Animal survival crusading in Parque Machia, Bolivia!

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VOLUNTEERING AT INTI WARA YASSI, PARQUE MACHIA, VILLA TUNARI

THE JOURNEY TO VILLA TUNARI

When we finally prized ourselves away from the comforts of Cochabamba to head off to the animal sanctuary, we expected a simple three hour trip in a microbus straight to Parque Machia. As you might expect by now, this wasn’t to be. About two and a half hours in, the micro pulled up at a queue of lorries, taxis and people outside a town called Cristal Mayu. Using our strong grasp of Spanish we deciphered from the driver that there was a roadblock but we simply had to walk for one kilometre until we would reach Villa Tunari where the park was located. Happy enough, we set off walking. And walking. And walking. After about 3km we were starting to realise that we might have made a mistake and the idea occurred to us that maybe the driver had said we should walk for 1km and then get another taxi. At this point there were plenty of taxis going past but they were all full of about 12 people hanging out the boot so none were stopping.

Eventually one charitable soul going the opposite direction stopped for us and at this point we thought we were back on track. However, after about ten minutes we ground to a halt again, this time because of a landslide which had washed the whole width of the road into a river. Dozens of other people were standing about waiting for the machines to clear a walkway and we had fun watching several desperate locals trying to climb up a steep jungle trail to bypass the road, carrying enormous loads of food, livestock or babies. After a few hours the path was finally made and we joined the mad rush of people running across the rough ground to the other side.

We got another shared microbus relatively easily to take us the final short distance to Villa Tunari. But there was to be one final twist to the journey when the driver refused to stop in the town, despite our protests, and was well on his way out towards Santa Cruz before finally seeming to hear our yelling and reluctantly stopping. We trudged back towards the sanctuary after a nine hour journey which should have been three.


DONNY’S STORY

Inti Wara Yassi is a volunteer organisation which cares for animals which have been mistreated, injured or abandoned. It primarily looks after jungle animals such as capuchin and spider monkeys, pumas, ocelots, coatis, parrots, turtles and tortoises, many of which have previously been kept as pets. I was initially assigned to work in the aviary while Sandy was sent to work with the small animals (ie. mostly coatis). This wasn’t the ideal situation since monkeys and big cats were the preferred option for us, but we put on our stiff upper lips and decided to get on with it and work as hard as we could. I went off to the aviary hoping to get the most out of working with dozens of macaws and amazons, four toucans, three hawks and two eagles as well as a load of turtles and tortoises thrown into the mix.

The birds differed hugely both in their personalities and their states of health. Some of the parrots had lost many of their feathers due to stress because of their neglect at the hands of humans and there were birds with no tails, broken wings and deformed feet. Some were very tame and friendly towards people while some were scared or aggressive. Even with the friendly parrots it was important to be wary because they were prone to “playful” bites and their beaks are incredibly strong. The working day involved a lot of food preparation and feeding and even more cleaning of food scraps and poo. There was also a lot of down time during which it was possible to interact with the birds who were more tame.

After two days in the aviary I was happy enough but to be honest I was finding things a little boring. There seemed to be a bit too much down time in the afternoons and I was having to think of things to do to keep myself occupied. As well as this, despite loving almost all kinds of animals, the prospect of spending a month just working with birds when there were so many other amazing animals at the park was slightly depressing. This may sound ungrateful and it is an unpopular thing to say among other volunteers but it is important to remember that we had paid a lot of money to work at the park and had signed up for a month on the understanding that for that length of time we would be working with big cats or monkeys. Anyway, it was therefore to my pleasant surprise that I came back from my second day to find that Sandy and a few others had made plans for me to be moved to work with the Peruvian spider monkeys, completely unbeknownst to me. The reason for this turn of events was that another volunteer who was working with the spiders had turned out to be scared of them and wasn’t doing too well there. He had asked to be moved to birds and it seemed that I was the obvious choice to replace him, despite never once openly complaining about my lot.
So off I went to the “Spider Park”, high up in the forest, isolated from all the other parts of the park.

It was quite a privilege to work in the Spider Park since numbers are strictly limited to four volunteers, two of whom were long term residents at the sanctuary at the time I was there. The team consisted of Megan, long term volunteer and team leader; Ani, the other long-termer and second in command; Silvia, lovable but loco Catalan (NOT Spanish) lady; myself; and Vlady, a Bolivian permanent resident of the sanctuary who had an affinity with the monkeys but a bit of an aversion to hard work.

