There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

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Wednesday Mar 19, 2008

Phase 2 - The Dragon Trek

After the 1st phase had finished, they quickly arranged the 2nd - I was placed on the Dragon Trek, arguably the toughest trek based in Costa Rica. It consists of a 19 day hike going through 280km of mountains, climbing a total height of 14,000m with about 30 kilos in weight to carry. To be honest, to say it was daunting was an understatement! But we prepared the food drops and packed our bags till they were fit to burst and had an evening of entertainment; a bbq and a huge party, which was really enjoyable. It was also my birthday - something i thought i had managed to avoid - causing one of the most embarrassing moments of having to stand upon a chair, with a cake and a hat, and have 130 people sing to me. You can probably understand why I wanted the ground to just eat me up at that point!

At half 4 that morning the mini bus took us to our location, and left us stranded there with only a compass, a map and a radio for comms. Our route consisted of going in an arch across some of the largest mountains in Costa Rica, before arriving on a deserted, untouched beach stretching for miles. The first day was through extremely dense rainforest; the experience is surreal. It is fairly dark underneath the overlying canopes, but the heat is so intense, and the physical aspect in the humidity and heat meant it was by far the hardest thing I've done. This didn't put any of us off however; we made it to our destination, but with a realisation that the next 3 weeks were to be very similar. And so they were! There were times when every person in our group really struggled, including me, but it is definately a mental barrier that you have to push through to realise your potential. The reward for climbing 5,300m in the space of 3 days was the peak of this just spectacular mountain. The peak is symbolised by a plane wing in the ground; it was where a crash happened many years ago, and is in respect of the lives lost. Which gives you an idea of how high it was. You could see for miles around; the clouds were below us, the mountains could be seen touching the horizon and you could even see where the sea met the sky. No words can explain the feeling of euphoria you recieve from these achievements, and that's what alot of the trek was like.

As we neared the beach, illness started to go around, so we decided to have a rest day at a local town, find a commuinity centre and recouparate. The locals treated us to a football match bare footed - by this time our feet had toughened up so much that any toe punt could be made without pain! We headed off early the next day, and had to put 2 days together to make up for lost time. This meant doing a 35km trek one day, which last for 14 hours. We awoke and walked in the dark, only to be still walking at 8 in the evening. By this time I had also managed to come down with an illness, which caused me unable to keep down food and general fatigue. The medic suggested I take a taxi on one of the days to allow my body to rest; being the stubborn person I am, i decided to attempt it. It was definately the hardest day of the trek, but with such amazing support from the team and also the strong desire to accomplish the day, I made it. The arrival at the beach was definately worth the wait; by this time we were tired, hungry, dirty - this didn't stop us having huge grins on our faces as we ran and dived into the warm sea, having the suns rays glisten across the white sandy beach for just miles. We had two nights there in which we set up camp and had huge bonfires, with a bbq to celebrate our acheievements. It was an amazing end to an absolutely amazing phase. I'm soon to find out my next phase, which will be community based, and I can't wait!

Posted by James ( 5:42 PM )
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