Raleigh Venturer Induction

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Well, it's about 12 hours before the off.... frantic last minute internet opportunity before we disappear into the jungle for 18 days.

The venturers arrived last weekend and are a great bunch... mostly Brits with the odd american, dutch, french thrown in. We have 19 host country venturers with us... with money raised in country to support them and three are in our group, two from Nicaragua (much poorer country) and one from here in Turrialba. There isn't much love lost between ticos and nicos so Raleigh here is as much about getting them to interact with each other as us with them and vice versa. All the group are lovely... very different characters but we all seem to be enjoying things so far! The majority are intending to go to uni this september. Edelkys, the Nicaraguan guy is 17. He has built a house and is expert at wielding a machete ... he cut some sugar cane for the group the other day which was much appreciated. Will be useful our first day there when we cut the bamboo for our forest beds aka bashas!

Jungle camp was rather muddier than for our staff induction.. seeing as it had rained continuously for 24 hours on the group which went the night before us. We have Alex in our group who is very into his cooking and there are several dishes the host country venturers are going to cook for us which will be great. I think they will really enjoy being able to talk with the park rangers aswell as it can be quite overwhelming with the noise of 100 rowdy gringoes around them!

We received our kit today and so have been packing up spades, wheelbarrows, hammers, axes and more bags of rice and beans than my stomach wants to mention! The minibus will leave at 5.30am tomorrow and we hope to get to La Gamba by 2.30pm, in time to walk in and set up initial camp in daylight. Day 2 will be bamboo cutting and a forest walk with the rangers to introduce everyone to the fruits, bugs and forest environment before starting work on Day 3. I expect everyone will have mixed expectations... some loving the fact that we have creature comforts like flushing loos and electric light until 9pm... others concerned they are not 'roughing it' enough! Our challenge will be completing the additional accommodation block in 13 days, with 2 days free for beach trips and rest and two days travelling. Hopefully I will come back with lots of pictures and stories.

Lots of love to you all and hope everything is going well. If anyone wants to write they can do so to Raleigh International, Apartado Postal 17, Codigo 7170, CATIE, Costa Rica.

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