To get to Spider Park it was necessary to climb up an extremely steep jungle trail for about 20 minutes, which was hard going, particularly at 7.30 in the morning. I had to go up and down this trail at least twice a day but more often than not it was three or four times and the record was six times- hard on the knees but excellent for fitness training. The daily routine primarily involved preparing food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, feeding the monkeys using purpose built plates on pulleys to ensure that they ate up in the trees to replicate natural conditions and cleaning up their poo smeared cages. On top of this, some of the monkeys craved attention from humans, and while we tried to limit our interaction with them so that they would commune with members of their own species, some “cuddle time” was unavoidable. I also soon realised that I wanted to contribute something lasting to the sanctuary and so I used some free time to build some steps to prevent volunteers slipping on the steep ground, fix the floor of the food preparation cage to stop flooding, put up several rope swings for the monkeys, and help build a brand new cage for the Capuchin monkeys. As far as job satisfaction goes it doesn’t get much better than that.

Spider monkeys are a group species and generally relations in the group are very harmonious with the odd play fight the only real cause of turmoil. Adult females tend to be very gentle in their demeanour, while the adult males are less predictable and it was usually advisable to give a few of the more senior males a wide berth. I only ever had one run-in which ended in a bite and it was with Mickey, the alpha male. I startled him while picking up food scraps and he jumped on my head and gave me a little bite on the cheek (unfortunately not enough to need stitches or leave a scar). Mickey is normally very composed and quite easy to work around so this was just an isolated incident, but it did serve as a good reminder not to let your guard down when working with wild animals.

The young monkeys provided the most entertainment, with the babies playing together in their clumsy but enthusiastic way, and the juveniles showing off their agility and energy during playfights. While it was impossible not to love every member of the group, I inevitably had some favourites:
Katinga is a three year old female who was easily the funniest spider in the group. She loved to swing on rope swings and was amazingly agile but had a habit of trying to do 360 degree spins while running at full speed and the inevitable fall that ensued was hilarious. She also loved to torment the wild coatis that visited spider park and was always pulling their tails, much to their disdain. The rope swings were worth putting up just so I could watch her antics.

Amelia is another juvenile, slightly younger than Katinga, and was the cutest monkey in the park. She loved to play with her friends Monica and Alopecia (cruelly named due to her hairlessness upon arrival at the sanctuary) but was also a fan of cuddles and I think she developed a fondness towards me. Unfortunately this meant she had a bit of a habit of peeing when she climbed on my knee but I usually forgave her.

Isabella is a one-eyed adult female who was pregnant when I arrived and gave birth about a week later. She also loved human interaction and was the first monkey to climb on me when I arrived. She was very proud of her new baby and was constantly approaching me, both to show her off and to be petted.

Octavio needs a special mention as he is a male who was unapproachable at first but became my friend towards the end. He needs to be kept on a chord because of his excitable nature which can lead to bites, and I was warned not to go near him when I first arrived. But in my last two weeks Megan started to introduce me to him, first by having me kiss his belly through the bars of his cage before he went to bed, and latterly by slowly getting closer and closer to him until he was comfortable to sit on my knee/head. I left the park too soon for him to truly be at home with me which was my one big regret.

Parque Machia was the undoubted highlight of our trip so far and I will never forget the experiences I had there. We made some really good friends during our time there and the Wednesday night parties were always epic, but the animals, and particularly for me the spider monkeys, were what really counted and made our month so incredible.


SANDY’S STORY

It’s no secret that I wanted to be a monkey mummy and nothing else would come close. You can imagine my disappointment when we were told that we would be placed for the month in either the aviary or the small animals area. One of the reasons we signed up for a month at the sanctuary was because the website stated that volunteers would be guaranteed to work with monkeys or cats if a months payment was paid upfront. However, at our induction it was made clear that the aviary and small animals area were the 2 places in most desperate need of our help so without wanting to come across unwilling or difficult, with forced smiles Donny reluctantly accepted the position in the aviary and I was assigned small animals.

