The past 2 weeks have been busy at the park. We're in the second phase of construction, the locations for the cages have been cleared and the ditches and holes for the posts have been dug. This week volunteers are working on cementing the posts so hopefully it wont rain too much! We were able to buy all of the supplies needed although some of them took longer than expected to arrive. We spent an antire morning with the whole camp carrying rocks and sand to Koru´s cage! Luckilly Sarah and I convinced Karen (an old volunteer who came back the park to work with Leo) to take over construction when we leave. Working with Leo the past two weeks has been great. Im really glad that I had the opportunity to swich cats before I left the park. Ill be posting some photos of the construction work soon when I have acess to faster internet!
Showing posts with label volunteering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volunteering. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Fundraising!
For the past week Sarah, Emily, and I have been fundraising at the park. A few of us are probably not coming back here for awhile and we wanted to take on some sort of construction project before we left. There is so much that the park needs and although we all can donate money when we go home you still need volunteers at the park to make it happen. After debating what was needed most we chose to build new cages for Koru (a young puma) and Mariano (a small Brazilian jungle cat). We picked projects that we could realistically raise the funding for and complete within a month before we leave the park. Things have been going great! We have been making breakfast and desserts every night for volunteers to purchase and it has been a big hit. We also held an auction where people could bid on things like a 45 minute massage, a romantic dinner for two, and having your laundry done by another volunteer. We also convinced two of the guys to wrestle in the compost (gross!) to benefit the auction which raised 1000BS alone. So, today Sarah and I are in Santa Cruz to buy all of the fencing and tools we will need to build the cage. We raised over 10,000BS in just over a week which is about 2/3 of what we need altogether! We are going to continue the fundraising and hopefully we´ll be able to purchase the rest of the materials soon. Volunteering at the park is awesome, but you don't always know whats going to happen in the future to the animals you work with. We all hope that the next volunteer to work with your cat will to their best but it will be great to contribute something that will permanently improve their lives. Koru was brought to the park in an emergency, when he was discovered tied to a dumpster living on a military base and since the park didn't have any room he was temporarily put in a very small cage intended for birds or small animals. Mariano has been at the park for a year, but since he is not a large cat he has not always had a permanent volunteer when numbers are low. Unfortunately he has been living in the quarantine area for all this time and he is often switched into a smaller cage to accommodate new animals coming to the park. Now he will have a decent size permanent enclosure. Anyone who wants to help can send a donation by mail! We will be fundraising for about one more week. Since everything here is purchased in Bolivianos a donation of just $5 is equal to 35BS :)
On another note, I'm switching cats. Im really excited because tomorrow I get to go back to Leo! Unfortunately, the reason I'm switching is because Engine jumped me pretty violently. He got my arm when he jumped and by chance he got quite close to an artery so it was bleeding a lot. I'm fine now but it was a bit scary. Regardless, they decided his previous volunteer would switch back onto him because he is becoming more difficult to work with. Marc may have more success anyways because sometimes the male cats respond better to male volunteers. It will be awesome to get to work with Leo again for my last few weeks :D Jane Goodall is visiting the park next week too! There´s a short article on the CIWY website about her visit. We took a half day to do construction projects for her arrival and I helped paint all of the dorms which was a fun and they look great!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Fire Fighting
The protest was a huge sucess. A bunch of people stayed an extra night to talk to the press the next morning and Evo (the president of Bolivia) declared his support for stopping the building of the road. This is a great acomplishment but the campesinos are determined to continue so right now the volunteers at Machia are literally sitting in front of the machines so they cant move forward. There is a lot going on at Ambue Ari too. The fires have started, which means that everday we are working on lengthening the fire trail (lots of raking and macheting). The farmers here start fires to burn land for crops and last year a huge section of the park burned because they dont control the fires once they start them. They arent huge forest fires like we have in the US but they are still dangerous even thought they are slow burning and close to the ground. Apparently the fire trail should create a break in the land and prevent any more of the park from burning. I went out to see Ru (one of the jauguars) the other day here is one of the photos I took. He´s awesome!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Surprise visit to Santa Cruz
Today 12 of us volunteers decided to accompany Noemi (the park coordinator) to Santa Cruz to help out with a demonstration to bring attention to the road being built through Parque Machia. The parade marched through Plaza 24 de Septiembre (named after today´s holiday - the anniversary of the founding of the Department of Santa Cruz) and it was very exciting. We had signs publicizing what Inti Wara Yassi is about and everyone was clapping when we walked by. There was also a short speech given about the situation at the other park. This is great for the organization because there were a lot of important people in attendance in addition to the large crowds of locals. The procession is also going to be on TV in a few days! Tonight we will all head back to the park. Im exhausted from sleeping on the bus last night, Santa Cruz is about 6 hours away from Ambue Ari.
