Take a walk on the wild side.

I haven't blogged in a few days. It's been a very, very busy time.

The Home Country Volunteer Managers arrived last week. I walked into the staffroom and they were listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was such a relief to have people around who like rock music! We had a really good chat about bands. It turned out they'd never heard of Thin Lizzy. I promptly put on Jailbreak, and all was well. Exchange of cultural knowledge is very important.

The rest of the Volunteer Managers arrived the following day. I knew quite a few of them from the development weekend back in November, so there were many handshakes and hugs, and it was nice to finally meet people that I'd chatted to on our Facebook group.

The next couple of days was made up mostly of training, from medical to radio communication. Oh, and acting out the health and safety document...

Friday night I was shattered, but there was a night out planned in Turrialba. I wasn't going to go, but I knew if I didn't I'd just spend the night with my face in a computer, and I needed to get out for a bit. Within five minutes of arriving, a Jagermeister was consumed, so there was no way it was going to go uphill from there. I drank rum to make me more pirate, decided the barmaid would love Birmingham, and the night ended with a mojito...

Mojito Classico, made with both light and dark rum. Arrr!

Next day, we set off for jungle camp. Two days without internet access. Scary stuff. On treks like this, it's important to put your valuables in a canoe bag so they don't get wet.

The trek to the campsite for our first night took us through the sugar cane fields, where Mario, one of the Home Country Volunteer Managers, took a stalk of cane and showed us how we could peel it to munch on it for an instant, intense sugar rush.

Part of the task involved completing a risk assessment of a bridge with a thirty foot drop below. By chance, a couple of locals crossed it while we were there...

Crazy stuff.

We set up camp on a football pitch on a mountain.

And woke up to this...

We then made our way to jungle camp, where I found a clue to what I came to Costa Rica for!

Everybody walk the dinosaur!

Shit had just got real! I suspected a bipedal herbivore, possibly maiasaura.

We set up our night's accommodation.

And shat in the long drop.

After more training and the like, we were brought beer to drink by the campfire, which made me ever so happy! After sleep, it was back to Fieldbase, put the gear away, and we had the loveliest showers in the world ever. After even more training about cultural awareness and personality types within teams from the Myers-Briggs model, we had some free time. For me to catch up with corporate blogging.

Having previously asked for a translate button to make the corporate blog go Spanish, and having been told that I'd be sent a little piece of code to do such witchcraft, I'd had an email saying they changed their mind and wanted to continue to have both English and Spanish on the same page. Turning it into a positive, I decided that getting somebody to translate it instead of a button would give a more accurate translation anyway, and I could have a bash at translating stuff myself, in an effort to extend my Spanish beyond 'hot girl' and 'two beers please'.

After dinner, the project allocations were announced, basically saying which Project Manager would be going where. It was also announced that I'd be joining the Project Managers for the project planning visit for the environmental project at La Congreja National Park. Adventure! Yeah, I can hang there for a bit.

There's been a lot going on over the past few days. It's been great getting to know the team. On a personal level, I was very excited and proud to see my corporate blogs getting lots of likes, shares and comments from the Raleigh Facebook page. It's exactly the type of bragging rights I need for my job hunt when I get back to the UK: high engagement levels with web content I created for a global organisation.

The personality types part of today was interesting. It got me thinking about the difficulties in my last job, and how a bit of consideration for contrasting personality types in an organisation should be a good idea. I couldn't help but think of it in terms of marketing. I think the people that get by with careers in marketing are from ESTJ type, but the marketers who are revolutionary and forward thinking who are on top of change are from the INFP type. Obviously, with some overlap, but that's basically what I think.

Anyway, enough. I have beer to finish and a bed to sleep in.

And I'm far, far away.

Yesterday morning, I felt a bit bunged up. I put the Costa Rican equivalent of Vicks VapoRub on the balls of my feet, put on my shoes and socks, and it cleared right up. An odd tip from Marc the Medic, but there you go.

I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to do any more driving. Disappointing but not surprising, but it's not like getting told I'm now in N-Dubz or that I'm now a journalist for the Daily Mail. Let's keep some perspective here.

