Spiders, wild horses and long drops

It is half seven on a Sunday night, and along with the rest of the staff in Turrialba, I have been released from Fieldbase for a couple of hours to make contact with the rest of the world. My first 5 days on Raleigh have been exhausting. Arriving at camp with a few others who I had met up with in San Jose, we were shown our 9-man army tents dripping with humidity and spiders. Wooden crates for the floor and black bin liners on top to cover the many holes. No matter how pretty we told each other we had made it with mosquito nets strung from makeshift ropes, it just didnt cut it as home. But, home it has been for us since we have been there. It has been quite an intense social and learning experience so far. We get up at half 5 and get to bed at half nine or ten. Every hour of every day is filled with lectures or practical workshops. I can now string up and tune a radio, I can recite the phonetic alphabet, I can sort out a casualty witha broken femur, carry a stretcher half a kilometer up a jungle track, cross a river with a 20kg pack on, build a basher which wont collapse half way through the night (I was nervous) and dig a long drop for 8 people which wont impact the environment. I can also survive on rice and beans 3 times a day, 5 hours sleep and no time at all to myself. It is amazing how quickly you get used to living so squalidly. 5 days ago, fieldbase seemed run down, dirty, uncomfortable and bleak. Now it feels like a 5 star hotel, having spent the last couple of days living in the mud in the jungle.

Tomorrow I am off to Conte Buricka, (sp?) on the Panamaian boader. It will take a couple of days to get there, and I go with a medic and a translator as we are going to be working within an indiginous reserve with people whose first language isnt Spanish but a language all to themselves, maybe filled with clicks and mad eye rolls, who knows. Once we get dropped off in Panama, we are met by someone whose name begins with Don...and then taken 8 or 9 hours trekking along the coast between tides, before we can climb the hill - mountain up to the reserve. Having just survived jungle camp I do feel quite prepared for this, which is great as 5 days ago I was quite keen to trip over and accidentaly cut myself on a machete, and get Casivak´ed back to the UK (Casivac is our term for Casualty Evacuation). My resolve held and I am glad. I am pretty excited about getting there and having this experience and I am getting increasingly excited about the venturers getting here and getting started.

Next update: Panama

The madness of San Jose

Well, I have arrived slightly unhinged in the mad bad city of San Jose, teeming with honking cars, open fires, hookers advertising their wares, rats, bats and a whole lot more that I am about to find out about. The journey from Quepos took 5 hours (2 more than advertised on the timetable...) but I am relieved to be in one piece having witnessed 3 car accidents on the way. Tomorrow I am meeting up with about 4 or 5 other Raleigh staff who have arrived here and we will find our way east to Turrialba, home of CATIE, the ecological research centre. Also home to a massive volcano and white water rafting river, which I think we are going to have a go at. Knowing this is the last of my ability to have luxory, I have booked into the fabulous Hotel Don Carlos, well recommended if you are heading in this direction. It is complete with complimentary cocktail, mini-rainforest and waterfall in the courtyard and the rooms are gigantic with big soft bouncy beds, which are essential given that from tomorrow onwards it is a thermarest mat for me.

The Central Pacific region of Jacos down to Dominical is absolutely stunning, few villages and fewer people, not a shop selling a postcard in sight in Matapalo, but if you like the idea of being the only person in about 4km on a beach, with a bath temperature ocean, coconut trees and thatched bars which sell ice cold Imperial beer, then it is the place to go.

I have just heard from a girl from Raleigh who is in town so am going to brave the red cabs (thanks for the taxi meter advice!!) and see what happens. As well as the last bed I will have in 3 months, tonight´s will be the last alcohol (according to Raleigh...) so I may as well make the most of it. I will try to blog again once I find out where my project site is, and hope to have lots of stories about what I am up to. Until then, asta luego...

Awed already

It is so strange to be sitting here in Central America writing my blog, but wonderful at the same time to be able to communicate like this. The photo on the right is of the Pacific at Punta Leona, on the long drive from San Jose to Matapalo. The Nicoya peninsula is the dark blue landmass on the horizon, and at the point of the peninsula, set in the crystal clear waters is a little island called Isla Coco or something equally idylic where one of the Raleigh project sites is.

The photo below is of pelicans flying over the beach. I was stunned when I first saw them but there are hundreds and hundreds of them. I have seen turkey vultures, caracaras, green parapeets, a white butterfly, a little deer and lots of bushy red squirrels, but the most awesome sight happened when we were all least expecting it.

I had been on the beach all day, bad weather, a bit of rain etc so I had been inside the canopy of the forest, reading my book. At 4, it became brighter so I went onto the hot black beach and watched the surfers for a while before joining them. I met a canadian called Lane, and we were bantering about life and then I asked if he had seen a shark. No, he replied, but he had seen a 16 foot croc in the sea by an estuary. Right. Lovely. We surfed about for a while and then seeing dad on the beach, I caught a massive wave, said hello to the green room (in my dreams) and ran up the beach to have a beer. Sitting there, watching the blue pacific waves, and my new friend Lane catching some waves, I noticed a big boat that I hadnt seen before. It just appeared out of the water right behind him, in a crest of waves that rose as the wave he was on dipped. I pointed it out to dad.

