Communidad Inti Wara Yassi is a wildlife refuge in Bolivia that is home to an enormous array of previously injured, poached, domesticated, sick and circus animals including pumas, oscillots, tayras, tajons, monkeys of many sorts, birds, tortoises and one enormous Andean bear. It is staffed almost entirely by volunteers who work with one sort of animal or in one area of the park. The park gets no government funding and survives solely on donations and volunteer fees (around $7 a night for accommodation). At peak times, volunteer numbers swell to around 70. They are office workers, travellers, management consultants, vets and random travellers from tens of nations. But they all have the commitment to stick around for gruelling 12-hour working days (with only one day off every fortnight) in the mosquito-riddled jungle where you are not
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