The small animals were a mixed bag consisting of:

27 Tejones/ Coatis – small racoon like animals with long snout noses, native to South America (Bubbles, Flaca, Mama, Adriana, Annie, Katalina, Moises, Barbara, Izzy, Suicide, Benji, Salvador, Jhovi, Milai, Willy, Ian, Cecilio, Pipo, Tito, Oreo, Laura, Louis, Frank, Sandy, Lisa, Squeaky & Squalky)

1 tira (Ivan) – somewhere between a stoat and an otter

and approx. 30 turtles and a bush turkey (Picky)

The tejones took up most of my time and in the weeks to come, I grew really fond of the wee things. Most of the tejones brought to the sanctuary used to be domesticated pets and so were incredibly tame. However, a few had been abused and were somewhat difficult to handle, which made the whole experience even more rewarding. Tejones are mega cute so it’s easy to understand why someone would keep one as a pet. What people forget though is that they are wild animals; they forage and hunt for food and will attack if anyone comes between them and food (as I well know – more of that to come later…) so they really should be left to live in the wild.

Unfortunately a lot of the tejones in the park will never be released as they are too domesticated, therefore it was really important to ensure these animals were given as much of what would have been their natural habitation as well as the human interaction they once received as pets. These tejones were put on runners every day and also taken for walks to ensure they had the freedom to forage and catch natural protein. The remaining tejones wil be lucky enough to return to the wild once they are either strong enough or the park receives the necessary legal paperwork from the Bolivian government (a slow and expensive process). These animals were kept in their cages with minimal human interaction.

Each tejone had a different personality. The best part of the day was the morning wake up with each tejone having their own individual morning greeting. My faves were Bubbles, Flaca and Suicide who would each stand on 2 legs pushing their tummies out to be rubbed; Mama who would lie on her shoulders with her bum in the air wailing for you to stroke her and Izzy who would scream louder than all the others desperate for you to come and say Good Morning. I could go on and on about each of the tejones but my absolute loves were:

Bubbles & Flaca (the ‘lovers’) - an adorable duo who would spend all day cuddled up together on their runners. Bubbles gave the best cuddles ever although she did have a bit of an obsession with breasts…

Mama – she had me wrapped around her ‘paw’. Her best trick was to climb up on to the rope of her runner, tangling herself in the process (at least 5 times a day) so that I would have to come and de-tangle her, following which she would jump on me and refuse to get off.

Barbara (Streisand) – a total diva who would refuse to leave her cage unless you carried her to her runner and loved to be cuddled and rocked like a baby.

Adriana and Annie – stepmum & baby duo. Annie was the only survivor of four babies that were born, and orphaned, six months ago. Adriana became official step mummy and the two now live together. It’s unlikely they will ever be released so we used to take both on daily walks - Adriana on a lead with baby Annie following leadless behind her. It was so cute watching them both foraging on their own, then suddenly Annie running around looking for Adriana. New babies arrived during my time at the park so Annie would go up to visit the other babies for a few hours a day. However, Annie missed Adriana too much, and vice versa, so this practice was stopped just before I left.

Willie – quite probably abused before he came to the park. Willie had a fair few behavioural problems and taking him to and from his cage was a difficult task. However, I developed a total love for Willie and although he would attack me frequently, I felt we progressed with him and hope that he’ll be given a chance by other volunteers. It’s sad to think that an animal might be better off caged than being given the freedom to roam, but sadly as Willie wouldn’t be able to cope in the wild and if being taken to and from his cage becomes a daily trauma, you have to wonder if he would be better off left in a cage.

The babies – Sandy, Frank, Lisa, Squeaky & Squalky. I was lucky enough to have one of the new babies named after me. Frank and Sandy arrived together and it was touch and go at first for Sandy. Frank was fit and full of mischief, but Sandy was very small and struggled to eat. A week in though and she was soon giving Frank a run for his money, making human Sandy very proud. Lisa arrived next and having a few months on Frank and Sandy, soon became older sister taking charge but also dishing out the sisterly love. The last arrivals were unofficially titled Squaky and Squalky, two jet black little bundles who had piercing squeaks and out of the five were always the two covered in the most food and poo.