We were sent off on a small road trip to a couple of sights near Turrialba all by our lonesome, in two Land Rover Defenders. It pissed rain. First place we had to visit was the Guayabo National Monument, which I could tell you about, but why bother when they have a website? If the roads needed to get there are representative of the roads needed to get to projects, I'm pretty happy not driving, and not being responsible for people's safety, and looking out the window taking in as much of the magnificent scenery as possible. The site had a touch of the Jurassic Park about it.

It also had some ants working super-hard, doing their ant thing.


And it had a pretty badass archaeological site.

Our second thing to find was a waterfall with no name and no road signs, with the concluding comments of the directions we received going something along the lines of 'There's no point in calling us if you get lost. Everything looks the same so we won't be able to tell where you are.' Challenge accepted.

With some wrong turns, scouting walks, interrogating locals, constant communication, and a quick break for myself and Marc the Medic to get to know each other better...

I'll be disappointed if he doesn't call me. Picture courtesy of Rich.

...we finally found a waterfall. It was a very pretty waterfall.

It had ginger growing next to it. It looks nothing like what I get in the supermarket.

And apparently these are bananas?

Pink and furry? Definitely not EU regulation bananas.

Somebody decided to try a path in the opposite direction, where we found the waterfall and its beautiful surroundings, which were straight out of Jurassic Park.

Picture courtesy of Rich.

We obviously became overwhelmed by the beauty of our surroundings and the excitement of being let out by ourselves, because the pool at the bottom of the waterfall somehow became full of Advance Team!

Picture courtesy of Lucy.

And here I am, stood by a waterfall, in my boxers, looking very pleased with myself.

Picture courtesy of Tess.

I won't pretend I didn't feel like a skank, coming home with my underwear in my pocket.

It was a fun day. I liked going through the forest to find the waterfall. It felt like an exploration, exactly what I'm here for in many senses of the word. It was a great team bonding experience. Everybody played some role in the excursion and there was much banter. It was much needed by us all.

Today has been much more restrained. I tried to give a tutorial about blogging this morning, so people can still update the corporate blog if I'm out on project. Unfortunately, explaining such a thing is boring as hell, I hate teaching stuff, and the website was broken and wouldn't save what I'd done, when I'm already behind on my blogging. On a positive note, I finally had time to finish the tasks set for this week in terms of my role. Yay!

All kicking off.

It's been a few days since I blogged. Things have been very busy and I've been very tired.

Saturday morning I got to drive one of the Land Rover Defenders, and spent most of the rest doing work stuff. It turns out that creating a Gantt chart is loads more enjoyable when you do it in Costa Rica, for something you're passionate about.

Gantt charts made easy by a nice view from your workspace window.

On Sunday I was on cooking duty with Julie-Anne. We ventured to the local supermarket with our no Spanish where as well as proper food, I picked up these, for about £3, as opposed to the £7.50 they cost in Selfridge's in Brum.

I had to go for a session of off-road driving, where I got stung by a bug which caused a great deal of pain and a return to Fieldbase.

After successfully introducing the team to my legendary spud chili, I was told that my driving wasn't confident enough for long road trips, but that I'd be able to drive as far as Turrialba and get some practice in and then maybe review it again. It was disappointing but not surprising - I only drive twice a year when I'm at home, so taking on a big ass 4x4 on the wrong side of the road in a country where I don't speak the language is a bit iffy.

With the swimming having not gone very well and the driving having not gone very well, I was determined to do my blog for the Raleigh website well. After fighting with accessing the blog, then fighting with the formatting, I was made aware that the CMS just sucks. If the formatting doesn't look right, the only way to make sure it's right is to save it, check it, amend it, save it, check it etc etc until it's right. Ballache. With a bottle of beer and KISS playing from my tablet, it was finally done! So much yay! Here it is!

There was a trip planned to San José this morning, and I was told that I could come as a passenger, come and just drive for the last part of the journey around Turrialba, or not come at all. Keen to get practice in, I opted to drive for the last part of the journey. The road is mad winding and it was proper scary shit because it's a big ass mountain with valleys and ravines and if you're not careful, you're dead. Nobody died.

