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Bec's CIWY Experience
This is one of those rare occasions where I am not sure what to say... but don't worry it won't last too long. When we arrived at the park Bondy thought we'd stay for a month, I was planning to stay for two, in the end we compromised and stayed for three.
It seemed that not much had changed in the four or so years since I had been here last especially as one of the first people I saw was a Bolivian girl whom I had been really good friends with on my last visit (she held my hand when the vet was stitching me up after Rico's first attack).
Bondy and I were both given cats walk. He a young pumita called Luna and me a grumpy 6 year
Male called Sonko.
Our job as a cat walker was a relatively simple one and a typical day went something like this:
The cat volunteers would leave the cafe around 8:30 each morning and head to their cat's cages. Once there, the cats would be taken out of their cages and put on a runner so the volunteers could clean the cage.
Between 9 -9:30am we would leave the cage and head out for the day to do whatever the cats wished (within reason). All the cats had designated trails some of their own and some which the shared with other cats. They would generally sleep for a few hours in the middle of the day and this is when the volunteers would also have lunch and a nap. After an afternoon walk we would feed the cats about 4:30pm and head back to the cafe where Nena (the park director) was often waiting with a list of jobs for us to do.
There the similarity between the cats finished they were all very much individuals with their own personalities, likes and dislikes. Roy was a 7 year old puma who liked to walk quickly or run 15-20km a day, and was constantly testing/tasting his volunteers. Tigre was a crazy little ocelot who liked to find snakes, lizards, frogs and scorpions to play with and torture all day.
Roy the big scary puma was terrified of snakes and Sonko didn't give a s*** about them. Sonko, Roy and Tigre all walked on the same side of the park and shared many of the same trails, one day towards the end of my time at the park we came across huge green and black snake dying in a creek. It was about 2 metres long and a few inches thick. It was covered in flies and puncture marks. We found out later that Tigre (not much bigger then a regular house cat) has spent the best part of 2 hours battling the monster and came away without a scratch or a nick despite being wholly entwined in its coils for most of that time. The snake was found dead the next morning in the creek.
Sonko is a 6 years old puma who arrived at Parque Machia at the age of seven months. He is a little grumpy, a little flabby, sometimes smart, quite lazy and very affectionate. He made noises like a duck and pulled faces like an otter. I spent the entire 3 months hanging out with him and it was awesome.
I guess it took us about a month to really understand each other, by that I mean I could tell when he was in a frisky mood and stop him jumping on me and so he didn't try to jump on me all the time. His grumbling and tantrums became just as endearing (sort-of) as the times when he was being cute and affectionate.
If it was hot he didn't walk much, preferring to lie down at one of his favourite spots, when it was cooler or wet he would walk much faster and on the rare occasion that there was a torrential down pour he wouldn't get off his bed (didn't like getting his paws wet).
He was the only cat who always ate all of his dinner.
If the volunteer walking second fell behind a bit or he couldn't see them he would stop and wait for them mewing like a duck then rub his head on their legs when they caught up. He loves a scratch under the chin and would purr like a kitten when he wanted some affection. He would lie down often on the trails and lick himself, my arm or my face. He was also a bit of a grumpy cat and would hiss and growl and throw tantrums often for no reason at all and always in the morning when we started down the long trail.
Sometimes he would fall asleep with his tongue hanging out or on his back with his arms crossed, sometimes he had little cat dreams. He liked to sniff and lick the tortoises that lived in the jungle.
When he ran his fat sack would swing from side to side (he put on a little weight in the last few years after he had been de-sexed).
He liked eating grass but liked it better if I sat down next to him and picked the grass piece by piece and fed it to him. His poo smelt like cabbage, it was gross!
The best times with him were in the morning when we walked to the cage, as we got close we would call out to him and he would answer with his little duck noises. He would then want to be patted for a few minutes before we could get him out of his cage.
In the afternoons he was adorable. When we got back to the cage he would want to have a rest by himself so we would go and sit in the hammock. When he was ready he would come up to where we were sitting and make duck noises until one of us got up to pat him and then some more as if to say "where's my dinner". If I ran my fingers down his back he would hug me with his tail. Sometimes he would hide in the bushes around his runner area or on the trail and try to pounce on one of us. If my back was turned or I wasn't paying attention to him he would also try and jump me.
It was very hard to leave him, and would have been harder but for Dana, the volunteer who was taking over. He was good with Sonko and they got along well.
There were of course many, many other animals at the park. 30 spider monkeys, about 400 capuchins (some in cages or on cords but most were free in the park), countless squirrel monkeys, 14 tejons (similar to a racoon I guess with a tail that stuck straight into the air, a long snout and long pointy teeth; they dealt out bites requiring stitches at least once every two weeks, sometimes more), 3 tyras (which are a relative of the otter and the weasel and look something like a cross between the two but about a metre long). There were also roughly about 150 parrots which were all hilarious as they loved yelling, singing and swearing at everyone.
Damien and I had a favourite his name was Sean and he just loved hanging out on your shoulder nibbling your ear and trying to sing (he was terrible).