"That isnt a boat, mia cara" he said. "That is a balena."

Dropping my beer I ran back into the surf, not waving at Lane, by now the only one left in the water as I didnt want to freak him out. He surfed over to me.

"I dont want to panic you, but I think you are sharing the water with a whale"

"Yeah right." he said. But announcing he was knackered anyhow, he came out of the ocean with me. We joined dad on the beach and sat watching the waves, and sure enough it rose again, this time spouting water. It had been literally about 10m away from him when we first saw it, which also means I had been surfing pretty close to it as well. For the next half hour, this enormous creature rose and spouted water and crashed back beneath the waves again. It was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen, the locals said they had only seen a whale that close four or five times in their lives. I am just awed that I have been so close to such a rare and wild creature.

Rhineland and Reisling

Ok, well, it certainly was a surprise weekend - never in a million years would I have guessed we were off to the industrial heartland of Germany...But Frankfurt Hahn awaited us with blustery arms (90 mile an hour head winds made for a white knuckle landing) and we arrived rather ashen faced but ready to see what we could make of this interesting part of Europe.

Over the next 3 days, we explored the Mosel region of Rhineland which was most pituresque; lots of vines growing down steep banks of the Mosel river (tributary to the Rhine, don't you know) and the odd Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle nestling in the fertile hills. We discovered that most of Rhineland goes to the Alps for January, and failing to find anything open where we could eat or drink, we ended up in Luxembourg, rather weary and wondering where the party was. Inspired by the idea left by his secretary, Hugo managed to find us a very smart room at a Spa in the countryside bit of Luxembourg (for such a small country, I found it quite sweet that they've divided it into 4 regions) at Mondorf Les Bains. MORDOR more like. We had found Middle Earth or whatever scary part of the Lord of the Rings that Mordor is. Once a beautiful spa town with naturally hot water flowing out of the healing rocks, Mondorf les Bains is now a true corporate monolith with hundreds of miles of underground corridors and the ominous 'treatment rooms' with toweling robed people silently padding their way up and down, whispering in hushed tones, startled by our clothed figures. Our stay included any exercise class we felt like, and in the absence of much else to do, we signed up for pretty much everything which has left us feeling rather beasted, but definitely a lot healthier and fitter for it. Following a couple of kickboxing / Abdokiller work outs, we flopped into the SPA bit underground, where we could swim outside in 38 degree water, steam rising off the water into the cold cold night. It was rather nice until we were approached by a whale of a naked swimmer, breasts flopping about with each stroke and if that wasn't bad enough, the rest of her was naked too. It was round about then that we noticed we were the only ones wearing swimming costumes. In fact, there were 'no swimming costumes allowed' notices all over the flipping place. So, we got naked too.

We even tried going into Luxembourg for Saturday night to 'hang out' and see the City of Culture 2007 (big blue mooses everywhere advertising this). Well, for a city of Culture, it has a bit of work to do. Other than finding a very wierd performance in a theatre where a magician was hounded by a woman of goodness and a woman of evil (i.e. one dressed in black PVC the other dressed in a floppy white dress) kept putting them in boxes and cutting them in half amidst green strobe lights, outside, there was not a single person out on the streets Our footsteps echoed to the silent pulse of this very unvibrant city. It was almost as if everyone had heard that Brussels was the place to be that night and there was a 100% evacuation half an hour before we got there. Or maybe I'm just paranoid and everyone was feeling broke after Christmas and were staying in with the telly. I don't know.

So, I'm back for my last night before heading off, having forgotten to do one or two key things (e.g. notify inland revenue that I'm AWOL until May etc) and I'm feeling slightly sick at what lies ahead. I called one of the other guys on Raleigh who's landing inSan Jose half an hour after me, and after asking if I was feeling nervous, and me agreeing, he howled with a mad laugh for about ten minutes until my MD walked in and I had to hang up.

Next posting: from Matapalo (look it up on googlearth)

Besos

Mwah mwah and mystery weekends

It's a funny old world when you rush into a garage on a sunday night to get some petrol after a long drive in the pouring rain, to walk straight into an ex-date starting back at you from the front cover of Hello! (9th Jan version, essential reading if I say so myself). There he is, staring back at me, having married a stunning actress from Holby City and standing next to his long time buddy, James Blunt. Bugger. Where did I go wrong?

Having now acquired an 8 year old step child, a 'stunning cottage set in the heart of the Cotswolds' (note addendum 'which the loving couple bought soon after they met') HELLO, who on earth buys stunning cottages in the Cotswolds soon after they meet? Lets think a second, ok, friends who've invested in houses within 9 months of meeting boyfriends who are now married....yep, there is one - Mils. Aha! a theme is developing - this is clearly where I've always gone wrong. Instead of jetting off to foreign climes to save the world as a jungle bound youth worker, I should have invested in a 3 bed tumbledown cottage by Easter last year with Hugo.