Back at Fieldbase, I saw that head office had posted my blog on their Facebook page, so they didn't think it was shit, and it had a lot of likes and comments, which was lovely. A few of my colleagues here on the Advance Team said it was really good. Nice and positive buzz!

This afternoon I tried to get on top of my corporate blogs - get some ideas together and put together at least a framework for some of the ideas. I'd been told that I needed to stockpile some blogs because it'll be very busy when the rest of the Volunteer Managers arrive. If only I could get a chance to do so.

That's kind of it. I've been too busy to have any deep reflections of stuff.

Time for bed.

Take my car and drive real far.

I can't believe it's taken this long to use Oasis lyrics as a title.

After going to bed at about 10pm last night, I woke up just after 6am this morning. I got up shortly after and went for a run and some exercises and stretches. After a quick shower and porridge, it was time for the morning meeting at 8.30am.

Those of us who want to drive Raleigh's Land Rover Defenders on expedition have to go through a driving training and assessment course over the next few days to make sure we don't crash or kill anyone, which today took up the entire morning.

Our chariots!

We had a flying tour of Turrialba, which moved too quickly to take photos of anything fun, but here's a picture of some kittens in a window.

Kittenz. #justchillin

And here's a quick panoramic from waiting on the taxi.

After a quick return to Fieldbase to change, we headed back in to Turrialba for dinner and some beers.

One downside to this is that we're so busy, some of us aren't sure if we're getting the real Costa Rica. We're not really getting the chance to sit and just appreciate our surroundings and what we're undertaking. When we were in Turrialba, we were being herded about, not much time to take things in, and the locals staring at us pale-faces.

To Turrialba! And beyond!

We set off from the hostel at 6am to get the bus to Fieldbase in Turrialba at 6.30am. It was a two hour journey. I fell asleep shortly after we set off through San José's rundown streets, and woke up half an hour later to stunning scenery.

We got taxied to a local café, where we were served a traditional Costa Rican breakfast.

A full Costa Rican. 

From there it was about a 20 minute walk to Fieldbase, where we were shown our sleeping quarters, Fieldbase itself, and our work areas.

Our crib.

Our workplace. 

My office. Please knock before you enter.

We then had a swimming assessment, which I failed to complete, and which I'm indifferent to. Yesterday was my first time in a swimming pool in five years, and I just really splashed about a bit. Unfortunately, there was no splashing about element to the swimming assessment, and two lengths, followed by treading water for two minutes, followed by six more lengths was very much beyond me. I lasted about 30 seconds into treading water. My next tattoo will either say 'Landlubber' or 'Keep your damn water'. At least there was some pretty views on the walk back from the pool.

Back to Fieldbase for lunch, and then team briefings began, and Splatches, the Fieldbase dog introduced herself.

The communications team briefing was fine. The in-country team went through what was expected of us. No problem!

And here's Wanky, the Fieldbase cat.

Wanky may not actually be his name, but for our simple tongues it will do.

Having spoken to more people about what led them to Raleigh, redirection seems to be a recurring theme. It's like Raleigh is a reset button for whatever has been going on.

We've just had dinner, and now it's time for bed. It's been a long and eventful day.

Goodbye San José. For now.

There really isn't much to say about today. I went back to the music store to buy plectrums. Can't believe I forgot them yesterday!

Felt a bit cultural so went to a museum in the city centre. That was kind of interesting. The museum was established by the national bank who wanted to preserve history and stuff, so made this glorious fancy-pants museum underground. It's possibly sad that I found the history of the museum and its construction the most interesting part.

On my way in I found what I thought was a congregation of the San José Mayo Supporters Club.

Turns out it was just some political candidate's thing to rouse public support or whatever. Pffft.... I like my story better.

In the museum, I took a picture of boobs:

Boobs.

I was also pleased to see that Costa Ricans had a similar fixation with death to the Irish:

Ancient Costa Rican dude getting some other dude ready to be shoved in the ground.

