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.

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!

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!

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!

Endeaveors in Bolivia

After two attempts, I was finally able to cross the border into Bolivia. After flying to Arica, I bought a ticket for an overnight bus to Cochabamba. This was the beginning of disaster! I was waiting for the bus on the side of the road with about 40 other people and when we finally got on at about 2am it was gross and smelled awful. When we arrived at the border it was closed (of course) and I was feeling really sick from the altitude! So we waited there for about 3 hours until the border opened ... in the cold. This is when I started really running into problems. When I went to fill out my visa application I realized the price had gone up and I didnt have enough money. I thought I would just go to and ATM, but no - the closest ATM was 2 hours away! Basically there was no way they were giving me a visa and the bus was like we´re leaving so get your backpack. Luckilly another bus came through that was going back to Arica and they let me on for free.

Back in Arica things got much better. I got a hostel, went to the beach and watched the sunset. Then I went out to eat. got ice cream, and bought myself a scarf for my bday :) The day was not a total disaser! I got a new ticket for a bus to La Paz the next morning and this time I took out more than enought cash for the visa. This bus was much better and even included lunch. Choosing a bus company is kindof a crapshoot here beacause you never know what to expect, but I lucked out this time.

When we arrived at the border half of the officials were like hey you were here yesterday! haha not funny ... They only accept US dollars for the visa so I went to change my money from Chiliean pesos to USD when a new problem surfaced. The exchage rate the wonem at the border were giving was horrible and they were only going to give me $129 when I had the equivilant of $160! I was lucky again because the nice couple I had met earlier on the bus paid the difference for me - I did not want to go back to Arica again!

I ended up getting off the bus in Oruro because it is closer to Cochabamba, which was my next destination. Carnival is going on this weekend in Bolivia so everything was a little crazy there. Oruro was pretty cold and it had just started raining so I decided not to stick around to get hit by water ballons (they sell them on the street for kids). I found a bus heading for Cochabamba an hour later and now I´m here!

In an hour Im taking an overnight bus to Santa Cruz, which is my last stop before the animal refuge. A lot of people here are familliar with Inti Wara Yassi and I´ve heard only good things so far. There is no electricity at the park but there is a town about 45 min away that supposedly has a realiable internet connection. As of now, Im planning on updating the blog on the weekends when I go into town. Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! :)

Last Day in Santiago

Today is my last day in Santiago, tomorrow morning I'm flying to Arica. I might spend one night there depending on the bus scheduals to Bolivia. We got back late last night from Con Con and I had a great weekend on the coast. It was Julio's cousin's birthday and his family had a big BBQ. I love the food here! I ate tons of chilean food. Later that night we all headed back to Julio's family's house to hang out and I got mini lesson on how play the conga drums, apparently I was pretty good at it.

Liz, Emily, and I walked around Valparaiso on Saturday and it was very nice. It is often referred to as the city of art because there are many artists living there; and we went into a lot of cute art studios. Unfourtunately, the art has gotten pretty expensive due to the large amont of tourists that visit Valpo. I got a really cute pair of earrings there though. Later Saturday night we went to a salsioteca (like a discoteco, except they play salsa music). Well, to say that I am not the best salsa dancer would be an understatement. I've been taking lessons for awhile now, at school and with friends but I dont think anything I've learned so far was helping me that night. Let's just say I felt bad for my dance partners who got stepped on more than a few times, and I actually accidentally elbowed Julio's cousin in the face :(

After the salsioteca we headed to Vina del Mar where they have a huge clock made from flowers that actually works. I have no idea how, but I took pictures. It's cooler on the coast but the weather was great on Sunday so we all went to the beach. I haven't gotten sunburned again which great because there is a huge hole in the ozone layer abover Chile and the sun is very strong here. We got back to Santiago pretty late Sunday night so I'll be posting pics today. Im excited to be heading to a new country tomorrow!

Tourist Activities!

Today we are going to Concon, which is a popular destination for chilenos during the summer (now). Liz's friend from work, Emily is coming with us as well as Julio's 4 year old nephew who is adorable! We are all going to rent a 3br house and it's only costing $30/day ... total!

In the past few days I've been doing all the touristy stuff here in Santiago. I went to Parque Quina Normal and Parque Metropolitano where there is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary on the hill of San Cristobal, which is visible from the entire city. It is the largest open space in Santiago, complete with two swimming pools and countless gardens. I took the funicular up to see the view which was awesome because you can see the Andes mountains as a backdrop to the city.