A lot of stuff has been going on at the park in the past week. I worked on cutting Engine a new trail, which wasn't quite as easy as I had expected but it is completed now and he is (hopefully) going to walk it for the first time tomorrow! A past volunteer had cut him some unauthorized trails that went very close to other cats trails and when we had to stop using them he was not a happy camper. He would try to go down the old trails for hours and get himself very agitated. So I decided it would be much better to just make a new trail as a diversion. Its taken all week because we have also been working on the Fire Trail. It is a large band around the park that ideally will prevent the neighboring fires from spreading into our land. Also, a lot of people have been asking about cats they used to work with so here is an update on Ru. He was getting quite playful and Parque Machia made a decision to take his collar off and discontinue walking him, permanently. But Noemi came up with the idea of letting him out on the runner an extending it to the river so he could swim. I went out to see him one day and it is really sad to see such a beautiful and amazing animal imprisoned in his cage. They haven't tried the new routine yet but personally I think its a great compromise that will keep volunteers safe and is good for Ru. I was in such a rush to pack for our day trip that I completely forgot to pack my camera cord :( so I will have to attempt to upload pictures on the slow connection in Guarayos next time I'm there. Until then ... I miss everyone back in the states!
Letter from CIWI
Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY) is the largest conservation NGO in Bolivia and is run entirely by volunteers. This organisation provides a safe haven for 1,000’s of abused animals (including pumas, jaguars, ocelots, spider and capuchin monkeys and even a brown speckled bear) and has saved over a 1,000 hectares of rain forest. However, Inti Wara Yassi is currently in crisis. The mayor of the town in which a large part of the refuge is based is building a road directly through the park where the animals live and are re-released into the wild. Without this park there will come a point where Inti Wara Yassi will find it very difficult to continue saving animals from the cruelty they face at the hands of people. This story is a plea for publicity for this struggling park. It is also a story of hope. The dedicated volunteers at the park are currently trying to raise $10,000 to buy 300 hectares of new land which will be a safe haven for these animals and also conserve precious rainforest. The refuge is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization and relies on donations and volunteer fees to survive.
A letter from Juan Carlos, founder of CIWY
The President of Bolivia - Evo Morales - has been called "Worldwide Hero of the Earth" by locals; yet how then can it be that the forest in Bolivia is being destroyed and millions of animals are being left without a home. Are we to just sit back and watch while Parque Machia (a wild animal refuge and biopark) is being destroyed in order to make way for a new road, and while Parque Isiboro Secure (one of the richest centres of biodiversity) and other national parks in Bolivia are also being destroyed? No, we cannot and for this reason we are calling out to the people of the world to join together in solidarity with the trees and the animals - the life source of the planet. We all know that a country's wealth should be measured by its biodiversity and not by its fragile and fluctuating economy.
Parque Machia is a wild animal sanctuary and part of the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (a Bolivian grass-roots organisation dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating wild animals held in captivity). The very future of Parque Machia and the animals it houses is currently under threat as local coca-growing farmers fight to push ahead with the construction of a road that will run right through the park's land and the habitat of many of its animals. The newspaper Opinion published a story on the 5th September 2009 about a puma - Quirqui - who recently passed away. It is presumed that one of the factors that brought about his death was the stress from the noise of the machinery that are clearing the park's land to make way for the road. Quirqui was rescued by the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi from a zoo where he was suffering and was very ill. The volunteers and vets of the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi managed to stabilize him, make him happy and also greatly improved his quality of life; that its until the bulldozers arrived. His health then started to deteriorate and sadly the puma Quirqui passed away at the beginning of this month. The construction of the road also affects and causes great stress for all the animals that live in this refuge, animals that have been given a second chance in life after being rescued form the torture of chains and small cages.
