The Bolivian Amazon, Volunteering

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Once we were in Rurrenabaque we went and found a hostel and offered them a few quid in return for 4 hours sleep and a nice shower. Unfortunately the room had a TV and the first channel that came on was a live F1 race so I only ended up with 2 hours sleep. “Rurre” is a small town but is the hub of the western Amazon basin, ideally situated on the banks of the burgundy Rio Beni for transport and supplies. In order to get to Jacj Cuisi we had to cross the river to “San Bueno” and get a mini bus towards Santa Ana. We found a taxi driver who told us that there was a petrol shortage and that he would not be going today, at this point it was raining Amazon style! We decided to wait and 3 hours later he decided he had enough fuel and a full complement of passengers (and was making enough cash on the job....surprise surprise!). 1 hour deeper into the jungle we arrived at Jacj Cuisi on Monday 30th July.



The place was empty, we found a collection of hammocks and seats affront a large doorless wooden barn which appeared to be the sleeping quarters. There were two paths going away around the back of the barn flanked by banana trees, one of which was going through a tunnel of Passion Fruit to another barn like construction which turned out to be the Kitchen and Dining Area. The other path went off to the toilets/showers, which was a hole in the floor and bottle with holes in it. This is when we met Jael, the Vet, who told us to find a bed, get settled in as everyone was still out walking the Pumas. The day after was Tuesday, which is “day off” and everyone goes to Rurre. We basically spent a day and a half in the hammocks reading and adjusting to jungle life, cooking for ourselves and exploring........but the only other things we found was the Vets house and the park Managers house, two brick built rooms. There were no other structures there, a total of 4 buildings made up Jacj Cuisi, no electricity, no hot water (they are in the process of building a clinic, quarantine and monkey enclosure). The only water there was is from the stream/creek, we swam in it, drank it, and washed in it, the little stream was the best! It’s one of the many things we miss, that and the little fish that would wait by the rock for you to get in. The little fish had teeth and were attracted to soap for some reason, if you were alone they would waste no time in getting started and would sometimes leave a red blister if they got a hold of you. I had one on the nipple and one on the old fella, initially we would go in naked and wash the cloths we were wearing but not after that incident!! It’s not all that pleasant so after we would go in on mass (in swimwear that is!) and they tended not to bother.



Tuesday afternoon heralded the return of the masses, Molly, Dave and Pete returned from Rurre. Molly is from the USA and is the volunteer administrator. Dave is from Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Pete is from Reading. Volunteers can only work with Pumas if they are staying 4 weeks or more. Nat hates cats with a passion so she opted to be on the construction team of 2, her and Demetrio, the husband of the park Manager Queru. I decided to help out with the Pumas. There are 4 cats that are walked, myself and Molly were working with Sasha and Simba. Nat was contributing to global warming by spending her days slashing and burning with a machete in hand! This is required to clear the area to expand the park around the current living quarters making way for more crops and a new Dorm/Kitchen. Other days she was working on the new monkey enclosure, both carrying sand or rocks and digging holes (which she got stuck down one and had to be pulled out!). The thing with the jungle is that whenever anything is required it has to be carried by hand so you can imagine what is involved in building a new monkey enclosure or a new cat house.



Initially I thought I had it hard, taking the cats for a walk! I would set off to Simba with Molly at around 09:30, his cage was ¾ of a mile away into the jungle. His walk to the cage was the longest and hilliest of the 4 Pumas, just getting there was a task and since the cage had been built there was some surplus sand and rocks lying about. They needed to be ‘transported’ to the monkey enclosure so no need for the gym here. Molly as tiny as she had been in the jungle over 1 year on and off, she was strong and fast, her bags of sand and rocks were quite sizable so clearly I needed to fill bigger bags and keep up, it was hardcore walking through the streams and down the muddy hills in wellys and jeans with 40Kg on my back but it was all good training.



Once we were near Simba’s cage we would shout him and he would respond with a meow (a puma meow that is) and get really excited. He would start walking up and down rubbing his side on the fence until you put your arm in to stroke him, then he would lick the sweat off. His tongue was so rough it felt amazing on the mozzy bites, but he would bring blood unless you re-adjusted your arm. The licking would continue for about 10 minutes and his purring was like a rumble, it was so loud. Then we would go in and clip him on to the lead and on to the belt of whoever was walking him that day. Simba is as big as a German shepherd but he has huge paws and massive shoulder & leg muscles. He also has a cool ‘over bite’ where his top fangs are too big for his mouth, they stick out on to his chin a little. Then it’s off for a walk through the valleys of the jungle and up the stream. Simba basically has a large outer loop of about 3Km and many off shoots and cut backs all the way around the loop. Some days he would walk to the stream at the far side of his perimeter, then have a nap for up to an hour at the top of a large hill then return home in the most direct manner. Other times Simba would go to the river twice and keep us out until 2pm, you can’t make a puma go where he don’t want to.....you just have to role with it, which can 6km on some days!



