I have to say, I have had quite the time over the last two and a half months down here. Here’s a quick little recap of the first month.
I arrived tired but optimistic to the CondorTrekkers office in Sucre after 29 hours of travel. I had a couple bumps in the road getting there (a confused taxi driver, a lost wallet scare) but arrived in one piece. I was greeted by Randall and Romina, the owners of the organization. They gave me a quick tour around the place and took me to the house. Once I was showed around, I was led to my room where I promptly collapsed and slept for 4 hours. When I woke up, I went out to begin exploring my beautiful new city. I ended up at the Mirador, which offered an amazing panoramic view of Sucre. The whitewashed buildings set against the towering mountains were picturesque, I really could not believe it was my new home for the next three months. I returned to the house, finished settling in, and tried to combat the jet lag with about 14 1/2 hours of sleep.
Over the next couple days, I continued to explore, acclimated to the style of life, and began my work with CondorTrekkers. On my 5th day, I left to lead my first trek. It was a three day, 48 Km tour of the Marawa Crater, and I will admit I was moderately nervous for my first one. We started at at the ungodly hour of 4:30am and set off on a two hour bus ride through the mountains. We arrived at our starting point of about 3600m at the head of a pre-Inca trail, and set off towards the mist enshrouded valley below. The air was crisp and the mountains towered around us as we began our descent. Over the next three days we visited fossilized dinosaur footprints, hiked through grassy meadows speckled with grazing sheep, and visited a number of breathtaking waterfalls. It was an amazing trek, and I was completely blown away by the beauty and magnificence I was surrounded by. Unfortunately, I fell ill towards the end of the trek with an intestinal infection. When I returned to Sucre, I did little but sleep and visit the hospital for the next 10 days.
Thankfully, it finally cleared up and I was ready to get back to work again. Unfortunately, due to the fact that it was off-season, there wasn’t much to be done. I instead filled my days by trying to improve my Spanish at Me Gusta Spanish School, exploring Sucre and the surrounding area, and enjoying the Carnaval festivities. During those couple of weeks, I visited the largest collection of fossilized dinosaur footprints in the world, participated in “Revenge of the Gringos (a giant water balloon fight, Gringos vs. Bolivianos in honor of Carnaval), and visited a number of museums in Sucre. I also enjoyed the local food, and became addicted to saltenas, which are pastries filled with meat and vegetables While I was thoroughly enjoying myself during this period, I wanted to get back to volunteering and actually be doing something to help with my time. Since Condortrekkers wasn’t really providing any opportunities to do so, I began searching for some other options. While I didn’t really encounter any other opportunities in Sucre, I did come across Inti Wara Yassi (http://www.intiwarayassi.org/articles/volunteer_animal_refuge/home.html).
Inti Wara Yassi is a organization that consists of three animal reserves with over 700 animals at their parks. They are almost completely supported and run by volunteers, and they give you the opportunity to work hands on with wild animals. It sounded like a really cool opportunity, as well as something that would have me working hard and making a difference. So, I sent off an email to both my parents and Simone to get the ok to go to Parque Machia, the biggest of the three parks located outside of Cochabamba.
The answer was yes, so I began planning my departure. I decided to add in a side trip to the Salar De Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. I figured it was an opportunity I might never have again, and decided to Carpe some Diem. I checked bus schedules, booked a tour, and bid adieu to my friends in Sucre. I left in the early morning on a bus to Potosi, where I grabbed a bus to Uyuni and arrived at about 6 in the afternoon. I checked into my hostel and went to sleep nice and early in a REAL bed (I had been sleeping on the floor for the past month in Sucre). Needless to say, I slept like a baby and woke up ready to go. I packed and went to the tour office. We got started at around 10, and I piled into a 4WD with 5 other people.