According to the newspaper Los Tiempos from the 4th September 2009, the front page describes how the
"park is being destroyed to make way for a route to transport coca", "they are cutting down trees that are 100 years old and are destroying the natural habitat of hundreds of animals". The coca-growing farmers of the community Copacabana del Chapare are demanding this route so that they can transport out their principal crop - coca. The road will pass directly through the habitat of many of the rescued animals. The Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi has been saving this park from destruction since 1996 and has been zealously looking after it for all these years. They managed to reach an agreement with the previous mayor, Felipe Caceres, who rejected the farmers' request for a road, understanding the repercussions such construction would mean for the park. However, the new mayor, Feliciano Mamani (a supporter of Evo Morales) says that the road will be built, no matter what.
The national park Isiboro Secure is also under threat, with plans to build a road straight through it, thus linking the towns of Villa Tunari and San Igancio. Parque Isiboro Secure is the third richest park in terms of biodiversity, containing a number of endemic species and it will be destroyed by the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio road. The President of Brazil - Lula de Silva - is financing the construction of this road, which will benefit his country by opening up a route to the Pacific Ocean. This construction will cause many species of animals and plants to disappear, it will pollute the water and bring about the end of this biodiversity and of the Parque Isiboro Secure. The other Bolivian national parks, which were created to be the lungs for Bolivia and for the world, are also affected by mining and agriculture. It is of great importance that agriculture be guided and controlled by policies that are dedicated to the preservation of the environment and biodiversity, otherwise we will be condemning all sources of life to a death sentence.
If you would like to find out more information, help us in our struggle to save these animals and the rainforest by donating (a donation of £40 will buy one hectare of rainforest), or volunteer some of your time, check out the website or join the facebook group CIWY EMERGENCY NOW! The Jacuzzi Donators Group
A letter from Juan Carlos, founder of CIWY
The President of Bolivia - Evo Morales - has been called "Worldwide Hero of the Earth" by locals; yet how then can it be that the forest in Bolivia is being destroyed and millions of animals are being left without a home. Are we to just sit back and watch while Parque Machia (a wild animal refuge and biopark) is being destroyed in order to make way for a new road, and while Parque Isiboro Secure (one of the richest centres of biodiversity) and other national parks in Bolivia are also being destroyed? No, we cannot and for this reason we are calling out to the people of the world to join together in solidarity with the trees and the animals - the life source of the planet. We all know that a country's wealth should be measured by its biodiversity and not by its fragile and fluctuating economy.
Parque Machia is a wild animal sanctuary and part of the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (a Bolivian grass-roots organisation dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating wild animals held in captivity). The very future of Parque Machia and the animals it houses is currently under threat as local coca-growing farmers fight to push ahead with the construction of a road that will run right through the park's land and the habitat of many of its animals. The newspaper Opinion published a story on the 5th September 2009 about a puma - Quirqui - who recently passed away. It is presumed that one of the factors that brought about his death was the stress from the noise of the machinery that are clearing the park's land to make way for the road. Quirqui was rescued by the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi from a zoo where he was suffering and was very ill. The volunteers and vets of the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi managed to stabilize him, make him happy and also greatly improved his quality of life; that its until the bulldozers arrived. His health then started to deteriorate and sadly the puma Quirqui passed away at the beginning of this month. The construction of the road also affects and causes great stress for all the animals that live in this refuge, animals that have been given a second chance in life after being rescued form the torture of chains and small cages.
According to the newspaper Los Tiempos from the 4th September 2009, the front page describes how the
"park is being destroyed to make way for a route to transport coca", "they are cutting down trees that are 100 years old and are destroying the natural habitat of hundreds of animals". The coca-growing farmers of the community Copacabana del Chapare are demanding this route so that they can transport out their principal crop - coca. The road will pass directly through the habitat of many of the rescued animals. The Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi has been saving this park from destruction since 1996 and has been zealously looking after it for all these years. They managed to reach an agreement with the previous mayor, Felipe Caceres, who rejected the farmers' request for a road, understanding the repercussions such construction would mean for the park. However, the new mayor, Feliciano Mamani (a supporter of Evo Morales) says that the road will be built, no matter what.
