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Published: October 17th 2008
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I´ve been TERRIBLE about writing, but here are the highlights (and lowlights?) of the first 4 weeks at Sta. Martha. I have one week left here with the animals 😞
22 September - Took the bus to the Quito airport and got my luggage! Got to Sta. Martha around noon. An hour bus ride from Quito will run you $0.50 here. But the 15 minute taxi ride (in the back of a white pickup) up the hill to Sta. Martha always costs $3.00. Toured the rescue center. I´m pretty much in love with our coati, who used to be a pet, but her owner got mad at her and burned her eye with a cigarette. She´s blind now and really loves to climb around on you while you clean up her messes. We also have a collection of former circus lions who´ve survived awful circumstances. Our jaguar was kept in a cage where people paid money to poke her with sticks and yell at her. And we have a whole heap of parrots, macaws, a toucan who has become one of my best buddies here, 5 galapagos tortoises, 2 capuchin monkeys, 2 squirrel monkeys, 2 andean bears, a pygmy marmoset,
a couple pumas, 2 pheasants, ... I live in the vegetarian house, which is blue and has a very tiny kitchen without an oven. But we have a toaster and a kettle.
25 September - The altitude and change in routine caught up with me big time. I spent a couple days with a nasty case of traveler´s diarrhea.
26 September - Went with Sarah to the market in Machachi. It´s definitely a local market, as they didn´t sell any souvenirs and we were the only gringos there. The fruit and veg stands there were AMAZING. We brought back tons to eat and paid hradly anything for it.
30 September - Got my first big machete blisters, became good friends with the toucan after spending hours cutting grass in the large aviary. He´s good at being completely not helpful. The grass that I bagged he tried to pull out and he chomped on my fingers and my sickle.
02 October - I caught the flu. More time in bed. At least the rainy season makes you happy to be indoors some of the time.
04-05 October - Johnny, the boss here, rented a mini schoolbus
and took 12 of the volunteers from Sta. Martha to Tena to visit a couple other rescue and rehab centers. I found out that even if you take Dramamine before travelling, it´s not a safe bet when you have the flu. I luckily had a window seat and tossed my cookies out the window, all over the side of the minibus. And again in the middle of the Andes in a downpour. But that time into a plastic baggy and on the side of the road. The rescue centers were interesting to visit -- I´m jealous that they have monkeys that play in the trees and run around all over the place. I felt horrible though at the first one and took a lot fo pictures so I could enjoy the experience later. We spent the night in Tena in a fancy hotel (with marmosets playing in the trees all around) and got up bright and early to get to our canoe taxi to go to the second rescue center. We drove through miles of jungle, passed villages of indigenous people (who you´re not supposed to ask for directions, because they lie to you, so we drove a back and
forth a bit), and arrived at the canoe taxi just when it started to downpour. Rode in the canoe down the river to the rescue center, and were escorted on our tour by a young woolly monkey and a trompetera (trumpet bird). Then back to the canoe to go to an island where some of the monkeys from the rescue center had been released. The vicious ones. That don´t play well with others. So after Johnny poked them with a stick to get the monkeys off the canoe, we made a stop furhter down the river for swimming before eating and driving back to Tambillo.
07 October - BIRTHDAY! I had a nice banner and a cupcake with a candle and singing when I woke up. And then it rained ALL DAY. But had some nice phone calls that made it a wonderful day and had a delicious ice cream cone.
08 October - A truck from Arca, a rescue center near Tena, came in the morning to take two of our lions to their center. They operate as a zoo and now have the lions to help generate revenue by attracting more visitors and more paying volunteers.
Moving lions when the enclosures are on the sides of hills and the paths are newly laid rock and mud is an interesting experience. Once the lions were sedated, we had to roll them onto a homemade stretcher. It took about a dozen of us to carry each lion and the paths were not wide enough for that sort of activity. I avoided backing into barbed wire only to have to leap over a stump at the top of one path. With the male lion, I was carrying the stretcher right by his face and had my hand insides of his mouth halfway up the hill. Not by choice, but because there really wasn´t a way to let go and readjust. The Quito Zoo vets who came to help with sedation also took our baby capuchin Dave to be with another capuchin the same age at the zoo.
11-12 October - After the arrival of our pygmy marmoset we caught a lift down to Tambillo in the back of the police truck to head off to Baños! Went with two of my housemates to Baños, which is still in the highlands, but right on the edge of the jungle.
We went on a white water rafting trip for beginners (Class III+ rapids) on Sunday which was awesome! A good first experience to be able to see the jungle while learning to raft. And for only $25 including lunch, it was well worth it. I surprised myself that I liked it so much and would definitely go again and go bigger and take on some bigger rapids!
This week... More animal feedings, poop cleaning, old cage disassembly, grass cutting. Another visit from the police yesterday brought two trotoises, a water turtle, a baby hawk (who just has his pin feathers now, but obviously isn´t ready to do any flying), and a 2 meter long boa! Today with the veterinarian, Caro cleaned out the boa´s mouth, which is swollen with a horrible bacterial infection.
Sorry to write so much all at once, but hope you enjoy the update! Let me know if there´s anything you want to hear more about...
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sindhujarao
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i'd hire you...
i wish you lived here because i'd commission you to clean my cat's litter box on a regular basis (since you seem to have so much experience/skill) :)