Sorry for the *huge* post, but there is much to say about the past 5 weeks volunteering and living with the monkeys at Parque Machia in the jungle in Bolivia. There are three main types of monkeys at Inti Wara Yassi. The first, the capuchins are hightly intelligent. One of the smarter capuchins, Boodie (the alpha male) has actually escaped three times from a locked cage in the clinic. It is thought in one of his escapes he bribed or convinced another capuchin to steal the keys and let him out (the capuchins are also highly adept at opening locks). Another [View Full Entry]

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Communidad Inti Wara Yassi is a wildlife refuge in Bolivia that is home to an enormous array of previously injured, poached, domesticated, sick and circus animals including pumas, oscillots, tayras, tajons, monkeys of many sorts, birds, tortoises and one enormous Andean bear. It is staffed almost entirely by volunteers who work with one sort of animal or in one area of the park. The park gets no government funding and survives solely on donations and volunteer fees (around $7 a night for accommodation). At peak times, volunteer numbers swell to around 70. They are office workers, travellers [View Full Entry]

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Whether it was the post Copacabana haze, the guidebook’s assurances that La Paz was ‘muy tranquilo’ in comparison to all other South American cities or just the fact that I had done too much, too quickly over the past week, I did something silly. I hopped in a cab waiting at the bus terminal. In Ecuador, this was safe. In Peru, I knew it wasn’t. It turns out it isn’t in La Paz either. I knew things weren’t right after four or five streets into the trip. I was pretty sure my hostel was only a few blocks from the bus [View Full Entry]

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The Floating Islands, Lake Titicaca Although 41 natural islands dot Lake Titikaka’s waters it also plays host around 30 manmade islands - created from their very foundations by their inhabitants. These people are resourceful with a capital Reed. They build their islands, houses and means of transport solely out of the native reeds (and they even eat them too). By using the reeds’ root blocks they build the island foundations. They cut them loose from the bed of the lake where they pop up much like corks. By joining together multiple sections of this material with sticks [View Full Entry]

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Day Five Overnight bus to Arequipa Another big city. Thankfully, the first one I have actually liked in South America to date. Like Cuenca it has gorgeous architecture sewn up. Unlike Cuenca the buildings actually feels South American rather than European, being largely composed of pink volcanic rock and featuring Inca stylings. On my first evening I met a new friend who charged himself with showing me around for the duration of my stay. It was nice to spend an evening and the next morning practicising my Spanish and visiting places where there wasn’t a gringo in sight incl [View Full Entry]

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I’m starting to think the whim of joining the call of the wild, volunteering in a Bolivian animal sanctuary may have been an overly-ambitious and possibly slightly silly call. But then, that’s grumpy, tired me. Me who has been in 3 countries and 9 cities in about the same number of days. Me who has had to negotiate a whole new set of eating and requirements, confusions and overfriendly locals on a daily basis. And most significantly, me who just had my first taste of crime - South American style … but more of that later… About a week ago I [View Full Entry]

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After wasting five days in the hostel drinking beer with Australians and Brits while I was awaiting a package (which I could have quite adequately done at home) I realised that it was time to get out of Quito for a short break - if only to avoid the watched-parcel-never-arrives syndrome from trapping me at the Secret Garden forever ;) The solution was a five-day excursion to the Amazon jungle. It promised lazy river rides, jungle hikes through the Amazon and possible glimpses of caimans (South American alligators), toucans, tapirs (pigs with very silly extended noses), pink river dolphins, [View Full Entry]

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Beautiful. Serene. Gorgeous. And very quiet. That’s life at Cotapaxi. Sitting at the foot of a 5km high volcano with sweeping views of it and 2 others from my hammock it feels much like heaven might be (well, sans internet of course). Life is slow and cosy, curled up by the fire reading, studying, playing board games or chatting. At night, the candles come out and we share a communal meal for the 16 or so residents at the hostel I´m staying in. In the morning I teach English at the local school. The school population consists of 3 teachers and [View Full Entry]

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Not having any particular plans for the day and having spoken to a guy who knew a guy, who’d met a guy in the Galapagos we discovered the name of one of the inmates of Quito’s women’s prison - which is the only requirement to gain access. Our passcard for entry was Angie Shaw, a 24-year-old alleged cocaine smuggler from South Africa who is being detained in the prison awaiting sentencing. She has been there for nine months and is hoping her trial will not come before 12 months - at which point, a recent law has determined that any non-locals [View Full Entry]

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Last night was my first proper foray into Quito nightlife. I and another 20 or so others headed for Bungalow 8 - a favourite of gringos in Quito. The club itself was great with excellent music and enormous goldfish bowls of coloured vodka for $4. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring myself to spend much time in there. When I arrived (at 11pm) we were greeted by 4 children under the age of ten (the youngest around 3) touting cigarettes and lollies to passersby from trays hung around their necks. I quickly befriended one of the girls, Ankele, who told me that her [View Full Entry]

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