The national park Isiboro Secure is also under threat, with plans to build a road straight through it, thus linking the towns of Villa Tunari and San Igancio. Parque Isiboro Secure is the third richest park in terms of biodiversity, containing a number of endemic species and it will be destroyed by the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio road. The President of Brazil - Lula de Silva - is financing the construction of this road, which will benefit his country by opening up a route to the Pacific Ocean. This construction will cause many species of animals and plants to disappear, it will pollute the water and bring about the end of this biodiversity and of the Parque Isiboro Secure. The other Bolivian national parks, which were created to be the lungs for Bolivia and for the world, are also affected by mining and agriculture. It is of great importance that agriculture be guided and controlled by policies that are dedicated to the preservation of the environment and biodiversity, otherwise we will be condemning all sources of life to a death sentence.
If you would like to find out more information, help us in our struggle to save these animals and the rainforest by donating (a donation of £40 will buy one hectare of rainforest), or volunteer some of your time, check out the website or join the facebook group CIWY EMERGENCY NOW! The Jacuzzi Donators Group
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Into the Wild
I arrived at the park last Sunday, so I have been here for almost 1 week. Im glad to be here, travelling was getting starting to become exhausting. The weather here is quite different than the other parts of Bolivia and Brazil I had been in. Its normally between 80-90 degrees during the day and 70-80 at night so its pretty hot! But there are practically no mosquitoes - a miracle. You dont even need long sleeves when you're out in the jungle and its no longer neccesary to wear three pairs of pants :) I started working with Engine, a male ocelot a few days ago. Working with Engine is definatly a challenge, he is completely different than Vanesso (the ocelot I worked with last time I was here). He is one of the few cats who would have been a great canidate for releasing but the zoo who gave him to the park forced them to sign legal documents promising they would never release him :( so for his first few years at the park no one could get close enough to him to walk him and he never left his cage. Now, after a few long term volunteers worked really hard on getting a collar and carabiner on him he is able to walk his trails. When I got here I found out that Vanesso had escaped for almost 2 weeks and was still missing. So for the first few days we set traps and luckilly he returned to his volunteer when she was sleeping out in the jungle by his cage. I also got to go and visit one of the jaguars one afternoon and it still amazes me how beautiful they are. I took pictures but its impossible to capture what it is like to see one up close in its natural habitat. I didnt bring my camera to town this week because the internet is quite slow but next week I will try to upload a few pictures. Miss you all!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Santa Cruz
I left the park on Thursday with a friend, Colleen and it took us 12 hours to get to Santa Cruz instead of 5. We decided to hitchhike (which is a normal mode of transportation here for backpackers and locals) because we thought we had missed the bus. Somehow the truck that stopped for us ended up being the slowest vehical on the road! At least it was free ... We´ve spent the last few days mostly just relaxing at our hostel pool. Luckilly it´s not one of those crazy party hostels, especially because Im still waking up at 6am every morning regardless of when I go to sleep. One of our other friends from the park had to come to Santa Cruz for the day so we all went out to breakfast yesterday. And I ordered a huge sundae :) because I´ve really been missing ice cream!
Tonight we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I thougth it was an interesting story, but it was pretty long. Tomorrow we´re going to Samaipata for one night. It is supposed to be a beautiful village in the Cordillera Oriental. We´re also going to visit an organic farm there that we met some volunteers from. Im really glad I´ve had some time in between leaving the park and coming back to the states because it is a lot to adjust to.
Santa Cruz is also climbing to the top of my favorite cities in SA. It is more expensive than most other parts of Bolivia, but in perspective it´s still really cheap. Today we went to a salon and my pedicure cost about $3 :) Another think I love about this city is that there is an endless supply of street vendors selling various kinds of empanadas and juices. Today my refresco of choice was coco which is a juice made out of the coconut milk mmhhh!
Tonight we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I thougth it was an interesting story, but it was pretty long. Tomorrow we´re going to Samaipata for one night. It is supposed to be a beautiful village in the Cordillera Oriental. We´re also going to visit an organic farm there that we met some volunteers from. Im really glad I´ve had some time in between leaving the park and coming back to the states because it is a lot to adjust to.