I also went to Cerro San Lucia and Plaza de Armas, two other historic sites in Santiago. Cerro San Lucia was built in 1875 and was once a hermitage, then a convent and was converted into a military bastion. There were fountains and winding staircases throughout the remains. I walked around downtown Santiago too and saw La Moneda, where the president works; and some other historic buildings. When we get back on Sunday I'm going to upload my pictures from the past 2 weeks. We probably won't have internet access at the house so until then ... enjoy the snow :)

A busy week in Santiago

After a tiring weekend and lack of sleep we took it easy and decided to stay in Sunday night. During the day we went to the feria, which is a huge market they have in Santiago every sunday. I drank mote, the national chilean drink (according to Julio). It was very sweet and kindof tasted like peach iced tea. We also ate completos, which are hot dogs with tomatoes, avocados, and mayo - very popular here! Then we headed to La Caro to eat lunch with Julio's family and later on Liz and I tried some Chilean wine, which was very good.

I found out about a glassblowing place here in Santiago so we are going to check it out today or tomorrow. Later this week we are going to Concon, which is on the beach near Vina del Mar and Valparaiso (two popular areas to visit). It's about 2 hours west of Santiago. We'll be staying with more of Julio's family there and then come back to Santiago for a few days before we all fly to Arica on the 17th. Liz and Julio are going to Cusco to see Machu Picchu and I'm going to take a bus to La Paz and make my way to the animal refuge. Im really excited to go there! I haven't decided exactly how long I'm going to stay there yet but it will be for at least one month.

I've finally finished uploading all the pictures from Argentina and Uruguay, which would have been impossible if Liz didn't have the internet at her apartment. I've also had a litte extra time on my hands due to a little problem we encountered this weekend. During the bbq we closed the door to the room Im staying in here because a lot of people were smoking (nothing in S. America is non-smoking!). Well, later that night we realized that someone had accidentally locked the doorknob and neither Liz or Julio had a key! So, for the rest of the weekend I slept on the counch and luckilly someone is coming to unlock the door today.

Estoy pasando la raja!

I've been at Liz's for a few days now and Im having a great time here. Getting into Chile was a process though... I noticed that there was a lot of traffic at the border but it was in the middle of the night so I figured I would just go back to sleep. Around 4:30am I woke up and realized that we had to actually get off the bus to go through immigration and customs. It took forever! There were probably over 100people in line already but at least the line was moving. Well, after I waited for about an hour and thought I was all set I realized that I still had my customs form. I was wondering if they were going to check our bags but I figured it out quick enough. We had to take all of our luggage off the bus and get it examined and of course they thought I had fruits and vegetables in my bags which then required extra screening. The whole process took a few hours and I finally arrved in Santiago at about 11am. I realized during all of this that Liz was expecting the bus to arrive at 6am! It's a good thing she wasnt planning on picking me up at the station. Luckilly she's taken plenty of public transportation in Latin America to know that arriving on time means arriving sometime that day.

Liz and Julio both have the next two weeks off of work and they've planned a bunch of stuff to do when I'm here. We went to the mountains one day and went swimming which was a lot of fun. They also had a bbq for me last night and the food was amazing. Tonight we're going to go out with some of thier friends to the discos. It's been nice to sleep in a bed everynight and be able to relax! And I've been able to give my feet a rest from all the walking I was doing before. The weather here is awesome, it' the summer in Chile right now and most days are sunny and between 70-90F. I think I will miss the snow by the time I get home though.

Most of their friends and family only speak spanish so I have been getting A LOT of practice. At first it was really frustrating to not be able to understand everything and even when I could understand I wasnt able to say much. I've been learning a lot and I can already communicate much better than when I arrived. Most Latin Americans will agree that Chilean spanish is very difficult to understand, even for fluent spanish speakers because they speak very fast and use a lot of slang terms. Catchay?

I've stated uploading my pictures and on the right side of the page there are links to the different albums. It's been taking longer than I expected so I'm still adding captions and uploading pictures. Hopefully they will all be up by the end of the week!

