Last thoughts leaving Bolivia and Ambue Ari

Six hours north from Santa Cruz

Arriving alter dark

Where Howler Monkies greet the dawn

And you can show'r with Aviram

It's Ambue Ari Park

 

Four nights sleeping in a quiet town

Though sometimes I heard La Bomba

And even though my gear got damp

I was finally glad to move to camp

And Ro's " 'morning Cochabamba"

 

A monkey peed on all my clothes

'cause my door someone LEFT OPEN

Stung over and over by fire ants

A scorpion's crawling inside my pants

What's the worst thing that could happen?

 

At half an tour past six o'clock

The comedor calls out dinner

Hot peanut soup, we eat and talk

Four to one Paper, Scissors and Rock

No plate washing for the winner

 

Hot water is on, the candles are lit

Writing info on my cat's form

Then time to chat, a book to read

Werewolf, chess and Junglespeed

Unless you're cool enough for Skydorm

 

Morning translations with Omer and Sev

Anuncios when you're finished eating

Don't bring outside your cups nor your platos

Be careful with the wind and your gatos

Alter 6 months, Duncan is leaving

 

Our sick monkey's lost in the Amazon

Then lessons on ecobanos

It's movie night, five B is the cost

And once again Chantal has lost

Something in Guarayos

 

CLOSE THE DOORS and don't hang your clothes

On any of the flora

Cat I has said that she will stay

Noemi's Hero of the Day

For removing Bora Bora

 

It's Friday tonight, let's all go to town

Flo's taxi is for hire

Get out your best shirt and pick off your ticks

Put Pios to bed and dinner's at six

Then Dave and Potable and fire

 

Two miles from camp, the mud and the bugs

Ru's runner with Ben and Johnny

San Pedro where we swim and run

Santa Maria's auc-ti-on

Gill says we raised lots of Money

 

So many memories I take away

Like that bird, what gave me a gash

Not knowing what's worse, the smoke or the mossies

Rugby abuse from the French and the Aussies

Or a festering tropical rash

 

Hitchhiking for hours just to use a computer

First it's pouring, then it's blazing

The bugs are biting, while the fish are not

It's really quite humid, but at least it's hot

Yet all of it was amazing.

 

Futbol with Sandro, Oso and Iver

CLOSE THE DOOR and please use the lock

Da-me  Cho-co-la-te and birthday cakes

The sound removing a Pitohu makes

And Roi's Bokel Tov Matok

 

Nick and his ringworm, jungle Walking Trees

Potatoes, Mike and his guitar

Monkey vandals and starlit skies

Talking with students, the fireflies

Weeks spent alone with my jaguar

 

For seven weeks I tried to give

A better life to Ru

Climbing, running, construction, stalks,

Licking, feeding, siestas, talks

He bettered my life too

 

It's a difficult thing to say goodbye

For I'll come back who knows when

I worked and helped, was sometimes sore

Yet Chantal and others did so much more

I hope we meet again

 

I wanted to say to you so much more

Before I left at ten

The camp, Ru and you will stay in my head

I-ron-ic-a-ly the last thing you said,

"The Door Here is Always Open"

New pics from Ambue Ari

Last post and thoughts after 2.5 months in Bolivia

Nosy Pecary(chancho) disturbing my outhouse time

Butterfly with an obvious eye spot.   But look close, on the left you see the nostrils, eye, lips and scales of a snake.   Immitating such as to frighten predators

Most of the volunteers after breakfast awaiting morning announcements on my second last day

Some friends waiting for a passing truck so we can hitch a ride back to camp.

Below.

Last night BBQ and music.     Then on to Rosario and eventually Buenos Aires, to say goodbye to friends, watch a football game or 3, enjoy some Asado and wine, then back home to Canada......for now.