Santa Cruz is also climbing to the top of my favorite cities in SA. It is more expensive than most other parts of Bolivia, but in perspective it´s still really cheap. Today we went to a salon and my pedicure cost about $3 :) Another think I love about this city is that there is an endless supply of street vendors selling various kinds of empanadas and juices. Today my refresco of choice was coco which is a juice made out of the coconut milk mmhhh!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter!
This week was Semana Santa which is the biggest festival in Latin America (except for carnival in Brazil) so all the kids get school off and everything (literally) was closed Friday. I only have 3 days left at the park :( Im going to miss being here and I think its going to take some time to readjust to living in the states. I wont miss the mosquitos thought!
The dry season was supposed to come at the beginning of April but it has been raining almost every day. Some years are wetter than others. Leo´s trails are completely flooded so he is swimming for about 80% of the trail which is fun, but exhausting sometimes ... Pumas swim really fast! I want to take a video of it but Im afraid I´ll get my camera wet because Im always falling in the water it´s up to our waists. An old volunteer that worked with Leo last year came back so he is going to take over when I leave. On Wednesday night Im taking an overnight bus to Santa Cruz with Colleen, one of my friends I met here. We´re going to stay in a nice hotel with a pool (for about $8/night!) and relax in Santa Cruz for a few days. Then, Im planning on flying to Lima early next week for my flight home. And in less than a month I´ll be graduating college!!
The dry season was supposed to come at the beginning of April but it has been raining almost every day. Some years are wetter than others. Leo´s trails are completely flooded so he is swimming for about 80% of the trail which is fun, but exhausting sometimes ... Pumas swim really fast! I want to take a video of it but Im afraid I´ll get my camera wet because Im always falling in the water it´s up to our waists. An old volunteer that worked with Leo last year came back so he is going to take over when I leave. On Wednesday night Im taking an overnight bus to Santa Cruz with Colleen, one of my friends I met here. We´re going to stay in a nice hotel with a pool (for about $8/night!) and relax in Santa Cruz for a few days. Then, Im planning on flying to Lima early next week for my flight home. And in less than a month I´ll be graduating college!!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Paradise :)
So I haven´t been updating the blog as often as I would have liked but I havent been coming into Guarayos (the nearest city) very much. Time has been going by so fast here! Im still working with Leo and Vanesso and things are going great with them. More volunteers have come and I came into town tonight with three American girls I´ve become friends with, which is ironic because I havent met any other Americans while I´ve been travelling. (and one of them is from Ocean Beach!)
Im going to be really sad when I leave here. I know I´ll come back here someday. Im definately excited to come home (and sleep in a bed that´s not made of straw!) but I will also miss the park. I can understand now how some people come for 2 weeks and stay for months. Yesterday a baby Jaguar arrived from a home in Potosi. Im going to get to see it tomorrow!
I´ve also been reading a lot here, which is good because my backpack is getting lighter as I give away the books I´ve read! I just finished reading two really interesting historical books, Sarah´s Key and Trudy´s Promise. One of the French volunteers was telling my that Sarah´s Key is famous at home. It was about one of the thousands of jewish families that France deported to concentration camps during WW2 - something I didnt even hear about in school. Thanks Mom for choosing awesome books!
I dont have much time on the internet tonight cause everyone is waiting for me to go to dinner, but Ill be updating again before I go to Peru in a few weeks.
Im going to be really sad when I leave here. I know I´ll come back here someday. Im definately excited to come home (and sleep in a bed that´s not made of straw!) but I will also miss the park. I can understand now how some people come for 2 weeks and stay for months. Yesterday a baby Jaguar arrived from a home in Potosi. Im going to get to see it tomorrow!
I´ve also been reading a lot here, which is good because my backpack is getting lighter as I give away the books I´ve read! I just finished reading two really interesting historical books, Sarah´s Key and Trudy´s Promise. One of the French volunteers was telling my that Sarah´s Key is famous at home. It was about one of the thousands of jewish families that France deported to concentration camps during WW2 - something I didnt even hear about in school. Thanks Mom for choosing awesome books!
I dont have much time on the internet tonight cause everyone is waiting for me to go to dinner, but Ill be updating again before I go to Peru in a few weeks.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
So many stories, such slow internet!