Mendoza

Today is my last day in Mendoza. It´s much smaller than Buenos Aires but it is a nice city. They have a huge park with a lake in the middle. Mendoza is right in the middle of the wine country here in Argentina so there are a lot of winery tours. It is a popular place for backpackers to stop but is seems as if many people just decide to stay here. I´ve met a lot of travelers that were passing through and ended up staying for months. Tonight I will take an overnight bus to Santiago, it is supposed to be a very scenic ride so hopefully it will be light enough to see the scenery for some of the ride. My seat is in the front row which is good for the view of the scenery, and bad for the view of the bus flying through the roads in the Andes! The drivers here are a little crazy but accidents are rare. I´m excited to see Liz and finally get to eat home cooked food! (I´m getting tired of bananas) Julio is supposed to be a great cook so maybe I will learn how to cook some Chilean food. They´re having a BBQ on their rooftop this weekend so that should be lots of fun. When I wake up in the morning I´ll be in Chile!

Uruguay for a day

I booked my ticket for Colonia del Sacramento only one day before I wanted to go so I had to take a late ferry and return at night. I was lucky thought, because the sun doesn´t set until 9pm here and I got to watch the sun set over the water before I left to return to Buenos Aires. Colonia is a small historic city, it is considered a UNESCO world heritage site. It was used for many years as a port to illegally smuggle goods into Argentina and to avoid tariffs on imports. The port is no longer used except for recreation. Colonia had a very relaxed, beach city tempo ... the drivers even stop for pedestrians! (In the rest of this continent pedestrians are seen as moving targets) When I returned to my hostel at 11:45 my Brazilian friends were waiting and we all decided to go out for one last night in Argentina together. Buenos Aires is the city that never sleeps. The portenos have dinner around 11, sometimes take a siesta, and then the clubs open at 2am and stay open until people leave for breakfast. No wonder the streets are empty on Saturday and Sunday mornings! I haven´t been able to upload any pictures yet, but when I get to Liz´s in Santiago I´ll be adding them to my posts!

I´m Here!

Buenos Aires is one of my favorite cities, second only to Florence, Italy. It´s beautiful here, they have a lot of parks and the city has a European feel to it. Im staying at the V&S hostel, and I guess I was lucky to pick this one because everyone else staying here says it is the best place they´ve stayed in awhile, which makes me wonder what I´m in for later... I´ve been taking it easy the past few days because I didn´t sleep very well on the plane down here. Siesta is my favorite time of day :) I went to Palermo yesterday and walked around the neighborhoods there. I visited the Jardin Japones (Japonese Garden) and walked through the Rosedal, where they have thousands of different types of roses, some of which have won international awards. Tomorrow I will go to Uruguay by boat. I´m going to the city of Colonia, which is a few hours away and then I´ll come back to Buenos Aires. Sunday is my last day here and then I will be going to Mendoza on an overnight bus. Pictures are coming soon! Miss you all!

Why am I going to South America? What will I be doing for 3 months?

After volunteering in Ayacucho, Peru this summer I knew I would go back to South America. I was able to do some local traveling on the weekends but there were many more places I wanted to see. I decided that since I will be finished with school in December this would be the perfect opportunity to go back. After a lot of research I narrowed down my destinations to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. There were many things that influenced my decision, I wanted to volunteer again and be able to experience the different cultures of each place I visited; which is why I chose to spend a few weeks in some places. This will also be a great opportunity to practice my Spanish!

I will be flying from Boston to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The remainder of my travel will be by land, with the exception of one domestic flight. This takes more time but it is much cheaper! After a few days in Buenos Aires I will be heading to Santiago, Chile. This will take two bus rides, and I will stop in Mendoza, Argentina for one night. Luckily, I have a friend living in Santiago and I will be staying with her for 2 weeks. On February 17th I will fly to Arica in northern Chile. From there I will make my way by bus to La Paz, the capitol of Bolivia. After arriving in La Paz I will go to Cochabamba, and then Villa Tunari. Here I will spend 5-6 weeks volunteering at the animal refuge Inti Wara Yassi.

When I leave Bolivia, I will travel back through La Paz to Puno, Peru. This is where Lake Titicaca is located. From Puno I will travel though the Andes to Cusco. This was once the capital of the Inca Empire. There are many archaeological sites in the surrounding area and I am planning on doing an 8 day trek to see Machu Picchu and Choquequiaro. I do not have any concrete plans for the remainder of my trip. After leaving Cusco, I will have between one and three weeks to travel in Peru. Currently, I plan on travelling through the northern coastal cities of Trujillo and Chiclayo and then to continue on to Chachapoyas. I will arrive in Lima a few days before my flight home on April 22nd.

I have a lot to look forward to and I am really excited about this trip! I will be updating this blog regularly except for when I am in rural areas where there are no internet cafes. Keep in touch : )