A day in the life of Grange

Well today was a mixture of feelings I woke up fairly late which was a nice change, but then Miss Booth knocked on the boy’s door whilst I was using the toilet, which was awkward because everyone else was asleep. I then got a relatively cold shower which is something I will never get used to. We were then told we had to change room from a big dorm between the four of us to two rooms. Jack and Shaun went first so they took the room with two single beds, thus me and Danny were stuck with a honeymoon style room, but I don’t think he’s gay so that’s ok! The room is fairly small and compact which makes the job of packing our rucksacks for the main trek very difficult. Then I was told my parents had wired me money since I had lost it all at Heathrow on the way here. So I then set off to the bank only to find they have no western union meaning I can’t get to my money until later, so don’t worry parents I will get it in the near future. After that nothing happened really. I packed my bag a bit and went out occasionally, but other than that nothing happened until 4. At 4 we met our tour guides, they seem alright apart from the fact he doesn’t say if animals are in the jungle he only admits they exist, which we already knew. Then after that nothing happened apart from I got Berta (the owner of cabins the corner) to clean a bag of my clothes which was good only 1500 (of Danny’s) colones for 1 kilo of clothes, which I thought was good apart from the fact she just gave them to a random kid on a bike but I did get them back as fresh as possible. After that we went out for tea with the travel money for tomorrow which we aren’t using as we’re hiking everywhere, I got surf and turf which was amazing; in contrast to the vegetarian everything we’ve had whilst being out here. We got back fairly late and now I’m writing this whilst finishing packing. Notable points for you guys at home, I am kind of missing home like the guidance and support of parents. Also don’t dare give us rice or porridge once we’re home!


 (Ed. we're just departing for our main trek folks back in contact in 4 days time....)
Alex Grange

Travelling South - Costa Rica by Bus

Monday 30th July - Tuesday 31st July

Hi Guys! Beth and Stephie speaking :-)

Got up at half five on Monday :-) everyone was blooming knackered so it took us a while to organise everything and get ready for the travel day ahead. Gilbeth’s wife made us a final breakfast of pancakes!! Buzzdog! We then fed Capechio one last leaf and said our teary goodbyes, Beth was especially sad as she didn’t see the doat on the final day :-). The bus came soon afterwards and thankfully the stop was just outside Gilbeth’s home so we didn’t have to walk with both our packs. The first bus was a two hour journey sped along by the spectacular views of Costa Rica. Our first stop was at Santa Cruz where we transferred to another bus for another spectacular ride where the main topic was again bears!

We finally arrived in San Jose four hours later, where we had to walk nine whole blocks with Alex in a back to front sun cream stained t-shirt on and swimming trunks(which he has sported for a few days now!) we got to hostel Pangea safely with the help of a police escort as the surrounding area of the bus station was slightly dangerous (but don’t worry Pangea is secure!) After some people went to change money and go to the supermarket to buy breakfast for the next morning we ordered our tea from the hostel. The lonely planet guide says that Pangea makes the best burgers in San Jose, we were all starving so the burgers couldn’t come quick enough! The ‘world famous pangeaburger’ consisted of two beef patties, bacon, cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes and served with chips!!!!!!!!!!!! For $2 :-)

After tea we all got ready for bed as it was a very long day. We finally had a hot shower and felt clean for the first time in what seemed like months! As we were going to bed we realised Beth and Jenny looked very suspicious as they were giggling as we walked in, turns out they bought a secret selfish carrot cake to eat themselves! But karma got them as what looked like a generous helping of butter icing all over the cake turned out to be cream cheese! Bleugh! :-)

As the girls all settled into bed we realised how early we had to be up and went to sleep.

This morning was an even earlier start as Ella’s alarm woke us at half four, everyone looked zombie-like as we had around five hours sleep!! But somehow we were all ready for half five. We all had to get into groups of threes and fours to get taxis to the bus station. Four of our taxi groups ended up at the wrong station as there turns out to be more than one coca-cola station. Cliff, Danny, Alice and Jenny however ended up at the correct station only to realise we weren’t there. We had to get more taxis which took us to the right station and the group was finally reunited safely. As we realised we were over an hour early we made our breakfast in the street, we had bread and nutella or laughing cow cheese. The bus finally arrived and we all got a seat for the nine hour bus journey ahead. The bus journey seemed longer than nine hours but we spent our time singing, sleeping and eating.