This week was definately the most eventful so far in my trip! Ill start at the beginning ... working with Leo and Vanesso has been amazing. Even when you´re sick, hot, dirty, and exhausted you still want to go out into the mosquito infested jungle to walk your cat!
Vanesso´s previous volunteer only had a few days to train me so we didn´t get a chance to walk all of his trails. In addition he has quite a few and they haven´t been maintained very well so there is a lot of patuju (big leaves) growing over. One day he decided to walk his long trail to the lagoon and I though no probelem. Well we walked and walked and he was perfectly content but I eventually realized that we must be on another cats trail because we had ben walking forever. The cats at the park ever interact for many reasons, one being that it can be dangerous (for the cats and the volunteers) and is very stressful for the cats to even smell another cat around their cage or trails. I figured this was no serious problem, I would just backtrack and find the original trail. How can you get lost in the jungle when you´re on a trail?
Easilly, especially when there are a lot of trails! The general procedure when you get lost is to wait until it gets dark and the volunteers come looking for you. But, there have been a few people who wandered out of the park because they went off trail (not sugessted) and acctaully slept in the jungle with thier cats! I think Vanesso finally realized we were lost- the cats are very perceptive to your emotions and decided to climb up a tree and wait it out. Luckilly I could hear the road and so I tied him to the tree and finally found my way back to camp via the road that runs through the park to get some help. We found Vanesso right were I left him and eventually got back to camp around 10pm. So I got to walk a cat in the jungle at night!
It´s currently the wet season and the dry season normally arrives in March. This year there hasnt been much rain but I think the past few days made up for it. It downpoured for three days straight this week and the soil in the rainforest does not absorb water quickly. Everything was flooded! Including the baños! Two of the boys have dug a new toilet now, but it accross the road which isn´t fun in the middle of the night. There is no drainage system at camp so we had to dig new canals so that the rain wouldnt flood all of the buildings. The trails were another story. Vanesso´s entire cage and the surrounding area was under at least a foot of water and in some parts it was waist deep! It was like walking through a lake! Leo gets really excited in the rain so walking him was fun that day. Im glad the rain has stopped thought because Im already tired of being wet all the time!
Im currently training a new volunteer, Rhys from New Zealand on Leoncio. The last guy I was training got eaten. (joking!) He is sick and didnt get on too well with Leo and Im not sure if he´s staying at the park much longer. Im heading to Santa Maria (the town near the park) for some dinner tonight with some other volunteers because one of our friends is leaving. I cant believe I´ve been here for 3 weeks already! I´ve decided that Im going to stay until at least the 15th of April because I cant imagine leaving any earlier. I know I´ll be back in SA again and have another chance to see Machu Picchu anyways. Until next week ... besos!
Vanesso´s previous volunteer only had a few days to train me so we didn´t get a chance to walk all of his trails. In addition he has quite a few and they haven´t been maintained very well so there is a lot of patuju (big leaves) growing over. One day he decided to walk his long trail to the lagoon and I though no probelem. Well we walked and walked and he was perfectly content but I eventually realized that we must be on another cats trail because we had ben walking forever. The cats at the park ever interact for many reasons, one being that it can be dangerous (for the cats and the volunteers) and is very stressful for the cats to even smell another cat around their cage or trails. I figured this was no serious problem, I would just backtrack and find the original trail. How can you get lost in the jungle when you´re on a trail?
Easilly, especially when there are a lot of trails! The general procedure when you get lost is to wait until it gets dark and the volunteers come looking for you. But, there have been a few people who wandered out of the park because they went off trail (not sugessted) and acctaully slept in the jungle with thier cats! I think Vanesso finally realized we were lost- the cats are very perceptive to your emotions and decided to climb up a tree and wait it out. Luckilly I could hear the road and so I tied him to the tree and finally found my way back to camp via the road that runs through the park to get some help. We found Vanesso right were I left him and eventually got back to camp around 10pm. So I got to walk a cat in the jungle at night!