Watching him go into hunting mode is the best even if it is just for birds or monkeys. He would get a smell or hear something off in the distance, and then he would start to creep/stalk in total silence through the jungle. He would get pretty pissed off with me most times because I cannot walk in the jungle without snapping a twig or tripping on a branch, the dude would just turn around mid stalk and look at me with his big hunting eyes to say “shut up you idiot!”. Once he got close enough he would stop, pause and either pounce if he was close enough or bolt off after whatever it was. I felt so bad lumbering around behind him, slowing him down with a jolt when he ran out of rope. But he always forgave me and came out from the bushes or a hole un-victorious but with his head held high for a stroke. He didn’t care whether it was up or down hill or in the stream knee deep in water......it would always get interesting when Simba was on the hunt! The monkeys used to really piss him off, we saw capuchins and spider monkeys quite often, he would follow the scent stalking for ages until he realised they were up in the trees, being quite old he can never be arsed to climb trees unlike some of the other pumas. One time Simba caught the scent of some wild pigs and he nearly caught them, but at the last moment they ran in different directions and puzzled the poor lad with the oldest trick in the book. We were grateful of this because it could have resulted in some serious damage with tusks of pigs.



Although the Pumas show the sign to us that they can hunt, they can infact not hunt properly like they would have to in the wild-this is the reason the parks exist. The cats have often been hunted from babies and sold as pets. When the Pumas grow and become unmanageable the owners don’t want them anymore and they are just released onto the streets, unbelievable really that this happens.



Sarah and Alan from Runcorn arrived on about day 4. We met them in La Paz and they told us about the project. You’ll see Al in the pictures, he is the one with the big beard. After a short while we were like a family in the jungle, all taking it in turns to do the chores and cook meals. One night we had some visitors, 22 of us in total and it were mine and Alan’s turn to cook.....the result was a storming soy meat curry (that’s right, I actually like soy meat!). One of the best memories we have was young Catalina shouting “Desayuno!” in the mornings for breakfast or “Cena!” for dinner time at the top of her little voice. A few times she would come into the dorm and whisper it on a morning, not really wanting to wake people, but had been sent by mum so she was under order. Although we all spent the days working separately, each night the family was reaffirmed by the walk to the creek for a shower, renamed as the “Creek Party”!

The food here was vegetarian on the whole but sometimes we had a supprise with some meat. On one particular occasion when Jael's mum left the camp she got us a pig, a real pig still oinking that we had to fetch one night in a sack. The next day we had an amazing Hog roast on the open fire thanks to Jael for doing the 'vet thing', the smell of the beast cooking all day was crazy. The Pumas sometimes get a treat too. If the meat man fails to show up, someone has to go with Jael to bring the Chickens, alive. One day Nat carried 6 in a rice bag whilst on the back of the motorbike, still clucking. When the pumas see them in the cage they go nuts.

I could right forever about the escapades of Simba but I will refrain because there is so much else that happened in the 3 weeks here, starting with the insects. Tarantulas......they were everywhere in the jungle we found a big one on the way to the kitchen, we found baby ones in the banana trees and we found a nest in the dorm roof. A small one dropped on the floor when Nat was sweeping up, she got me to investigate a suspect pair of boxer shorts nailed to the roof above the 3 tier bunk bed and it was riddled with them. Most worryingly there was a real big dude tucked away in there but we left them alone, in peace. In the last few days the dorm filled up as more people arrived and one evening I was in my mozzy net when I noticed a huge Tarantula on my bed post at the bottom of my bed. After letting out some expletives a crowd started to build around my bed, so I made a swift exit from under the net to take control of the situation. Sarah was trying a softly softly approach, attempting to get the spider into a long handled dust pan but the thing was just crawling closer to my coat. I took the dust off her and shovelled the spider into it and in one motion sent it flying towards the general direction of the barn door, over the crowd of people, merely missing some of them. The screams may have been heard miles away, the laughter and commotion alarming the park manager that lived about 30m away, who came running into the dorm. When everyone had calmed down we took him into the jungle and sent him on his merry way. Nat found a cool snake, a Bushmaster. It was only small but after she took some photos from quite close, Demetrio informed her to stay back as the thing was actually deadly, the huge white triangle shaped head was the identifying feature. Nat in her efforts also stumbled on a white scorpion in the tool shed and later we found one under the bedside draws. She also found a rat in the tool shed, but we’ll leave that there shall we!



Each Monday after work we would rush to get changed ready for the hitchhiking pilgrimage back to Rurre for some cold beer and a big steak. In anticipation for the night ahead we would get on the “potable” 96% proof alcohol. The potable translates literally to “drinkable”, but not for long, 1 litre costs the equivalent of £1.50. Our last night ended up being a Sunday, so no trip in to Rurre but we managed to hitch a ride to Santa Ana after work, 10Km further into the Jungle and the closest place with a beer happens to be a wooden shack with no electricity, the fridges run on propane so the beers are cold! There were nearly 15 of us all sat around 2 candles drinking tins of local ale and Potable & Coke, we even managed to get some food from the old dear the choices being egg and rice or spam and rice, I opted for the SPAM! Before we knew it midnight was upon us and there had not been a single vehicle pass since 9pm so we decided to walk. It took us 3 hours to walk back, with coca leaves and more potable to keep us all occupied. The bushes were alive with fire flies it was like thousands of people taking flash photos and the road in the total darkness was littered with the glowing green caterpillars, it was unreal! Infact the whole experience was unreal.....

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