When we finally arrived in Puerto Jimenez the owner of the hostel greeted us and showed us the way to our accommodation for the next two nights.

Our Tea was made in the trangias outside the hostel and made rice and a Bolognese type dish with wraps which filled everyone up nicely! After all the washing up was done an early night is needed after the last travel days.

Finally HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! love you! Hope you had a fab day, and I hope you save me birthday cake:-)))) love Steffi Stough! Xxxxx

Helped by Bethan Roberts

Playa Nosara , Pizza and Camp Fires

 Sunday 29^th July

Today we finally got a lie in (Yey!), but as I have got used to waking up so early I ended up waking up at the same time as usual. I made the most out of this time and had a shower; I think I’m finally getting used to not having hot water!

Today for breakfast we had a traditional bread thing with scrambled eggs and then porridge afterwards. It was actually really nice and for once no rice!

As it is Sunday and the Costa Ricans are quite religious, we didn’t have to do any work today! To fill our afternoon off Gilbert took us to a lovely beach (Playa) at Nosaro. On the way Gilbert pointed out a foot bridge over a river, it was only built four months ago by Gilbert. Because during September time the area gets flooded really bad, this new bridge means that the children can still get to school even if the roads are flooded.

At the beach we found a lovely spot underneath a little shelter. Also at the beach Holly realised that she had quite a few small ticks on her legs (First ticks of the trip!). In total she had around 6 ticks but Cliff managed to remove them with some tweezers from the first aid kit. At the beach we played in sea, watched the surfers, played cards and Jenny collected hundreds of shells. (Ed. I think US customs are going to have fun! J)

At around 2, when we had decided we were hungry Gilbert took us to a pizzeria on the way home.  I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t had a pizza in what feels like forever, but that tasted like the best pizza I had ever eaten! By the end every plate was clean and everyone seemed much happier.  (Ed. No sign of any monsters lol)

Back at Gilbert’s house we had a group meeting to discuss rest and relaxation details, we still can’t decide between a canopy tour, white water rafting or a wildlife walk. We also talked about our arrangements for the night before we travel home, it seems weird that were talking about this already but we’re already about half way through our expedition.

After the meeting we packed our rucksacks in preparation for travelling back to San Jose, after being here for about a week I think I’m going to miss it. I’m especially going to miss the nice beds and good food.

For tea that night we had chicken, chips, rice and an egg omelette. I presumed the omelette would be made with chicken eggs but I just found out that it was actually made out of turtle eggs, I’m sort of glad that I did eat it because now I can say that I’ve tried turtle eggs but I still think eating them is a bit gross.

After tea the man selling the jewellery from the other day came back to give us all our orders, he also engraved them for us for free. To thank us before he left he held a prize draw for 2 free necklaces Ellie and Leah were the winners. (Ed. It was a fix!!!!!)

As I am writing this now we are sat round a campfire enjoying biscuits and preparing for the travel day tomorrow. Everyone is enjoying themselves but we’re all missing home and can’t wait to see you all soon.

Quote of the day: We can’t remember any quotes so here’s an extract from Alex’s journal – a great night’s sleep aided by a fan, miraculous. I could sleep on it for days; I would rather carry the whole building with a working toilet system rather than my rucksack with tent.

Alice Hurren x

Monkey Trek in Ostional

Saturday 28^th July 2012.

Today we had another 5.50am wake up to clear the beach up of the driftwood, so it is easier for the baby turtles to get back to the sea after they have hatched. Considering this was our last day of doing work, we made sure we put the extra effort in so we could feel a sense of achievement and that we have really made a difference in the end. The walk back from where we had finished was really good! Looking at the amount of work we had actually done, it felt really rewarding. Once we had got back to Gilbert’s crib we had a lovely breakfast of rice, omelette and two slices of toast. Not that it’s an unusual thing to have rice for breakfast here! It’s certainly something that we will remember about the meals; having rice with breakfast lunch and tea, so parents be warned that we might crave this when we get home due to this difference of not having it three times a day.

At 9.30am we went for a walk to go and see some of the local monkey spots. We took our backpacks on the walk with the 3 litres of water so we could get a taste of being in the main trek, with heat and the weight; however, the walk was only for 2 hours and on our main trek we will be walking for about 7 hours a day. To see the monkeys we walked through quite a lot of overgrown greenery and a lot of bugs which made it feel like a real jungle experience. When we saw the monkeys all that you could hear from many different directions was ‘aw’ they were so cute, little black monkeys swinging from vine to vine in the trees. To be honest they were still cute even when they started throwing little sticks and fruit at us - and that says something. Now I know where the saying ‘cheeky monkey’ comes from. On the way back we went for a little walk to go and see a view of the ocean from above Ostional, which was simply beautiful. We could see the beach, the trees, all of the local’s houses and the school’s sports area. After that we walked home got a shower and  sorted all the little things out such as washing. Then had tea, and guess what we had for tea? Rice, with carbonara. Good old rice!