Daily Routine at the Park

0640 Wake up
0700 Breakfast in the cafe
0730 Wake up all the tejones
0735 Make breakfast for the tejones, Ivan, Picky and the turtles
0745 – 0900 Serve breakfast, clean cages and put the tejones that were allowed out of their cages on to their runners
0900 – 1100 Tejone walks, cuddles and de-tangling
1100 Prepare lunch for the tejones and Ivan
1140 Detangle the tejones
1145 – 1230 Serve lunch and clean cages
1230 – 1400 Lunch break
1400 Give the tejones water
1500 Clean the tejones blankets (scrubbed by hand) or clean the 2 turtle pools
1600 Prepare dinner for the tejones, Ivan and Picky
1645 Serve dinner
1700 Clean cages, runner areas and put the tejones to bed
1730 – 1800 Give the tejones Api (a porridge like feed, fed from a bottle like a baby), night night cuddles/rubs and cover the cages with tarps
1800 ish BEER in the café

The bond formed in such a short space of time, with almost all of the tejones was unbelievable. I miss my daily cuddles, the walks, the morning wake up calls and the night nights. Sadly one tejone, Cecilio, died from cancer whilst I was the park but thankfully Suicide who tried to strangle himself most days is still alive (I hope!). We spent a month in the park with tejones, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, ocelots, pumas, exotic birds and more… an experience I will never forget. I also now have a nice little tejone scar courtesy of tejone Louis caused during a cucumber fight. Louis won.


LA PAZ, COCACABANA, ISLA DEL SOL

On route to La Paz, Bolivia’s capital, we returned to Cochabamba for a couple of days in need of clean clothes, gringo comforts and relaxation. 3 days later we arrived in La Paz, some 3660m high. As we approached the city, it looked sparse and flat. However, the first glimpse of La Paz itself literally takes your breath away as you drive through the thin air down in to the beautiful valley. La Paz, doesn’t really have much to offer the traveller in terms of culture, but with its many markets, the well known death road and a rocking nightlife, it has enough to offer most for a few days or more. We stayed in Wild Rover, the popular Irish themed hostel, and hung out with other Gringos doing Gringo things.

Donny took time out one day to cycle down the infamous death road from La Paz to Coroico which was really good fun but probably not quite as death-defying as its reputation would suggest. The start is so high up that the view of the terrifying drops was largely obscured by cloud but as you lose altitude some of the route is really spectacular, particular the waterfalls that you need to ride through at certain points on the road. Those of you who know Donny’s track record on mountain bikes will be unsurprised to learn that he had a crash at one point but the full body armour meant that a trip to casualty was avoided on this occasion.

After 5 nights of late nights and very few sights in La Paz, we managed to escape and headed for Copacabana which sits on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. Copacabana is an enchanting town full of tourists but enriched with locals and history. It’s also the gateway to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun), a legendary Inca site and the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology. We spent our time exploring Isla del Sol by foot, climbing Copacabana’s Cerro Calvario, visiting the town’s Moorish cathedral and running into many of our fellow animal volunteers.

After 63 days in Bolivia, it’s time to head across to Peru to climb Machu Picchu, raft down some high class rapids and find a suitable location in which to celebrate Sandy’s birthday. First stop Puno, in search of ‘The Bothy’ our first SCOTTISH hostel…


INJURIES SUSTAINED SO FAR

Donny
No. of injuries: Two (2)

1st Injury sustained: Gash to the right knee
Severity: Minor (but antiseptic wipe and large plaster required)
Location: the bedroom, Emperada Hostel, Mendoza
Cause: Wooden bed board while attempting to kill a mozzie during the night

2nd Injury sustained: Cut to the right hand side of face
Severity: Minor
Location: Spider Park, Parque Machia, Villa Tunari, Bolivia
Cause: Bitten by Mickey, alpha male spider monkey, after startling him while picking up banana skins in his vicinity.

Sandy
No. of injuries: Three (3)

1st Injury sustained: Blow to top right of head
Severity: Minor (not even a bump, but loud noise made when bumped and slight nausea felt)
Location: a long road, La Falda, Cordoba
Cause: Walked in to a stupidy low sign

2nd Injury sustained: Blow to already gammy knee, small cuts to right elbow + left heel + right big toe and big bruise on left arm
Severity: Relatively minor (knee required bandage support)
Location: on a small boat in the Atlantic Ocean
Cause: Turning too quickly while climbing up stairs to the top deck. NOT alcohol!

3rd Injury sustained: Cut to right arm
Severity: Relatively minor: 1 stitch required + anaesthetic
Location: Inti Wara Yassi, Parque Machia, Villa Tunari
Cause: Using cucumber as bait when wrestling food from tejone Louis. Louis attacked, bit Sandy, ate the cucumber AND the rest of the food

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