We began at the train graveyard right outside of Uyuni, and from there head straight to the Salar. Visiting the Salar was one of the trippiest, most awe-inspiring experiences of my life. At the moment it’s currently half-flooded, which creates a mirror effect as far as the eye can see. It feels like you are walking through the sky in an endless continuum, where mountains float and the clouds are beneath your feet. It was such a strange, amazing experience. We headed further into the Salar to the part where it was still not flooded, and we entered a blindingly white desert as the water gave way to massive expanses of salt. We had lunch at a hotel made entirely of salt, and then went back towards Uyuni. We passed through and then continued on to San Cristobal, where we stayed the night. The next day we visited a number of places, my favorite being Laguna Canapa. Basically, it was a lake at about 17,000 ft surrounded by towering mountains and blanketed in snow. The most mind-blowing and absurd part was the flock of flamingos that inhabited it. It was just one of the craziest things I had ever seen. We had a delicious lunch on the banks of the laguna as we all marveled at the magnificent sight, and then continued on to the high desert. We reached the highest point of the trip at 17,360 ft among sandy rolling dunes. From there we descended to the “acampamento” where we would be staying the night. There was no electricity and no running water, not to mention it was quite cold. We retired quite early in preparation for our 4 am wake up call. We all groggily climbed out of bed and packed up before piling back into the 4WD at 4:30 am. We headed to the natural geysers first, which were quite magnificent even in the early hours of the morning. Unfortunately, it was dreadfully cold and none of us really wanted to get out of the car. So, we continued on to the hot springs. Once we arrived we got on our bathing suits, SPRINTED to the hot springs, and watched the sunrise as we warmed up. Afterwards we had breakfast and began the long road back to Uyuni.
Twelve hours later, we arrived and I got my baggage ready for the train I was taking that night. During the process, I had the gut-wrenching realization that my wallet was gone. I frantically tore apart everything looking for it, ran back to the tour agency, and retraced my steps. Alas, it was nowhere to be found. In hindsight, I now realize I left it on the curb of the gas station at San Cristobal, about two hours outside of Uyuni. With my remaining 17 Bolivianos, I called my parents to make a plan and get my cards cancelled. With a heavy heart I boarded the train for Uyuni at exactly midnight. I was so exhausted I slept the entire eight hour ride. I was woken by the conductor, telling me we had arrived. I got my stuff and wandered around Uyuni in the early hours, wondering what I should do. I thankfully happened upon a stall that would exchange my 20 US emergency money that I had in my backpack, and checked into the cheapest (but still safe) hostel that I could find and slept and chilled out till Monday. I was at the doors of the Western Union at 8 am, got my money, and boarded a bus for Cochabamba shortly thereafter. From there I pushed on and caught a minibus to Villa Tunari, where I arrived at 9 pm. I was greeted by some old friends from Sucre, and they showed me to my grungy, sweaty new dorm with a shower that seldom works (still doesn’t). Everyone’s clothes were ripped and smudged with dirt, there were bugs everywhere, and yet I felt more at home than I had in a while. I immediately knew it was the right fit for me. I hastily unpacked and went to sleep.
So, now I have been at Parque Machia for about seven weeks. Living in the Amazon working with animals has been a wild, crazy, amazing experience, and I’m grateful that I made the decision to leave Sucre. The nice thing about explaining any amount of time here is that every day is more or less the same. I work with Millie the Ocelot, and this is pretty much how our day goes:
I wake up at 7:30 every morning, don my work clothes and wellies, then head down to the cafe by 8:00. I order dos panqueques y huevos revueltos con pan tostado (two pancakes with scrambled eggs and toast) and say hello to our wonderful cooks, Benita and Dona Vicky. Then I sip my coffee while chatting with the other volunteers and eating a large, delicious breakfast. Come 8:25, I begin the preparations for the day. First, I grab Millie’s meat and check that it was cut and weighed properly (350-400g of skinless, bone-in chicken). Then I pick grass for her, get her medicine, and pack a snack for the day (usually ritz crackers and two nucita sandwiches, which is the Bolivian equivalent of Nutella). From there I grab the emergency phone sign out, and begin the morning trudge up the hill at 8:30. On my way out I grab my stick, which can be used for any number of purposes, from fending off evil monkeys and grumpy cats, to helping me keep my balance on her trails.
The climb to her cage is one of the worse parts of the day, as it is a steep, muddy, and altogether unpleasant 1 km trek before the day has really even started. As I round the corner to her cage, I breathlessly call out, “Hola mi Princesa!” and arrive already dripping sweat and covered in various pieces of jungle. She is always excited to see me, which is reward enough for the dubious walk up. I give her scratchies and talk to her as she purrs and rubs against the cage before I take her out. From there I enter and clip on her leash, but not before she sucks my thumb. It is a strange habit she developed after she was taken away from her mom at 3 weeks old, and is a way of both comforting herself and showing affection. Once she finishes, I put her on her wire runner. Then, I clean the cage and prepare her medicine. Once that’s all said and done, the day is hers. Usually we walk till about 12:30 on some of her 32 trails, all of which are overgrown, muddy, and without an inch of flat ground. Then she usually stops for her midday nap, which generally lasts 2 hours. At 1:00, I eat my snack which I’m usually done with by 1:20. I fill the rest of nap time with fighting off hoards of mosquitoes catching up on my journal, and reading. When she wakes up, she is usually quite grumpy and it takes a lot of encouragement and patience to get her back to her cage. Also, no matter which trails we took, the walk back is always uphill and she can be quite lazy. So when we finally make it back and I clip her onto the runner, it’s usually about 4:00.