It´s currently the wet season and the dry season normally arrives in March. This year there hasnt been much rain but I think the past few days made up for it. It downpoured for three days straight this week and the soil in the rainforest does not absorb water quickly. Everything was flooded! Including the baños! Two of the boys have dug a new toilet now, but it accross the road which isn´t fun in the middle of the night. There is no drainage system at camp so we had to dig new canals so that the rain wouldnt flood all of the buildings. The trails were another story. Vanesso´s entire cage and the surrounding area was under at least a foot of water and in some parts it was waist deep! It was like walking through a lake! Leo gets really excited in the rain so walking him was fun that day. Im glad the rain has stopped thought because Im already tired of being wet all the time!
Im currently training a new volunteer, Rhys from New Zealand on Leoncio. The last guy I was training got eaten. (joking!) He is sick and didnt get on too well with Leo and Im not sure if he´s staying at the park much longer. Im heading to Santa Maria (the town near the park) for some dinner tonight with some other volunteers because one of our friends is leaving. I cant believe I´ve been here for 3 weeks already! I´ve decided that Im going to stay until at least the 15th of April because I cant imagine leaving any earlier. I know I´ll be back in SA again and have another chance to see Machu Picchu anyways. Until next week ... besos!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Leoncio y Vanesso
I´ve been at the park now for 2 weeks and Im having a great time! It´s hard work, but definately worth it. People are always arriving and leaving because some only volunteer for 2 weeks and others stay for a year. I was a little sad that some of my friends left last weekend but I´ve met lots of new people. Now I´m working with two cats, Leoncio (the puma) and Vanesso, an ocelot. There´s only about 25 people here now so most of the cats are on half days. Vanesso´s owners thought he was female so they named him Vanessa but when he arrived at the park they changed his name because they realized he was male!
Working with an ocelot has actually been more dificult than working with a puma because he´s really small and likes to go off trail into the bush which is really diofficult to walk through unless your a small cat! He also enjoys hunting reptiles ... and unfourtenately there are tons near his trails. The first day he found a lizard and I got to witness his usual routine ... he carried the animal to an open spot (keeping it alive) and then ¨plays¨ with it, which is basically tourture until a slow death! He loves it thought.
The challenge with Vanesso is that when walking him you have to also protect him. There are a lot of things in the jungle that can injure an ocelot like chanchos (wild pigs) for example. A wild ocelot knows what its predetors are and can easilly run up a tree to escape them but since Vanesso has always lived in captivity he could easilly try to chase something that would normally eat him. Today he got ahold of a snake and I tried unsucessfully for an hour and a half to get it away from him ... this was interesting. At first I tried to fling it away with a stick. No chance Vanesso was letting the snake escape. I was getting worried because every few minutes he would bat at it too hard and it would bite him. After another unsucessful attempt at tug of war (me and the snake vs. Vanesso) I decided the safest thing would be to just kill it then at least it wouldnt bite eaither of us. He finally got bored of the dead snake (after another 45 min of waiting and being eaten by mosquitos!) I checked with the vet when I got back to camp and now I know how to tell a venomous snake from a harmless one. It was an eventful day :)
New volenteers came, so I´m training one guy from Austrailia to work with Leoncio. Some of the cats require two people to walk for saftey but Leo was actually trained to walk by following someone who is walking ahead of him on the trail. He is very well behaved and the worst he´s done so far is nap for an hour on the trail when he gets lazy or it´s too hot out. I took a video of him but the internet is so slow it´s taking forever to upload a few pictures. There is a small village about 15minutes away from the park that we go to sometimes during the week. The park owns a house there that they use to house extra volunteers during the dry season when there are more people here. Tonight we´re going to have a bbq there because we dont eat dinner at the park on Saturdays since its only a half day and a lot of people leave for the afternoon. It should be fun and it was great to eat some ice cream in town today because its really hot and theres no electricity at the park which means no cold drinking water!
Working with an ocelot has actually been more dificult than working with a puma because he´s really small and likes to go off trail into the bush which is really diofficult to walk through unless your a small cat! He also enjoys hunting reptiles ... and unfourtenately there are tons near his trails. The first day he found a lizard and I got to witness his usual routine ... he carried the animal to an open spot (keeping it alive) and then ¨plays¨ with it, which is basically tourture until a slow death! He loves it thought.
