La Senda Verde: animal sanctuary

Monday

After being told so much about this place from our boss, Irena, at the hostel we decided it must be worth a visit with all the animals that were there. Four different species of monkey, Makaws, turtles and a bear. These animals aren´t in captivity, even though it may seem that way in some of the photos, they have all been rescued from domestic situations where they were either treated cruely or were not safe to keep.

My main worry was the fact that the only way of getting there was down a road that people in La Paz call the "Death Road" or "The World´s Most Dangerous Road", a three hour journey down a 2.5m wide road with blind bends and drops down one side of upto 600m, tax disc would run out before you hit the bottom! Anyway after arriving in once peace at the animal sanctury, we were greeted by two spider monkeys and makaws and given the key to our own Cabin, with it´s own bathroom and second floor. We had arrived at around 6 so there wasn´t any time to go and visit any of the other animals, that would have to wait until the morning. So we relaxed and socialised with the volunteers who were working there and had an early night to conserve as much energy as we could before our encounter with the rest of the monkeys the next day.

Tuesday

We rose early for breakfast (but not as early as the volunteers who have to feed the animals at 8 am) so that we could have as much time as possible in the daylight with the animals. Firstly we met "Chica" the only howler monkey at the sanctury who decided she would eat freshly made pasta whilst sitting on my head. This was followed by the bear´s breakfast time, which required one volunteer to distract him, whilst another quickly went in the 2km square pen to clean up the previous meal and put new fruit and honey sandwiches.

The afternoon was a chance to meet the Capuchan monkeys. You aren´t allowed as a tourist to enter their area because some of them can be quite vicious and don´t like to be approached. So we just sat by the pool and waited for them to approach us. After around 1/2 an hour curiosity got the better of them and they were soon jumping all over us and searching our pockets for new shiney things that they wanted. The sad thing about this is that some of the monkeys, before they were rescued, were taught how to pick the pockets of tourist by their original owners. One of the larger baby monkeys, Kimbo, decided he like the look of my eyebrow piercing and wanted it for himself, but it doesn´t come out unless you rip the skin, fortunately he gave up after a while of intense pain.

After our second night we awaited our taxi and the terrible journey back to La Paz, which we cant really complain about as it only cost us 1.50 pounds!

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