Tonight we had our turtle patrol, so shortly after tea the people who did the 8-10pm watch left and on their time they saw 5 turtles laying their eggs. Then after they came back the group of 10-12pm left, they also saw 5 turtles laying eggs. 12-2am saw 4 turtles laying eggs. Sorry that those times aren’t detailed, the reason for that is because I wasn’t there so I’ve just had to hear from other people. However I can give detail on the times of 2-4am because I was there. We saw 7 turtles, but one of the times when we spotted the tracks we expected it to be of a normal size (about 2ft) but then we came across something so surprising, we all actually stepped back. This turtle was around 5ft! It was enormous!  It was a Leather Back Turtle which only normally lay between November and April.  Then as we started to go near its eggs, it noticed us out of the corner of its eye and decided to turn around and shuffle towards us, and considering the size of this turtle it can move extremely fast! So as it started to come towards us, we assumed it was going to attack. It looked like something off a horror film, we all just backed away getting faster and faster, switched our lights off hoping it would forget about us and go back, but then when we turned our lights back on, there was a turtle still coming towards us so yes by that time we thought let’s leave it alone and moved on. It was actually really frightening! But after that we were all glad that we didn’t have a 6am wake up and finally had a sleep in, phew.

Quote of the day: Leah is speaking about bears “is Mr Taggart here, or is someone else talking about bears” –Alice (by the way, Mr Taggart loves bears and constantly goes on about them)

by Leah Samuels x

P.S. Can Miss Carey or any of the other parents please try and contact my mam and dad to give them the blog address. They’ll need it to see what time I arrive home as well as reading about my adventures!

Poor Mans Viagra

27^th July

Today started with another tedious 6am patrol of the beaches drift wood, making way for the mother turtles to lay their eggs along the sand. The early mornings have finally caught up to us “I was so tired I couldn’t find my armpit” as said by Stephie. But our homemade breakfast definitely lightened the mood. Pancakes.  Gilberth was very confused and took back when we all poured sugar on the savoury pancakes, which were supposed to be served with rice.

After breakfast everyone left to go back to the primary school to present gifts including balloons, skipping ropes and crayons to the children. We then went back to the high school to present a check of $500 donated by us, World Challenge, to contribute to the new cafeteria being built for the students, which will approximately cost $6000. Also with a second contribution from another World Challenge group from Sunderland visiting the school, $1000 made a massive impact to the community. The school really appreciated our help and were extremely grateful.

With the rest of the afternoon free to do as we like, everybody washed themselves and their clothes, dirty from the busy morning, and had an early lunch of amazing, homemade lasagne. We all then went to a beach half an hour away from Gilberths crib, and the only way to travel there was in his rusty truck along the bumpy dirt tracks winding through the jungle. There was room for four people inside with air conditioning and cushioned seats, and the rest outside on wooden boards, holding on the frame of the vehicle. Arriving at the beach was like arriving at paradise. Palm trees, white sand made from shells and a view of the Pacific Ocean with fisherman around the bay, in small, old boats. Cliff, Taggart, and Miss Booth all went into the ocean with 6 students and swam or snorkelled whilst others collected shells or sunbathed (or in Alice’s and Holly’s case, sat under a tree in the shade). Three hours flew past and the sunburn was starting to show on Alex and Beth while a group of us went and ventured around the bay for winning shots of the horizon. But another hour later the group returned and we all soon realised Alex and Beth were let off easy with their sun burns. Jenny and Emily were like lobsters (but are now tanned with frequent use of after sun, don’t worry parents).

Returning to Gilberths crib, everybody rinsed in the shower and gathered in the eating area for an important announcement. Turtle egg shots were to be served. These consisted of one raw turtle egg and tomato salsa in a shot glass for the ladies, and a double turtle egg shots for the men. The turtle eggs have 90% protein and no cholesterol in them and are used as an aphrodisiac. “A poor mans Viagra”. And with the lack of knowledge that a “double shot for men” didn’t mean the boys should have two separate shots to themselves; every single one of them consumed a total of four turtle eggs, at the least. Me, Alice, Beth and Jenny didn’t have any eggs (for moral and preferential reasons), Ella and Jack struggled to get them down, however Leah struggled to keep it down so left it for the crabs in Gilberths eating area.