Other news seems to be plentiful, following the very exciting recent engagements of Miss Lizzie and Miss Katherine; there are 9 babies due from friends of mine between March and July; one of my best friends in the world is in the heady process of falling in love (which I'd like to point out, according to my then 6 or 7 year old brother goes like this: woman finds herself walking through dark forest with pine needles cushioning the mossy path, humming gently to self & not looking where she's going. Suddenly she finds herself falling into a deep dark pit, swallowed up by the dank earth. After falling for what seems like an eternity, she is caught in the arms of the man who has been waiting for her all her life, et voila! she has just 'fallen in love'. Happy ever after. I was relived to grow up and find out I didn't need to invest in any body padding incase the man happened to be looking at his watch or something the very moment I landed. Anyhow, I divulge.

Other tremendously exciting news is that I'm being whisked away to a Top Secret Location with packing instructions that include: warm waterproof jacket, hiking boots, swimming costume, wooly jumper and thick socks. Sounds suspiciously like a weekend at home in Scotland coming up - put your bets on and I'll tell all on Monday.

So, it's all love and goey bubble wrapped hearts in the world at the moment, which is nice when the bigger picture is looking as bleak as ever: Israel preparing to nuke the living daylights out of Iran; the US launches air strikes in Somalia and tensions rising to red-alert between Japan and North Korea. It's nice to have a bit of love when everything else seems on the verge of self destruction, or MAD (jamie, are you impressed that I'm linking things again?)

One more final thought before I go back to Irvine for my third and final rabies jab, is that having recently experienced two sleepless nights where I've allowed my brain to go in circles ad infinitum I've come up with a theory on insomnia and survival of the fittest. Basically, occasionally I have insomnia quite badly - e.g. I only fall asleep after dawn. I then feel rubbish the whole of the next day and then panic the next evening that it's going to happen again. (which it hasn't yet). Insomnia is a rubbish thing to have. But, as I drive quite a bit, having insomnia adds significantly to my chances of having a crash. And if I have a crash and kill myself, then I don't pass on my insomnia, and being not one of Darwin's 'fittest', I then leave the world a healthier place. Just doing my bit.

I did have more to write, but I'm feeling the love, and have to go and pack my wee bag for my mystery weekend now. As for Oli and Miss Holby City, massive congratulations to them and I really hope it's not the last time I read about friends and ex boyfriends getting hitched in glossy magazines - you should try it -it really puts a smile on your face.

So long Jimmy

It's been a while since my last entry, mainly because I've been nowhere near a computer over the last fortnight and I've had little to blog. But, with 12 days or so to go, I'm getting ground rush and all of a sudden it's going to be 'so long jimmy' and 'hola costa rica'.

Christmas and New Year were great -lots of balls (the New Club ball in Edinburgh - good views from the balcony...Oban ball with Kate, Phil, Maryn, Catherine and Peter - so good to see some good friends), a wedding in Loughborough, snowboarding in Tamworth Snow Dome (hilarious) dying my blonde hair quite a dark wintery brunette, (not quite sure why - I only went in for a cut but the girl was quite persuasive..); lots of wedding chat with my big brother who's marrying one of my best friends in September :-) and finding out my little brother has beaten me to it by flying off to Costa Rica for Christmas with dad.

'Costa Rica for Christmas with Dad'...did I mention that dad lives out there? Maybe not... Well, there you go, he does. I fly out on 16th Jan (tues after next) to stay with him for 8 days in the Manuel Antonio National Park, amidst a small collection of Italian expats. On the 23rd Jan we're heading back to San Jose where I'm meeting my 07B Raleigh International group at the airport sometime in the afternoon. Back to the group therapy, I can't wait... Going out early should be quite a good way of acclimatising and getting my ear used to Spanish before throwing myself into the expedition, and hopefully I'll pick up a bit of a tan, dye my hair back to blonde, and maybe manage to avoid the sharks and get some surfing in as well.

Here's my Raleigh address - all letters especially public notices welcome (big congrats to lizzie and KK by the way)

Expedition 07B
Raleigh International
Apartado Postal 17
Codigo Postal 7170
CATIE
Costa Rica

Over Christmas with time to think, I have decided that my current plan (I say 'current' with self awareness) is to move to Edinburgh, rather than back to Ayrshire, once I get back. I've also ruled out london on the basis that I'm not quite ready to come back yet. I'll carry on working at Taylor McKenzie (a relief not to have to job hunt as soon as I get back) but having tried living in the middle of nowhere, when I get back in May I'll be ready for some city living once again.

When I get back, it's going to be time to get my career back on track, start racing again (NY Marathon 2007 is definitely on the horizon, hopefully for Alzheimer's Research) and swoosh around in cocktail bars people watching. I miss people, shops, interaction, being busy, being pulled in all directions, having lots to do and people to be with. The problem with living in the middle of nowhere (albeit on a beautiful country estate), is that you lose everything that you did before you moved there, simply because in the middle of nowhere, it's not there anymore.

I have missed the entertainment of life over these last few winter months. Scotland is the best small country in the world in the summer, but quite a tough place to be if you're in a rural area in the depths of winter. (I say depths of winter, but really, the winter has only just begin).

But now with 12 days to go, one rabies injection left and a couple of last minute things to pack, I have the feeling I am about to go through the next loop de loop of the roller coaster that is my life.