La Senda Verde

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We arranged before leaving La Paz to be volunteers at La Senda Verde, and the death road mountain bike company left us there after our ride. La Senda Verde is an animal santuary for animals rescued from the illegal pet trade. So this includes monkeys (6 different kinds, photos on facebook), turtles, tortises, Macaws, Toucans, Amazonian birds, a bear, a fox, a mountain cat and a Magar, crazy animals called Coati´s and a pack of lovely dogs. Oh yea, and the Boa Constricta, forgot about him. wwwsendaverde.com

For the following two weeks these animals became our constant wards. With over 200 mouths to feed and 3 feedings a day, plus a considerable amount of poop to deal with, our days were full. Along with that, we would come up with activities for the animals, particularly the monkeys, have one on one time, check on the health and well being of everyone, and take Gravity Mountain Bike tours through la senda verde, running defence for both the monkeys and the tourists. For those of you who know me (Claire) well, you will know that for me this was a little bit of heaven on earth.

Everyday started with first feeding the animals, so we would drag ourselves out of bed in our hut on the otherside of the river. We would walk into La senda verde, accompanied, of course, by our loyal companions, LSVs dogs: Linda, Carbon, Copain, Swisse, Pecky, and Limon (and sometimes Murray the stray dog that tried his hardest to come and live at LSV).

We would get in and walk to the food prep room, across another river and up to the monkey area. Here we would prepare everyones food, which consisted of generally porridge for brekkie and the most amazing fruit you will ever see for most other meals. This sounds not particualrly difficult, until you add the fact we had to get into the food prep room, without any monkeys, in the monkey enclosure... Every day became a balancing act with banana negotiations a regular occurence.

Then we would clean, eat, play, then start all over again.

It was hard not to fall in love with the place after we got to know the personalities of everyone, including the full time staff and of course the animals. Mahara was the recipient of a Capuchin Crush from baby Capuchin, Leo. He was a real character and loved hanging out with the boys, even when they were working on projects, like making rat proof walls. It was a regular site to see Mahara with a hammer in hand, hard at work with a monkey on his head or wrapped aropund his neck. Leo would even help Mah out by trying his best to hammer too and giving Mahara snacks as he saw fit.

This wasn´t Maharas only monkey love. Part way into our trip a baby spider monkey was rescued in la Paz while being chased by dogs in the street and sent to us. He would cling to Mahara for dear life if anyone came near him, so much so that Mahara would eat his lunch with a baby under his arm. (Yes there are photos of Big monkey daddy Mahara!!).

Love went to everyone, including me, and one of the adult capuchins, Camello, decided that I was his girl. He would come for hour long cuddles, and was generous enough to move off me slightly to wee and poo (sometimes). He got a little bit possessive though and took to smashing Leo or anyone else if they came too close.

We were privilaged to spend some afternoons having siesta with a bunch of monkeys of assorted breeds having cuddles under the pagoda by the pool. Spiders, Red Howlers, Capuchins, with fly bys of Squirrels all into together, after massive play fights where regardless of breed, size or stregnth, everyone was involved.

There are so many things I could say about this place, but this already long posting would expand considerably. It was wonderful and exhausting, and I feel very privillaged to get to know all of the animals at La Senda Verde.

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Comments

[Bec]

That sounds so awesome, can't wait to see some pics!