Came back to the hostel and splashed about the pool for the first time. I've not been in a swimming pool in about five years, so this was a big deal for me. Apparently I looked so happy. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

Julie-Anne from the logistics team arrived, and Keiner and Blue from the Raleigh International in-country team arrived. We sat by the pool we drank, we went for dinner we came back to find Chris from the logistics team waiting for us, and now it's time for bed.

Pretty boring day compared to others really.

Now that there's more people here though, it's been interesting to find out what's brought people here, not just in the sense of "I have to write profiles about people", but because I'm quite clear about what led me here, so I find it interesting to hear other people's stories and motivations.

I've also learned that once you book a hostel dorm for people, you are their Dad.

We've to be out of this hostel for the bus to Fieldbase at 6am. Things are about to get very hectic, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have for personal blogging.

You'll hear from me when you hear from me!

Some tongue action.

This morning Marc the Medic arrived, and himself, myself and Sarah went for brunch. We went to the market in San José city centre, and saw tongue sandwich on the menu. Sarah dared me to order it. No problem. I ate guinea pig and cow's heart when I was in Peru. It didn't specify anywhere what animal the tongue had come from, but hey, let's not nit pick. Adventure time!

It looks so unassuming. The meat was actually very tender, and a bit fatty in parts. We had a bit of a meander around the shops, played pool back at the hostel, and then myself and Marc went on adventure to a music shop.

I'd been told there was an acoustic guitar at Fieldbase, so I wanted to get a couple of bits like strings and a capo. This is all no bother for me to do in English, but I was undaunted about going into a shop to try and do it in a Spanish-speaking country, because I knew the international language of Pointing would see me through. In the shop, a member of staff saw my Raleigh International t-shirt, and was very friendly, because it turned out he'd been on expedition with Raleigh three years ago! He was very helpful, and told us how much he enjoyed the expedition, and that it was very hard work, but that he'd like to do another one someday. He was extra-friendly when I told him I was Irish. That earned me a handshake. Seriously, everybody loves the Irish. We're awesome. He tried to give me a guitar, but it had so many parts missing, it would have taken so much time and money for parts to make useable again, it just wasn't worth it. Very nice of him to offer though, and he gave me some colones off the total cost of what I was buying, which was already about a fiver less than what I'd pay in the UK. And yes, I did check how much a Gibson Les Paul cost. It was about 700GBP cheaper than the UK.

In the music store, I found the oddly comforting sight of a good West Midlands brand.

Then we sat by the pool and drank beer. In the supermarket buying beer, I spotted these.

Baileys flavoured cream for coffee. Everything else I've seen so far can be passed off as 'Central American', but this can only be described as random. Probably the most random thing I've seen since I got here.

Pizza Hut for dinner, had a nap, and later on some more Raleigh people arrived who we greeted with beer. We got Jennie the Medic, Tess the Photographer, Laura the Administrator, and Lucy the Logistics Manager.

Somebody said I was Mr. Organised, a statement that I know would leave a certain former employer very confused. More than likely I'm organised when I'm working on something that excites me and that I believe in.

A couple of people have mentioned about Raleigh being our family for the next three months. I hadn't really thought of it that way. Sharing the dorm in the hostel with five other people, made me realise that working in the UK and living by myself, three months is a hell of a long time to be around the same group of people.

The wi-fi in the hostel is broken. This makes me sad. I've actually had to double-check the spelling of everything on this post because I'm writing it on one of the hostel's desktops, with a wonky Spanishified keyboard. It also means the hostel has none of the things that made it so appealing - no bar, no restaurant, and no wi-fi. Down with that sort of thing.

Tomorrow, we'll be met at the hostel by somebody from Raleigh, and expedition pretty much officially starts. The end of days sitting by the pool drinking beer is nigh.

A far from manic Monday.

How was your Monday?

I had a super-busy morning! I spoke to Ma Fitzgerald through the wonder that is Viber, and I washed the clothes that I'd worn on a the journey over, because they smelled pretty bad. But I didn't have a tumble dryer. But my room has a random open air bit through some sliding doors, that measures about three metres by three metres and I MacGyvered a washing line. Good innit?

