have procured funds to buy the materials for the work. We feed ourselves and accommodate ourselves and provide the labour.

The maestro will work 10 hour days so it is going to be quite a challenge to get a venturer group to work 5 hours straight (we will split them into two). We have then planned 2 hours further work per day building a trail. There will be 10 venturers on the project and the two of us. 2 of the venturers will be on camp duty each day and then others will have allocated daily roles like mini medic (making sure everyone is looking after their feet, mosquito bites, general personal hygiene as things get infected quickly here), day leader, responsible for keeping everyone working and rest stops etc, someone in charge of tools and someone responsible for safety. Raleigh is very hot on rules and regulations but you can see why when we will have 19 year old testorerone fuelled males wielding pick axes and machetes in the middle of nowhere.

Phase 1, starting on 9th March, will involve building an accommodation block alongside one they already have for visiting park rangers on conferences and scientists/students. We will also aim for 1km of trail but, as Don Arturo, the ranger in charge at El Bonito says, that will be 'un reto', a challenge.

On Friday morning we headed off to Golfito.... getting into the dodgiest unlicensed minibus. Unfortunately I left my water bottle and dictionary at the bus stop in the rush to get our packs in the back... not a good move as that had been my lifeline up to then. I can hope it will be there somewhere still but unlikely given a spanish english dictionary here is probably golddust.

Golfito was even hotter... or maybe that is because we were carrying packs filled with radio equipment, solar panel and spare battery... none of our own clothes or food! Stewart spotted a fantastic cabina to stay in... with en suite, two double beds with very clean looking sheets and TV.. for a bargain $7! Next stop was the hospital and another challenging encounter. We got in front of the Head of Accident and Emergency to ask him to fill in our hospital recce form (can you treat malaria? Do you have anti-venom?) and, in an effort to make him not feel we were a burden, I explained that if necessary we fly people to San Jose. WRONG ANSWER. He then explained that his was the BEST hospital.... better than San Jose because it had a separate operating theatre for A&E and they had a bigger room for asthmatic treatment than San Jose. We were then taken on a tour of his hospital to prove how good it was (air conditioning, hot water, separate female male wards and everything!) and that we shouldn't come to his country thinking our treatment was so much better than theirs... or something along those lines! oops. This was followed by more successful trips to the Coastguard and immigration. So by end of Friday Stewart and I were done on official stuff.. and with officialdom.. and spent a lovely saturday heading over to hippy hangout of Puerto Jimenez, kayaking amongst the mangroves and drinking the best xaipirinhas (tico equivalent of caipirinhas) ever!

Now back at fieldbase after a great dayout river rafting... the top 5 river in the world for rapids and beautiful views. Out for our last night out in town before the venturers arrive. Hope you're all well.... Bxxx

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