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Published: August 27th 2007
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I landed at San Jose airport and was collected by Nicki the rep from the volunteer company i-to-i. I had signed up to do about 3 weeks work at a big cat shelter. This was to be my first time volunteering - I wanted to give something back for all the wonderful trips and fantastic times I had whilst traveling and holidaying. My first couple of days in Costa Rica - the first time I had ever visited Central America - were spent in Alajuela in a hostel that i-to-i use for all it’s volunteers when they first arrive, and before they fly out - the Mango Verde. I found the internet café and a supermarket and so did the various chores that needed to be done! I met other volunteers, all of whom were between the ages of 17 - 26, so at least 20 years younger than me! Most were Americans (mostly female), others came from the UK, Ireland, Finland, Australia, Norway. We were given a one day briefing about volunteering, Costa Rica, travelling around and general info about i-to-i. I think it is great that so many young people are interested in volunteering - it would never have
crossed my mind when I was their age. Some were doing conservation work like me, but most were either volunteering in schools or on construction projects. On the Monday night we all went to a club/bar/casino on the other side of Alajuela where it was ladies night - free alcohol till 11 pm. It was great fun - we went and played on some of the slot machines, and then dance the night away (till midnight), dancing to the live bands that played fantastic salsa music - it was excellent fun.
The next day I got the public bus up to Caňas in the Guanacaste region, north from Alajuela. The flat, dry forest landscape was different to the hills and valleys of the cloud and rain forests further south. I arrived at Las Pumas where I was to spend the next 17 days. I met Cathy one of the other volunteers, and Marie-Carmen who was on the staff and responsible for the education side of the shelter. I was to stay in the volunteer house, which had room for four volunteers, although there were only three of us when I was there. All the staff were very friendly and
very committed to the work done at Las Pumas. Carmen was the biologist who was responsible for the volunteers, she spoke good English and was a lovely sweet person, very kind and thoughtful. The staff were keen to practice their English on me, but it was quite funny because Cathy from California taught them English, but of course our accents and the way we pronounced words was very different which caused great confusion at times! Cathy does a lot of wildlife work in California, and was helping the staff at Las Pumas to set up processes and protocols, and generally advising them, as well as using her expertise to develop the shelter, and helping Carmen’s plans to get one step closer to reality. Lynn was the other volunteer, she was a friend of Cathy, and was a veterinarian so was able to help Marta the resident vet at Las Pumas. Unfortunately there was not much vet work to be done on this occasion, whereas when Cathy had been at Las Pumas last year they could have done with another pair of expert hands to help out with all the animals that we being brought in.
My days were pretty
much routine - in the morning breakfast at 0700, start working at 0800 which meant chopping fruit and vegetables for the grey foxes, capuchin monkeys, scarlet macaws, parrots and parakeets. After that I would sweep the paths clear of leaves… this was a good time to make friends with the animals. Of course my favourites were the cats - there were 7 margays, 1 jaguarundi, 2 jaguars, 1 ocelot and 3 pumas. My special favourites were two orphaned pumas who were 18 months old - Delila and Samson. They were found when they were about 2 days old, their mother had been frightened away by a farmer’s dog which had injured Samson who as a result walked like he was drunk - a big cat full of character - I really did fall in love with him! He would purr at me and one morning came when I called him - he bounded out from the undergrowth at the back of the cage and pushed his face up against the wire of the cage - as if asking me to stroke him, purring all the time. He would also play in the pool they had in their cage - playing
with the fruit or vegetables - he was such fun to watch. Most of the animals on public show would never be able to be released into the wild because they were too reliant on humans, were too injured to look after themselves, or could not fend for themselves for a variety of reasons. There was a quarantine area where they had animals (including cats) which they hoped to release into the wild. These were mainly orphaned or injured animals, or young animals which were sold as pets and were then confiscated by the authorities as it is illegal to keep wild animals as pets. However it is pretty common to keep wild animals as pets, and that was one of the main messages of Las Pumas to the Costa Rican visitors - do not keep wild animals as pets. My other tasks involved taking down the plant and tree signs, checking the spelling of the words, sanding them down and designing a template for them to be repainted. I also designed a guide for visitors so that they could see which animal was where and the names of them all. I also did some tours for the visitors -
which I loved doing!
Las Pumas is great because the staff really care about the animals. For example they feed the cats at different times of the day and in different ways to keep the occupied and to stop them getting bored. They also have an enrichment programme where they give them ‘toys’ so that they have some stimulation. This was something that Lynn and Cathy were involved in. While I was there the toucan, Pepe, was killed because something got into his cage and attacked him. Lynn and Cathy spent time putting new smaller mesh wire around that cage so that in future nothing could get in. The cages are all reasonably sized and well designed - each has shadey areas, fresh running water, things to climb on and plenty of places where the animals and birds can hide. It was a great place. We stopped work about 1630, and our supper was at 1800. The shelter was visited twice a week by a van from a patisserie - we liked those visits!! And Lynn and I went into Caňas a couple of times and had some ice cream, visited the internet café, and stocked up on things
Two of the disabled parrots
Some had been kept in glass bottles and some had their wings clipped when they had been pets or attractions in hotels like emergency water (!) and other goodies. We didn’t have continuous rain - even though it was the rainy season, it really only rained whilst I was there for between 10 mins and 3 hours a day, although we did have three consecutive days with no rain at all. We had our own colony of leaf cutter ants too which fascinated me! There were also a couple of orphaned young howler monkeys which lived in the trees around the volunteer’s house, and a troop of wild howler monkeys which lived in the trees above the shelter and surrounding area.
I would like to thank Lynn, Cathy and Carmen for their photos which are here on this site, with ther permission. My camera was stolen whilst in Costa Rica (see next blog entry) and so I lost all my photos. THANK YOU ALL for sending me your photos and letting me share them with others on this site.
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