Sucre - Santa Cruz - Samaipata - Villa Tunari ´Park Machia´

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So we left Sucre with heavy hearts. We´d loved what is said to be Bolivia´s most beautiful city, one of its two capitals along with La Paz. We then embarked on one of the unpleasant Bolivian bus journeys from Sucre to Santa Cruz, which took about 15 hours overnight. We were the only gringos on the bus, travelling on the worse roads imaginable. Needless to say, we got no sleep, the bus smelt constantly of sweat and urine and the roads made it feel like being on a tame rollercoaster/bad airplane turbulance. Not fun. Santa Cruz was a bit of a disappointment, but in hindsight I guess it was because we didn´t explore it enough. It´s said to have the best shopping, nightlife and restaurants in Bolivia. We just didn´t venture far with little time to spare.

We moved on, taking a shared taxi to Samaipata where we stayed in a really lovely hostel run by a guy from the united states and his Bolivian wife. Amazing breakfasts! Eggs, bacons, american pancakes, fruit, granola and smoothies. We spent 5 days there when the original plan was only 3 and visited the inca ruins of El Fuerte. El Fuerte never served as a fort but was a pre-Inca site, inhabited by the Chanes culture. There are also ruins of an Inca city built close to the temple there and the Spanish built a settlement near the temple (you can still see the remains of their buildings) but eventually abandoned the place and moved to a nearby valley which is now modern Samaipata. There's a real sense of history as you explore the ruins (see facebook photos), we spent a good 4 hours there and many people believe that with more organisation, education and funding, El Fuerte could be the next Macchu Pitchu.

Another reason that we spent so long in Sampaipata was it just the perfect beautiful small town (with breathtaking views and walks) to relax in before we made our way to an animal sanctuary called Parque Machia to face the hard work of volunteering and basic living.
It took another awful bus journey to get there on bad roads (not helped by the fact I was really badly travel sick (and only had a pringles pot as a sick bag). Bad luck struck again as before we started as Frank got really ill with food poisoning too. He was ill for 4 days, but with the help of the good old NHS website I managed to find an antibiotic from the local farmacia which he claims saved his life.

My first impression of Parque Machia was that everyone looked awful. Everyone was so pale, covered in dirt, ragged clothes, really awful insect bites covering their arms and sometimes their faces. It was so funny that a week later, when I was sitting in the cafe as one of them with a very strong feeling that we were all in it together.

On our first night we sat down with Courtney to discuss where in the park and with what animals we would be working. I was happy to work with small animals or monkeys. You need to stay longer (at least a month) to walk the big cats and we could only commit for 2 weeks. Quite a few people had arrived that night and I happily volunteered to look after small animals. However, there were three girls who were adament that they wanted to work together with monkeys. This wasn't part of park policy and they purposely spilt up friends and couples. In the end the girls left as it wasn't what they wanted and I got offered work in monkey quarantine! There would be 69 monkeys to look after spilt into 2 groups, the monkeys in Heaven (who were all on runners and slept in cages at night) and Hell where the monkeys are in large cages with other monkeys for company. Frank got placed in the clinic where he'd spend his days looking after monkeys (up to 21) with Spanish speaking vets for company. He also got to walk the park's brown bear 'Baloo', we're talking a full-sized 'big as a human bear on hind legs' kind of bear.

My first few days were crazy hectic, there were only two other people in quarantine when we supposed to have 4 people minimum. In theory, 8 people made the job comfortable. At one low point there was just me and Agi - 2 people doing everything. Our day started at 6.30am when one of us would open the curtains on the monkeys' cages and offer them bananas, collect api (like a porridge) and then put all the monkeys in Heaven on their runners and feed all the monkeys api.

Then the cleaning would begin...they would have all their cages hosed, all the mess would then be swept up. They would have two sets of meals, lunch was fruit and dinner was veg, two sets of snacks (peanuts or maze) and we would clean up after them a further two times after they ate (to deter flies) during the day. Monkeys make ALOT of mess, bless them. They spit most of their food out and then like to pick it off the floor. They really are just like little kids. You'd turn around and Junior would be making mud pies with his bowl. They get api again before they go to bed and branches twice a day. Apart from a lunch break we would work until 7.30pm at night when it was just the two of us (6.30pm when there were more) until it was time for the little darlings to go to bed, then they would all get a blanket and we´d close the curtains. Plus did I mention cleaning 30-40 of their monkey poo blankets or 'ropa' during the day as well. We did this two weeks solid (no weekend break) and in all weather conditions, it would sometimes chuck it down..like standing under a cold shower all day and you wouldn't ever be out of it. That's why so many people got foot fungus, their feet were constantly wet. We also got bitten constantly as we were weren't allowed to wear deet as he monkeys lick it off (sand fly bites were the worse - you can actually see the horrible little things fill up with your blood)


Although you might not believe it...it was completely worth it. The monkeys are incredible and you really end up missing them and becoming so attached. They are just so affectionate, they will scream with happiness when they recognise you, laugh when you tickle them, hug you and kiss you, come to you for protection or comforting. We meet loads of really lovely people at the park including two English girls called Kirsty and Hannah with whom we ended up travelling with for over a month! Kirsty was looking after the baby capachins and one of them, Roberto, would force her to play a clapping game with him
...sooo cute! It was incredible just how human-like these monkeys were, if they stole a brush you'd see them brushing the tree like they'd seen you do before. They would sweep the ground with branches. They would get so delighted when they got somthing right, like putting a pepple in the hole of a plastic toy. I'll never forget just how incredible it was being with them (my two favourites were Gumi and Chuky)

During our time there we worked with capachins, albifrons and spider monekys. The wild squirrel monkeys would also come and sit on our shoulders.

Frank and I got on so well with all the people we worked with and after a hard day's work we'd go home to our awful accomodation (with damp walls and a dead frog in the fan) and get ready to enjoy a nice cheap meal out in Pumas Restaurant. Good times.

From the park we travelled to La Paz with Hannah and Kirsty. It was time for a much needed break and we spent a week in a nice hostel with Paris Hilton and 'Teen Mom' on MTV. I quite liked La Paz, there wasn't much to do there but shopping and looking round the witches market (where they sell llama fetuses). As a last minute decision we flew to Rurrenabaque, the Bolivian Amazon, which only cost 150 pounds (flight included) and included a three day tour Pampus tour. Their we did dolphin spotting, anaconda hunting (sadly we didn't find any but had to walk through something that resembled sewage to get there) and pirana fishing (I felt bad for the piranas and just dropped my meat in the water as the hooks were jagged and it wasn't easy to let them go). The flight to Rurrenabaque was on a plane that held just 20 people, one on either side of the aisle, we were sat just behind the cockpit which was pretty scary when on the flight back there were a few flashing red lights and the pilots looked concerned. But we survived.

We then made our way to Lake Titicaca with the girls which was just so beautiful. We spent our time in a gorgeous hostel, with stunning views, hammocks and yummy food (still a hostel though) and did a day tour of the sun island which involved alot of walking up and down hills (not good for my new toenails-my others dropped off after jogging in Salta). The views of the lake were worth it though. On the 13th we celebrated Kirst's birthday by asking a local band to sing her happy birthday and then proceeded to force her to dance with them.

Then it was time to say goodbye to the girls and we made our way to Lima, Peru where we ate fast food for the first time in three months. From there Frank flew back to London and I flew to Panama and then changed flight to meet Jen in Costa Rica....

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