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Published: July 24th 2008
Monkey Mum
Traveling with Ant was good preperation for Jen's new role.Hello boys and girls. We expect you're very bored of these blogs by now but we'll keep soldiering on. Like talking to someone who lost consciousness years ago, we feel it's important to keep whittering away in the faint hope that our words will offer some comfort. In fact, let's start with some news for those that don't know. We're due back in England on 20th December, which is less than 5 months now and which means, in the grand scheme of things, we're just around the corner. So if you want us to pick up some milk, just let us know.
So then. After umpteen years fulfilling nothing more than our own selfish desires, we decided it was time to do something worthwhile. A few weeks ago we'd heard that there existed a place where you can do volunteer work with animals, which doesn't cost the world. Most 'volunteer' projects expect the volunteers to spend at least 500 quid a week to sit and watch a sea turtle's eggs get washed into some warm sea, but we didn't have that kind of money and Bolivia doesn't have any warm seas, or cold ones for that matter. Instead, it has
Cochabamba to Villa Tunari
The road to Inti Warra Yassi was pretty effing spectacular. a project called Inti Wara Yassi which aims to rehabilitate native animals that have been abused, so many come from circuses or have just been dumped on the doorstep by witless owners who have had enough. We trundled along there from Cochabamba (a stunning drive, by the way) not really knowing what to expect but hoping we could do our bit to help out. We arrived at around 6pm which, we later discovered, is around about finishing time for most volunteers, so there were loads of people sitting around having a beer, which seemed like a pretty good start. We were too late for the tour, but in time to be given our roles; Jen was to be monkey mum - looking after six baby Capuchin monkeys who lived in the quarantine area; Ant was to be on construction duty for the first day or so before moving into the clinic to work with the vets. That all seemed tickety boo, and with the other two arrivals that day, the construction team would be helping to build new surfaces under the monkey's cages, also in the quarantine area. This seems like a good time to point out to any potential
Untangling Delila
Bless her. Delila wasn't very good on her rope and was always getting it tangled. She's then unload her vast bladder on your shoulder. volunteers reading this that we knew that with only two weeks to offer, we wouldn't be working with any of the big cats. IWY has a number of cats (Jaguars, Pumas, Ocelots) who need walking through tough jungle tracks and because of the nature of the beasts, they need longer term volunteers who can build up some trust with them. They are, after all, dangerous creatures and a rapid turnaround of volunteers wouldn't do the cat, or them, any good. That's not to say that monkeys aren't equally as dangerous, as pretty much every volunteer finds out at one time or another. However, the first danger we had to face, and which we would have to face every day, was the bridge between the project site and our digs; affectionately known as 'Death Bridge'. This 200m slab of concrete, high above a river, affords no room whatsoever for pedestrians - it is also the main road between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, which means that every single bus, lorry, large lorry and massive lorry crosses it, forcing the petrified pedestrian to leap onto the ledge and cling on for grim death as the passing vehicle careers past. It is surely a
Wilma and Jen
Wilma clung to Jen like a squirming shoulder pad. matter of time before some wide load or typically Bolivian piece of driving sends a well-meaning volunteer over the edge, plummeting to the rocks below.
We made it across the bridge and back the next morning to begin our work. Now, there's no point giving you all a day-by-day breakdown. Not that it wouldn't be terrifically fascinating for you all, learning about the quality, or lack thereof of Bolivian cement, or just how many times a baby monkey can poo or pee on a girl who's usual contact with animals lasts about three minutes before a sneezing fit sends the creature scurrying away. Suffice to say that monkeys are cheeky - the phrase is no coincidence - and seeing Jenny with six of the little buggers scurrying round, nipping, jumping and using her head as a springboard made her look like one of those mums you see on the front of The News Of The World under the headline: 'Benefit Cheat Mum Claims "My Kids Are No Criminals"'. Beautiful, furry, cheeky little scallywags that they were, Jenny had her work cut out and for the next two weeks the words 'NO!', 'OW!' and 'X's ESCAPED!' became the foundations of
Team Construction
A juggler, TV producer, snowboard instructor and finance director - how long will their constructions last? Jen's vocabulary. Fun though it sounds, it's a big responsibility. Each of the baby monkeys was there because it had been taken away from its mum or it's mum had been killed, so it must have delighted the little critters to see Jen become their bringer of food and cleaner of poo. She would become the one on whom they could practice their grooming and the delightful routine of putting their food in her mouth. Not that Jenny played along with that one. What their natural mothers would do is chew the food for them then give it back in an easy-to-eat ball of goo, much like a Safeway microwave meal for one. But Jenny has standards and masticating for monkeys isn't one of her tricks. It has to be said though that as time wore on and her head and clothes began to resemble a baby monkey playground, she did begin to fit in and look more and more like a true monkey mum and some days it was difficult to pick her out amongst the banana leaves, branches and balls of fur in her cage.