The challenge with Vanesso is that when walking him you have to also protect him. There are a lot of things in the jungle that can injure an ocelot like chanchos (wild pigs) for example. A wild ocelot knows what its predetors are and can easilly run up a tree to escape them but since Vanesso has always lived in captivity he could easilly try to chase something that would normally eat him. Today he got ahold of a snake and I tried unsucessfully for an hour and a half to get it away from him ... this was interesting. At first I tried to fling it away with a stick. No chance Vanesso was letting the snake escape. I was getting worried because every few minutes he would bat at it too hard and it would bite him. After another unsucessful attempt at tug of war (me and the snake vs. Vanesso) I decided the safest thing would be to just kill it then at least it wouldnt bite eaither of us. He finally got bored of the dead snake (after another 45 min of waiting and being eaten by mosquitos!) I checked with the vet when I got back to camp and now I know how to tell a venomous snake from a harmless one. It was an eventful day :)
New volenteers came, so I´m training one guy from Austrailia to work with Leoncio. Some of the cats require two people to walk for saftey but Leo was actually trained to walk by following someone who is walking ahead of him on the trail. He is very well behaved and the worst he´s done so far is nap for an hour on the trail when he gets lazy or it´s too hot out. I took a video of him but the internet is so slow it´s taking forever to upload a few pictures. There is a small village about 15minutes away from the park that we go to sometimes during the week. The park owns a house there that they use to house extra volunteers during the dry season when there are more people here. Tonight we´re going to have a bbq there because we dont eat dinner at the park on Saturdays since its only a half day and a lot of people leave for the afternoon. It should be fun and it was great to eat some ice cream in town today because its really hot and theres no electricity at the park which means no cold drinking water!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Jungle!
I arrived at the park (Ambue Ari) last Saturday. It took a few buses and a lot of hours to get there but I finally arrived! I started training with Leoncio (an adolescent, male puma) on Sunday. The two girls who were working with him for the past month have been training me all week and tomorrow I will start working with him and another volunteer. Even though I have only been here for a week this is already one of the most amazing experiences I´ve had. In the mornings I feed the Macaws, (there are 10 of them here and they´re beautiful birds!) one of them bit me once but it was nothing serious. Ironically, most of the injuries here are not even from the cats, they are from the monkeys or birds. I know some of you were a little worried about me coming here but the organization is awesome and it´s very safe here. They have a medical facility at the park and any injuries that have happened in past years haven´t required more than a few stiches which they can do right at the park.
There were about 45 volunteers here when I arrives but a few people have left and some more are leaving this weekend. Hopefully more people will show up because when they have low numbers the cats only get walked once a day instead of twice. If they do have a shortage of volunteers I will get training to work with another cat and do a half day with each one. Leoncio is adorable and has awesome eyes. I havent been able to take any pictures yet because new volunteers are not allowed to use their camera in the park for a week as part of our training. Better to be paying attention rather than snapping pictures!
There are about 20 cats here and around 30 birds. There are also two monkeys. One is a howeler monkey who does the wake up call every morning at 6:30am and he sleeps in one of the bunk houses ... with a volunteer! I´m in Trinidad today to use the internet and it is the closest ATM (4 hours away!) but I´ll be back at the park tonight. A few other volunteers came too because we all had to use the ATM.
We work everyday except we have a half days on Saturdays. There is another town, Guarayos thats closer to the park and has internet access so next weekend I will hopefully be posting some pictures!
There were about 45 volunteers here when I arrives but a few people have left and some more are leaving this weekend. Hopefully more people will show up because when they have low numbers the cats only get walked once a day instead of twice. If they do have a shortage of volunteers I will get training to work with another cat and do a half day with each one. Leoncio is adorable and has awesome eyes. I havent been able to take any pictures yet because new volunteers are not allowed to use their camera in the park for a week as part of our training. Better to be paying attention rather than snapping pictures!
There are about 20 cats here and around 30 birds. There are also two monkeys. One is a howeler monkey who does the wake up call every morning at 6:30am and he sleeps in one of the bunk houses ... with a volunteer! I´m in Trinidad today to use the internet and it is the closest ATM (4 hours away!) but I´ll be back at the park tonight. A few other volunteers came too because we all had to use the ATM.
We work everyday except we have a half days on Saturdays. There is another town, Guarayos thats closer to the park and has internet access so next weekend I will hopefully be posting some pictures!
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