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Published: April 30th 2010
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I had decided I needed to do something spectucularly different and involving over Easter otherwise I would miss everyone at home too much. What I settled on was volunteer work at the newest Inti Warra Yassi park, Jacj Cuisi. They have two pumas and volunteers are needed to help with construction. I´m not shy of a bit of physical labour and I like the basic lifestyle so I thought this would be perfect. It nearly was.
To get there, I had to get a mototaxi to the ferryport, cross the river on a little narrowboat, and catch a bus in the direction of Ixiamus. The bus didn´t go until it was full, so I spent an hour or so waiting. Three other gringos caught the same bus, Scott, Ela and Kasia. Scott is a joiner so he was going to be hot stuff at the park. We arrived as everyone had just finished eating lunch and we discovered that two other volunteers, Phil and Riikka, had just arrived too. One of the girls who was there long-term (months? years?) gave us a tour of the site and I loved it. There was a house with an open-sided dorm where we
slept, a new kitchen with gas hobs (I´d been expecting the kitchen to be a firepit), an area called the chaco, which was basically non-jungle, and the jungle. There was also a lovely spot to have a dip in the river, which we needed to do twice a day as we sweated so much there. There were little fish in the river which bit some but either they didn´t bother me or I´ve got thick skin on my bum and I couldn´t tell. You could also wash your clothes in this spot on a giant rock with some water-friendly soap. I can´t remember what we did that first afternoon but I think we might have gone up to the cage in the jungle where the construction work was needed. That evening, Vanessa, the deputy manager or something, cooked a delicious meal and some of the girls shared their Ceibo (96% proof alcohol or thereabouts) with us. It was mixed with water and a sachet of squash powder. Not my favourite drink! The next day Vanessa went to Rurre to get some supplies and we put in an order for beer. The really weird thing about this place was that everyone
went to bed after dinner at about 8.30pm. Then they´d get up before getting-up time and eat breakfast early. This behaviour really got on my nerves, especially as they had a rule that the last person to come to breakfast was responsible for clearing up. It made it a bit like a two-tier system: the long-termers, who had all known each other for years, and the volunteers. To my mind, eating breakfast together would be a good way to start the day, but never mind.
The second day, which was Easter day, we had cake for breakfast, and it was much appreciated. Then Vanessa took us on a walk of the jungle boundary to put some signs up. I´m not sure what we did in the afternoon, but it was probably carrying rocks from the chaco up to the cage in the jungle. We had some more interesting work the next morning when we fixed and finished off the fencing of the cage. Rock-carrying and sand-carrying continued the next day in preparation for cementing the base of the fence, which was started that afternoon. The cement was made Bolivian-style: sand, cement and water were placed in the middle of
a tarpaulin and at each corner of the tarpaulin was a person who then hefted up their corner in turn to create the mixture. That evening was Kasia´s last night and I stayed up a bit later with her and one of the guys who was looking after a puma, Taylor. After Kasia went to bed, I discovered that Taylor also thought the long-term volunteers were a bit odd, so we had a bit of a rant about the strange set-up and negative atmostphere. I decided to leave with Riikka after one more full day.
We worked very hard that next day, completing the cementing of one side of fencing. I continued to be very glad all day that it was my last. After work, I bumped into Taylor who had been mauled and bitten by the puma for the last time and had decided to leave the next day too. To my utter shock, there was a bit of post-supper activity on this night. Someone made a fire and we all sat around it. After about 20 minutes, people started going to bed and soon it was just Taylor and me, drinking whisky, talking books and watching fireflies.
What an exciting morning! I´ve never been so pleased to leave somewhere. We waited outside the park for a car or bus or anything to take us to San Buenaventura, which is across the river from Rurre. Some giant brown waspy thing with dangly legs flew straight at my wrist and bit/stung me with its face. It really hurt and three weeks later I still have a scab over the hole it left. Whatever it was packed a right punch. A bus came eventually and we got to a hostel in Rurre called El Curichal. We had all this stuff planned for when we finally escaped and we fulfilled all objectives that afternoon: French bakery, Mirador swimming pool, piña colada. That evening we went to Julianos for some delicious munch - I had river fish, which was quite meaty. Riikka had booked herself on the pampas tour the following day and was quite knackered so she went back to the hostel quite early. Taylor and I went to the Monkey Bar and played pool. I´m happy to announce that I won, just, but I had some help (I have finally relearnt the correct pool-shooting stance) and I think Taylor
may have let me.
I was going to dawdle back to La Paz, having bought a ticket for the riverboat from Rurre to Guanay. There are some gold mines near there that I was going to see if I could check out and maybe stop off in Coroico too. However, in the end, I decided it would be highly advantageous to get to La Paz as soon as possible. The boat journey took much longer than I´d been told and arrived in Guanay at 7.30pm. It was a relaxing, lazy journey, but the scenery didn´t change as much as I´d thought it would. The boat was bigger than the one I went on during the Pampas tour and not as comfortable. It was pretty much a water-based colectivo and we picked up and dropped off hundreds of passengers and their fish/chickens/drums of oil/bicycles along the way. The "guide" on the boat told me that I´d missed the bus to La Paz, at which there was much dismay. However, he got me in a car going to Caranavi for not too many Bolivianos. It was a bit like a bus in that it went when it was full but it
was a lot more comfortable. I fell asleep on the way. In Caranavi, I got bustled into another car going to La Paz and finally arrived at about 2.30am.
The following week was spent in various eating and drinking establishments, mostly 5 mins walking distance or less from our hostel, with Taylor, Barry and Elina. Oh, and we went to the Coca Museum, which was a total mess. What were they thinking?
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Jess
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Taylor
Emma and Taylor sitting in a tree.... x