As we were both working in the quarantine area, what we largely
Ant and Delila
Having a clutchy spider monkey on your shoulder tends to get in the way of constructiuon work, but it was a welcome break. saw was the area of the park that is hardest to swallow; where quite a few of the monkeys are kept in cages, although a good number of them are let out all day to bounce around with one another, leap on passers-by and stick their fingers in noses, ears, belly buttons and any other part of the human body which looks interesting. There are numerous reasons why these animals aren't yet free, the main one being that new arrivals have to spend a certain amount of time in quarantine before they can move to areas where they might be given more freedom. The trouble is that there are so many monkeys in the park already that the flow is not as rapid or as smooth as it ought to be. But essentially, most of the monkeys are moving in the right direction and it is the job of the volunteers to make sure that their day to day lives are as good as they can be under the circumstances. A large part of this is ensuring that the environment surrounding the animals is as clean as possible, and so after one day spent building a concrete platform under one
More of the babies
She's not smiling, she's grimacing from yet another nibble to the ear. small monkey cage, it became clear that a big job that needed doing was building several more platforms under the rest of the (much larger) cages. And so, 'team construction' was formed, consisting of Ant, Dave (IWY veteran), Thomas and any other volunteers, willing or otherwise, who had just arrived and were awaiting their 'proper' job. In the meantime Ant's job in the clinic disappeared when his predecessor decided to stay on, which suited everyone just fine.
And so for the next two weeks, Jen became Chav Mam, keeper of the furry scallies, and Ant spent half his time under shitty cages, digging out putrid soil and replacing it with cement of incredibly average quality. Funnily, our jobs threw up amazing insights into the characters of ourselves, other volunteers and Bolivians. Ant learnt that Bolivian cement dealers were capable of denying the presence of their cement, even when standing next to 5000 bags of the stuff and being offered much more money than the regular price. Team construction learnt that not all volunteers see construction as a worthy way to spend their time. Sadly, some people turn up hoping for their 'moment' with a particular animal and are shocked
to learn that they may have to spend a day or two helping to build better homes for them. But on the whole, the people that make up IWY, those that don't bugger off after one day when they didn't get to play with monkeys, are a strong group who collectively, just about, keep it ticking over. The people who really make the difference are the ones that have a practical understanding of what it takes to look after animals; they shit and piss a lot, and they need feeding continually. Once you've got used to that idea, you're half way there. There's no point turning up hoping to develop a bond with an animal over two weeks - they're still animals and hopefully, will be wild again sometime soon. That said, it is difficult resisting the cute little buggers - those that are cute and little. Not all monkeys are cute, and they all have big teeth, as Ant's finger found out one morning. Note: don't remove a monkey's blanket when your hand is within incisor distance of a Capuchin. In fact, also don't remove a monkey's blanket when your eye is within arms distance of a Spider Monkey.
Nearly had my eye out
Spider monkeys have very long arms, and in Chepeto's case, sharp fingernails. For someone working in construction, Ant seemed to get a disproportionate number of injuries.
But injuries are a regular part of daily life at IWY and for the most part, people take it on the chin, (or the hand or the finger) and get on with it. And although no one ever explained what we might be exposed to if we were bitten, there was a generally relaxed attitude towards the bites and scratches that seemed to suggest that we won't be harbouring rabies. Apparently all of the animals have been vaccinated...so we´ll keep our fingers crossed on that one. That sort of sums up IWY. The general feeling is that those that are there get their heads down and get on with it, because it takes a lot of people working hard to make the place happen. It would be lovely if someone had had the time to sit down and explain to us what might happen if we got bitten, but no one had the time. It's a pretty seat of the pants kind of place, which just about ticks over, thanks to the help of committed volunteers. It's a shame that it has to rely on
The Bog
Note the plumbing on the sink. Bolivian engineering at its best. inexperienced people with only a short amount of time to spare - ourselves included - because the animals deserve more focused attention. But it's a place that does remarkably well with the resources it's got.
Now you may have noticed that there have been no tales of extra curricular activity or embarrassing drunken happenings. And this is because all we did for two weeks solidly was work our butts off. 'About time too' we hear you say. That's not to say that there wasn't the odd party night, it's just that we all knew we'd be up at 7am the next morning, putting on the same sweaty socks and wellies, getting them sweaty all over again. And in a climate so humid that nothing dried, everything got very sweaty.
Our two week stint flew by, even when we extended it by a day so that Ant could have one final fling under a monkey cage, and when it all came to an end, we realised for the first time how hard it would be to leave. In all honesty, it wasn't too hard to say goodbye to a few bags of cement, but there were lots of monkeys
More of Jen and the little uns
Note Jen's school mistress collar...the only way of keeping them from climibing in. on top of all Jenny's little ones, which will be sorely missed. On our final day we were finally able to have a proper look around the park and see what a beautiful setting we had been living and working in for the past two weeks. There had only been two occasions - when both Ant and Jenny (fuelled by a bottle of wine) threw themselves into the unknown by helping track down a lost cat and its volunteers which involved a two hour jog through the rain lashed jungle, encountering scorpions and massive spiders along the way - when either of us had seen anything much beyond the monkey quarantine area, and standing at the mirador looking out over the mountains and river surrounding Parque Machia, made leaving all the harder. But, of course, we had to leave. Like two Littlest Hobos, we've got to keep moving on, and for us, La Paz would be our next stop, after one more night in Cochabamba to acclimatise. We'd achieved one goal - warming up - and it would be time again to dig out our scarves and thermals once more. And gosh me sideways with a fish fork, we had
Evening Out at Reds
With Roy (after whom one of the Pumas is named), Thomas and Katie some adventures lined up in La Paz. Oh yes dadio.
More info on Inti Wara Yassi: http://www.intiwarayassi.org/
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Harmen kloosterboer
non-member comment
Nice
Wow, I didnt realize you guy were THIS funny ;-) Keep up the good work. I have to run now, the guys in the internet café are looking a bit weird at me. Probably cuz i´ve been laughing like hell for the last 20 minutes. And to be honest a 2 meter tall guy shitting himself from laughing does look kinda..... excentric.