Last but not least was Balu the Spectacled Bear, was often spotted wrestling with his volunteers on the lawn in front of the tourist office.
New animals arrived weekly, usually capuchins and parrots. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America so animal welfare was not high on the priority list and it was very depressing to see the state of the animals as they arrived ( we even had monkey's coming in the mail!!). It was rewarding to see them start to improve the longer they were at the park.
About a week into our stay the Volunteer Co-ordinator, Matt and Nena the Park Director called me into the office for a chat. I thought s***, what have I done!! We haven't even unpacked our stuff properly yet. Fortunately I wasn't in trouble, Matt was due to leave soon and they needed a new Volunteer Co-ordinator. I thought it sounded like fun and as most of you know I don't have a hard time telling people what to do so I said "sure no worries".The job sounded big, but simple enough; know who was leaving and when as well as what the needs of all the animals in the park in order to allocate the new volunteers job. Then make sure they were doing what they were supposed to.
In addition I was responsible for everyone's accommodation in town, I was the liaison between Nena and the volunteers (funny really, as most of the volunteers spoke more Spanish then I did) and I had to look after the finances coming into the park.
I soon found out that a better title for the job would have been adult babysitter/answerer of stupid questions/listener to many people whinging.
For a bunch of adults who managed to get themselves half way around to the world and then find an animal refuge tucked away in the Bolivian jungle, a surprising number were quite bereft of common sense.
I can't say I enjoyed it all the time, my day started at 7am as I had to make sure everyone was sober(ish) and started work on time and I often didn't finish with the new volunteer inductions until 8:30 that night (anyone want one I know it off by heart and will only take about an hour and a half).
I am not going to say anymore about all the s*** volunteers (there were many) because I get mad again and break our new laptop.
Instead I will tell you that we met loads brilliant people, who have become great friends and who made getting up every morning much easier. There are too many to name them all but, if any of you are reading this thank you, thank you, thank you we miss you all, all the time.
One person does rate a mention. Adam was the Australian U18 and U21 kickboxing champion from 'The Shire', a great volunteer and a consummate practical joker who claimed to be 'unget-able'. After about two weeks Bondy and Rob started plotting their revenge (it took them another two weeks to come up with something).When they finally did get him back it was priceless. They planned it so well that they managed to get most of it in film so we could watch it again and again (which we did), and it was just as funny to hear him tell everyone about it later.
One of the worst things that can happen at the park is if one of the cats gets free. Because Adam was always running late it was easy for Mick and Rob to go to the cage before he got there and take Roy for a walk, making it look like someone had broken into the cage and stolen/released him. It went off without a hitch. Everyone was in on it and played their parts well. Bondy is sitting next to me chuckling to himself about it.
It doesn't sound that funny when I write it down, but as soon as the footage is on You Tube I'll let you know. We are going to catch up with him and his girlfriend Dani in the north of Peru. Adam is already plotting his revenge.
Outside of 'work' hours our time was taken up deciding what to eat, waiting at least an hour for whatever it was we ordered, eating, drinking and making costumes from whatever we could find in town or in the jungle for our weekly Saturday night dress up party. Every now and again someone would cook a huge meal for whoever was around (about 15-20 people). There were often poker tournaments and the occasional trivia night was a blast.
I could probably write a book about our 3 months at Inti Wara Yassi, but don't really have the time or the inclination so I will leave it there except to say that this is a brilliant organization but it needs help, both physical, logistical and financial. Currently the biggest threat to the Parque Machia is the road (and the bureaucracy and politics surrounding it) that is being built straight through the middle of it. The planned route will render 95% of the animals homeless.
The most obvious solution is to move the animals to one of the other parks. However the local council is currently claiming ownership of the animals because they own the park lands; makes sense huh!? They also have designs on the park and are constantly trying to get us kicked out so they can take over and turn it into a zoo. Some of the most abused animals we have had in the park came from zoos around Bolivia so that is clearly the worst case scenario.
So we have to fight it out. At the height of the conflict in September volunteers were sitting in front of bulldozers to prevent them from entering the Monkey Mirador. This is an important part of the park where capuchin's learn to be more independent and are released into the jungle.
For the moment the road is on hold by presidential decree (we had a lot of media attention in Bolivia) until after the wet season and with the on-set of the wet season there will be little/no progress until about March next year.
If you have any ideas or suggestions please don't hesitate to write. If you would like to donate money to the park, it is most needed at Jacq Cusi the newest park currently under construction near Rurrenabaque. Check out the website if you want more info, or drop me a line.
Stay tuned for more from Damien
- comments
Sally McLean Hi Bec, I ran into Mum & Dad on Sat and they told me all about your blog --- it's fantastic! What a great story you write and what a truly amazing experience you have had. Good on you - I am truly envious. All well on the McLean front - Charlie has one more year of Engineering at Syd Uni, Carina has just finished working in Syd & is coming home to be a full time farmer. Mum & Dad look great - it was wonderful for me to catch up with them after it has been a while. Love to you and Bondy - stay well, Sall
Thys There are so many things you write about Sonko that lets me think about my time with Luna! I hope Damien writes sone about his time with Luna!!!!