When I'm looking for work after expedition and they're looking for somebody who can do "creative problem solving", I'm just going to show them this picture.

I met up with Sarah and we set off to find somewhere to get breakfast. This is the view from the street outside the hostel.

We found ourselves in the centre of San José, where we learned that when they say there's ham in an omelette, they really do not skimp on the ham. We also learned that the Costa Rican coffee is as good as people say.

Other lessons included:

In San José, if you have a shop that sells surfing gear, a picture of a wave is sometimes not good enough, and sometimes you just need to make a wave out of concrete sticking out of your shop.

There are cute puppies in Costa Rica too.

A beer by the pool with the sun shining really is lovely.

Also, Costa Rican women are mostly hot. No pictures for that lesson. Let's not be creepy here.

We set off for food later that evening and ended up at a place with karaoke, which I'm not a fan of, but they had pizza and a pitcher of beer for 8500CRN (about 10.38GBP), so I let them off.

I had sourced an Irish bar before I arrived, and the main one is only about five minutes walk from the hostel. It was my duty as an Irishman to visit the establishment in question, and undertake a QAT (quality assurance test) on its Guinness.

I know. It looks like a badly poured bottle of Guinness. That's because it is. Even though it's been through one of those vibrator things that's supposed to make it right. It has achieved a D grade in its QAT. The only reason it didn't fail is because people who don't know anything about Guinness will still appreciate it, but in terms of pour, texture, flavour and general character, it was poor.

And now it's time to sleep.

Do you know the way to San José?

So, I've finished the first part of my journey. The physical journey anyway.

The taxi was booked to bring me to the airport at 3am, and right up until then was spent cleaning my pigsty of a house, because my parents said they'd be visiting while I was away. Too. Much. Awesome.

The taxi driver told me all about how unhappy he was in his marriage, and then after a falling out with the self-service check-in, I dumped my rucksack and went for a breakfast and a pint. I wanted one last full English and a nice pint of English ale, because I knew it'd be some time before I'd get them again. I was pleased that they had Mad Goose on. Yay!

Breakfast and a pint of Mad Gooose. A good start to adventure!

First flight was to Amsterdam. I slept from before the safety bit until we landed. I might have been tired. I had a half hour to kill, so what better to do than track down a nice pint of Heineken. And what did they have at the airport for serving Heineken, but Murphy's Irish pub.

Then was the flight to New York. It was pretty uneventful. I slept, I finally watched The Anchorman and Iron Man 3, I landed. Then I queued. I queued about an hour for border control people and then another half hour for security for my next flight. I spotted a litre bottle of Jameson on the way to my gate. I stopped to get it. I asked how much it cost. $32 they said. I told them I'd take it. They asked what flight. I told them San José. But apparently you can't shop an hour and a half before a flight. What had I spent an hour and a half doing in JFK? Queuing! Bastards!

Cheerio JFK!

Got to San José and they had a shop at the airport coming out of arrivals. $24 for a litre bottle of Jameson. Got 200 Marlboro Gold to go with it, which cost another $22. #winning

Got a shuttle bus provided by the hostel from the airport. There's a little man with a bunch of signs, rounding up groups of people for the different hostels, so if you're doing something like this, keep a couple of dollars on you. It served a few hostels in the chain. I was chatting to an English girl on the bus, and, you know when you're talking to someone and you know they're clearly only there for the cocaine? That.

Anyway, got to my hostel, got checked in and stuff, went out for a smoke, and the receptionist said somebody else from Raleigh had arrived. I told him to tell her to give my door a knock. It was Sarah the Logistics Manager. We went for food and beer, and it was lovely.

There's steak under all those onions! This, and another beer after cost 5000CRN. The Internet tells me that's about 6.11GBP. That's grand.

Although not a very exciting day, it's been an important one, and it has made me consider that when the Raleigh experience is complete, I'll be more determined to get a job that pays well enough, and that will allow me the flexibility to take the time to see the world.

And now I'm typing this blog and going to bed.

It's been a long day.

Buenos noches amigos!