We relax until feeding time at 4:30, when I put her back in the cage. I say “Adios, nos vemos manana!” and then begin the walk down. Once get back down to the Parque, I clean her dish, sign out, return the emergency phone, and fill out some paperwork. At 5:00, I have a quick lunch before running back to help out with the monkeys at 5:30. I usually spend the next hour sweeping monkey poop and playing with my favorite monkeys, Marco, Roberto, Nelson, Chuckie, and Hilda. By 6:30, we usually finish and my work day is FINALLY done. By the end of it, I have usually walked about 9-10 km, worked about 10 hours, gotten a few more scrapes and scratches, and A LOT more bug bites. Nevertheless, It’s pretty much always a good day and I head on home feeling happy and fulfilled During the rest of the day, I take a cold bucket shower, lay down for a bit, and find a group of people to go out to dinner with in the local town. There are three restaurants that we frequent, due to the fact that our kitchens are pretty much non-functional and the cafe doesn’t serve dinner. Those would be Pollo Edu, Jasmin’s Pizza Restaurant, and the Mexican Place (not really Mexican food, we just call it that because they have tortillas). We also occasionally have fun activities in the evening like dessert and movie nights, not to mention Milkshake Monday. After a good meal (possibly a movie and/or milkshake), we all usually go home and get to bed early to do it all over again, every single day, seven days a week. So that’s a basic day.
While that’s my routine 75% of the time, I thought I should also include some special occurrences that have happened. Very often I run into Gato the Puma, which is always exciting, and occasionally Balu the Andean Bear or Sonko the Puma. Sometimes wild Spider Monkeys come and play with me during Millie’s naps, or I watch a colony of all different sorts of monkeys fly over head. There are also times where Millie catches something, the most notable being a bat (it was quite a magnificent catch, very cool to watch). And there are other times when Millie uses me for pouncing practice, and I spend the day keeping her from latching onto my legs or torso. There has also been quite a few times when it rains and she refuses to walk, and (thankfully) even fewer times where she decides a walk in the absolute pouring rain sounds nice and I get completely soaked. And of course, this section would be complete without a mention of my arch-nemesis Speedy the Capuchin Monkey. He has attempted to terrorize the other volunteers and I for the duration of my stay. The stick I carry has been aptly named The Speedy Spear because of the amount of times I have had to use it against him. I have been luckier than other volunteers and thus far have come away with my belongings and being intact. Others, not so much. Only two weeks ago he sent a girl to the hospital with 17 stitches, and he steals someone’s lunch just about every other day. He is a little terror, and you always have to be on your game. So, as you can see, life at Parque Machia never really gets old.
Unfortunately, my time here is coming to an end. I only have 4 days left before I move on to La Paz, where I plan to get some laundry done, upload some pictures, and relax. On the 10th, I’m meeting up with some of my favorite chicas in the world (SHOUTOUT Miranda Shreiber and Ruby Gawlik!!!!) and on the 12th we are going to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. While we are there, we are planning on visiting La Isla del Sol and Las Islas Floatanes, some of the local attractions. From there we are going to The Sacred Valley outside of Cusco for a 3 day yoga retreat (recommended by SAM semester students) and then back into Cusco. My Dad, Uncle, and both of Miranda’s parents fly in on the 20th, and we all embark on the Salkantay Inca Trail on the 24th. Six days later, we will arrive at the beautiful Machu Picchu, and that will mark the end of my trip. So, in a nutshell, that’s what I’ve been up to and what I’m off to. I apologize for how long winded this entire entry was, but I had a lot to cover and succinctness has never been my strong point. I this entire experience has been so, so amazing, and I’m glad I could share it with you all. Shoutouts to both my family and CAM Fam, miss you all, and can’t wait to see some of you soon!
Signing out,
Hannah
Villa Tunari, Bolivia