Shortly after our shots, we had our dinner prepared by Gilberths wife, consisting of a lot of carbohydrates, garlic pasta and spicy potatoes. While me, Ellie, Ella and Leah went to get ready for bed; a friend of Gilberths, who specialises in making personalised pendants, visited the seating area. Postponing our bedtime, we spent an hour looking at his designs and he took over thirty orders from the group combined for gifts and personal jewellery, which we will collect and pay for on Sunday. Nine o’clock soon arrived and everyone went to bed, ready for a new day of collecting drift wood.

Quote of the day, Beth “I only eat chicken, not any other meat, it’s because I hate them”

Sophia  Bennett x

Candle Wax Cures

26^th July

Today was again an early start, the knock on our door woke us at 5:50 and within ten minutes we were out on the beach weeding. The job was a lot harder than you would expect but after an hour or so we headed back to Gilberth’s place for breakfast, Gilberths wife had prepared some rice for us and also some porridge water to drink... It was interesting.

Gilberth is a very prominent member of the community so around about 10 o’clock he took us for a tour around the whole of Ostional which is only actually 6km from one side to the other so we were only out for an hour. We then had a few hours to relax and it was decided that we should go for a swim! A few of us went down to the sea with Cliff, Taggart and Miss Booth and even though we could only go 20m in we still had a lot of fun, well until Ellie stood on a sea urchin. She was in a bit of pain at first but after Gilberth’s home treatment of pouring hot candle wax onto the cut and peeling it away, she was perfectly fine and happy. It was also today that we had our first major stomach upset however it was dealt with correctly so they were back to good health in no time.

Later we were sent to work, this time to collect driftwood, we did this for two reasons. The first being for our own personal use and the other reason was to clear the beach and make it easier for the turtle hatchlings to make their way to the sea safely. Although it wasn’t the most fun it was very rewarding to look back at the area and see it cleared as well as knowing we had helped, they call their project ADIO (Asociacion de Desarrollo Intergral de Ostional). After work we sat down to have tea which was rice and we also got a packet of crackers which were surprising nice. As everyone finished their meal and began to wash up the sun started to set so we all walked onto the beach to watch it together, we also took a few group photos.

As it got dark we set our bonfire alight and all sat round singing songs, not particularly well but it was a nice night, made even better by toasted marshmallows, biscuits and condensed milk. Even our hosts came to join us even though we must have looked a bit crazy with jenny leading us through a load of songs including Abba, campfire songs, Disney and any musical we could think of.  As the fire died down we went out to the beach again with Rodrigo and after walking to the end of the beach (3km away -.-) we saw nothing but on the way back we saw one turtle covering her eggs and making her way back to the sea. Whilst on the beach you can also see all the stars because the light pollution is limited here, it also allows us to see the Milky Way which is pretty damn amazing. We then went to sleep very tired in deed.

Hope everything is going good at home, missing everyone but having such a good time!

Love Emily Allen x

Ostinal - School and Community stuff

25^th July

After a very long day of travelling yesterday, we were able to get up relaxed and then find out that breakfast was going to be provided for us, which meant no cooking! The breakfast was a very nice scrambled eggs and toast.

 Shortly after 8 we went along to the school, with the other World Challenge team we met yesterday. Upon arrival we saw the school children put on a show with singing and dancing as today was a festival day. The singing and dancing was quite different to what happens at home during school days.

After the show, we went to the high school to meet with the students where the oldest students were aged 19. The lowest years had about 15 people and the last years only had 3 people in them. At 11, we had lunch which again was really nice. We had chicken and rice with a tomato salsa and tortilla chips. After lunch we went to have a game of football with the students at the school. The game was a great match and we played just like England, taking an early lead and then losing 3-1. The school closed just after the game at about 12, as it was a festival day.

We then left the school shortly after and quickly went to the shops for drinks before having a team meeting. After the meeting, we then did some washing and put up our smelly tents which was followed by going along the beach to do some weeding. The weeding wasn’t very fun as most of us were bitten by sand ants. When finished, we went back to our resting point here we had a really nice paella.

Hope all is well at home.

Danny

(Ed. The sunset from last night ....Que Bonito!