Los Animals in Villa Tunari

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After spending spending an extra cold night in Uyuni due to the one and only cash machine in town running out of money, and us not having enough cash on us to get a bus out of there until the machine was refilled, we eventually arrived in Cochabamba. The bus journey there was terrible. We took a night bus and the driver seemed to think it was reasonable to play Bolivian pop music at full blast throughout the bus. Any music would have been annoying at this time of night but unfortunately for us Bolivian pop music has to rank amongst the worlds worst musical genres. Every song sounds pretty much the same, the lead instrument is a keyboard, with an effect that wouldn´t have even been cool in the 80's, that sounds like a trumpet filled with rice pudding and the vocal melodies are truly nauseating. Bad times. We decided to stay in Cochabamba for a couple of nights before heading to an animal sanctuary about three hours away in Villa Tunari where we had decided to spend two weeks volunteering. I ate in nice restaurants and prepared for two weeks of no luxuries. Lil had to watch as she had been poisoned in Uyuni, the only thing she could consume was water and whilst sitting in a restaurant one morning a crazy old women decided to come over to our table and steal Lil's drink. We were about to say something when she turned on her heel and revealed her torn, blood stained dress. Best leave her well alone we thought.

The bus ride from Cochabamba to Villa Tunari was spectacular although it took us along time to get out of Cochabamba as there were road blocks because of the upcoming political elections. The ride took us up into some mountains and for some time we were driving through the cloud and then we started to descend, we snaked down the side of the mountains which were now covered in tropical rainforest. We arrived in Villa Tunari and the minibus dropped us of near Inti Wara Yassi, the animal sanctuary. As we waved goodbye to the bus and put our backpacks on a terrible feeling came over me, I realised I had left my guitar on the bus and it was quickly disappearing into the distance. Goodbye guitar. I promised to buy myself a new one when we arrived in La Paz.

Villa Tunari is a small town in the middle of a jungle and is home to Inti Wara Yassi which was to be our home for the next two weeks. It is also home to about three hundred monkeys, several big cats, various small animals such as Tejons and Tyras, many birds and even a Spectacled Bear (like Paddington). All the animals have been rescued, some were kept as pets and some were in circuses and it would be our job to care for them.

We were given a brief tour of the park with the other new arrival who was a Dutch guy called Paul who we became good friends with. Afterward we were given our jobs and told which area of the park we would be working. Lil was put in Monkey Park which involved looking after all the semi wild Spider Monkeys and Capuchins and I was put in Small Animals which meant looking after the Tejons, Tyras and Cuchi Cuchi's.

On our first day we got kitted out in second hand clothes and wellies and started work. All was going well until it came time to give the Tejons their lunch. Tejons are lovely friendly creatures UNLESS they are snaffling in the dirt for grubs or they are eating. The Tejons are attached to long runners during the day so they can run around. We put them all back in their cages so they could eat their lunch and I went to un-clip the rope from one the Tejon's collars, Camilla. As she was half through a piece of papaya at the time she naturally turned and savaged my hand. With blood pouring everywhere I ran to the vets clinic where I was given five stitches in my hand. A good start.

After learning my lesson the rest my time went without incident. The days started at 7.30 with the animal's breakfasts, then I cleaned cages and did odd jobs until lunch. In the afternoons the Tejons were taken for walks and we had time to play with them, especially Flaca (Spanish for skinny) who was a young Tejon who had been kept as a pet and wasn't fed properly so she was very skinny. Their dinner was at about 5.30 and then all the animals were put to bed and I could finish work and have a well deserved beer.

Lil's first day had gone much better, a day in monkey park started with preparing breakfast. After breakfast had been devoured the banana skins had to be cleared up, then there were a few hours of nothing to do but cuddle and play with the monkeys until it was time to repeat the process for lunch and dinner. Unlike tejons the monkeys love to play while they're eating their food, sometimes sitting on your head and trying to feed you a bite of their banana and looking completely confused and insulted when you refuse the offer.

As the monkeys in monkey park are only semi-wild they all have names and Lil was introduced to the main ones. Panceta and Wendy, the most playful and friendly of the Capuchins; Speedy and Toatoa, the two big males who never quite made it to 'Alpha Male' status of the group and so were harmless but had to be watched; and Selean, the Alpha Male of the Capuchins who stood out because of his darker, shinier fur, big teeth and also the fact that he was twice the size of all the others and looked more like a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Lil was warned that he enjoyed reconfirming his status as the biggest and scariest by attacking the female volunteers.

It wasn't until her fifth day at the park that Selean decided he fancied a nibble on her ear. She was in the middle of clearing up cucumber skin from the feeding area when she felt the familiar weight of monkey jumping on her shoulder. The monkey felt slightly heavier than normal so she looked at a fellow volunteer and enquired who exactly was now sitting on her head? 'It's Selean' replied the volunteer. Lil froze and waited for the inevitable. After first of all trying to chew her head Selean took a nasty bite of her ear and then ran off as another volunteer started to throw water at him. At first it didn't really hurt but then the blood started to flow and it wasn't long before her neck, face and shirt were soaked in blood. Lil had to run past a big group of tourists with a jumper on her head so as not to scare them away to get to the vets to get cleaned up.

After this event Lil spent three more days in monkey park in constant fear of Selean who kept on giving her the evil eye. It was when Lil put two small children in between her and Selean that she realised it was time to leave monkey park and swapped with a another volunteer who worked with the birds. From then on it was only the macaw's sharp beaks she had to be afraid of.

This was our lives for two weeks. The days were always followed by a few beers with our friends and Villa Tunari had plenty of cheap restaurants to have our dinner at. Lomo Saltado with mash or the burgers from Mama Titties were our favourites. On our first weekend the town was hosting it's annual fish festival. This was basically a big party in a field with a loads of beer, lots of stalls selling fried fish and a stage with famous Bolivian pop bands playing terrible music. It was good fun, very different to festivals back home. Work was pretty hard the following day due a a few too many drinks. There were various fundraising events in the evenings too which normally involved daring someone to drink a bottle of cheap booze from a welly until they vomited. Nice.

The two weeks flew by and on our last night we stayed up and drank with our pals. The next day we packed our bags and said goodbye to our animals and headed back to Cochabamba to catch a bus to La Paz. Sad to leave but very excited for La Paz.

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