After 5 weeks in the jungle

I saw my first annaconda recently. She was long and fat, swimming slowly across my trail. I was excited to finally see one up close after spending so many weeks imagining them...... and their methods of killing. They throw a couple coils of muscle around you and one around a tree or root so they can upend you into the water. They crack ribs and dislocate joints while biting you repeatedly. They also constrict your chest so that you will have difficulty breathing in the event you manage to get your face above the water. They refrain from breaking bones lest they harm themselves whilst swallowing you whole. Yes these thoughts run through my head now and then (read "daily") as I am wading along my trail. Alone. In the dark. The other day while walking with Chantel and her jaguar Amira (I feel like I´m cheating on Ru when I spend time with her, as she is so amazing) we bumped into a branch and onto Chantel´s shoulder plopped a yellowish snake. This caused a little bit of anxiety as she brushed it to the ground. "What kind of snake is it?" I asked in voice pitched slightly higher than normal. "I didn´t get a good look at it", she said. "And stay calm, if Amira senses you are panicky she will get agrivated. Nice one I thought, as the snake slid under the leaves, on the trail at our feet. There are somewhere between 1 and several venemous snakes down here, depending on whom you ask. I´ve seen as many as 7 different snakes on a good day and they all inspire different reactions depending on their size, colouring, and how confidently they seem as they wriggle towards you. We have had several in camp including some in the dorms where we sleep, happily hunting rats which is a mixed blessing. All in all its there is probably more danger hitching a ride to town to use the computer than from all the jungle animals put together, save the disease carrying mosquitoes. After 5 weeks helping my jaguar I have grown quite fond. I can read his disposition by his walk and his eyes, most of the time, and he has shown a lot of patience with me. One of my best days was spent with my cat Yaguaru in the morning and then with Yaguarupini in the afternoon. I took him for a walk with Mike, one of the longer term volunteers, and I was so captivated that I didn´t really even want to chat with Mike. He walked us very fast, with purpose and confidence, hunting along the trails that he decided on, for about 3 hours. He and my cat are the 2 biggest in the park. Ru is a mountain variety with a bigger head and heavier frame and Rupi is a jungle variety with longer legs and a more lithe build. Rupi took me for a bit of a sprint and also gave me a few friendly jumps. He did manage to throw me down but I swear it was only because my legs were wrapped up in his rope, in other words he cheated. Unlike my cat, Rupì does not use his teeth or claws, however, and despite being forwarned that he will jump me near this tree or that other one, and despite seeing his eyes and demeanor change while 3 metres away in the foliage, there is such a surge of adrenalin, at least on my part, and afterwards a grateful humility that he can play with so much control. I confess, I may be adicted to this. As I said, I´ve been fortunate to walk with a jaguar named Amira 8 or 10 times, and her volunteer Chantel, whose opinions and suggestions I respect greatly. Amira is 40 or 50 kg lighter, yet gets walked with two ropes for better control due to her being less predictable and being more inlined to jump. I´ve been jumped by her many times and taken to the ground as well. However, I compare this to walking with Rupi or working with my jaguar Ru and I can safely say to you that Size Does Matter. I have met many, many amazing volunteers in my time here. People who go hard for 60 to 80 hours a week and who contribute such a great energy to the work down here. I am constantly reminded of many of the great volunteers I work with at home and am grateful for the chance to know them all. Still a couple weeks to go. All the best from the Bolivian jungle, Roy

Yaguaru contimplating whether to nap or not

Howler Monkey harassing me and my cat

Ru with eyes closed but notice the spots which give enemies the impression that his eyes are open

South American Taipir

more jungle critters

Female Spider Monkey

My back up Jaguar, Amira who loves swimming, sometimes completely underwater and you can see her eyes as she swims towards you like a fish. I love walking with her

---

Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail

jungle animals

Yaguaru, giving a little bit of affection

Ru´s eyes turn green before he jumps you as his pupils enlarge so much before the pounce.

Eyes turn green, shorts to clean

---

The new Internet Explorer® 8 - Faster, safer, easier. Optimized for Yahoo! Get it Now for Free!

Bolivian Amazon Feb - March 2010

I arrived 1 month ago in the belly of the Bolivian Amazon jungle, where I put up with biting insects, clothes that are never dry - let alone clean, mud and foot fungus so that I might help care for rescued wildlife. By the way it´s worth it 20 times over.

I start each day with my share of camp chores and then a solo 45 min walk along a trail flooded ankle to waist deep. My charge and I then greet each other with enthusiastic scratching and licking, I the former and he the latter. Yaguaru is a 120 kg male jaguar, rescued from a family basement a few years ago, to come here for a better life. He is playful, beautiful and can stop your heart with one significant look.

My goal here is to get him excercising more, and today marks the completion of 2 new runners or zip lines allowing him access to the river where he loves to swim. The project took much of the last 3 weeks and so a few big wigs came out today to see him swim for the first time in 6 months, buuuuuuut he decided not to swim. I suspect he was a bit excited by all the attention. He has not been "walked" outside his enclosure these past 6 months as he put a few extra holes in a previous volunteer. It´s okay though, he was French.

Ru and I struggle daily with the Alpha Male thing. He seems to think that having all those pointy bits, while being slightly quicker and larger trumps my larger brain and oposable thumbs.....I´ll keep you posted on how it all unfolds.

He has jumped me a couple times and has gnawed on the hand that feeds him fresh meat, but always playfully. I can make him yawn, he lets me pick ticks from his head(but nowhere near his abdomen), he eats grass from my hand ever so delicately which aids in digestion or make him vomit and he is quite afraid of lizards. He will never be released but maybe, just maybe, if he can learn to be outside with people without jumping on them too much, he will be "walked" again. Maybe.

I also spent 10 very excellent days "walking" with an 80 kg female jaguar named Amira, but that is a story for another day. It was really cool though.

Some of the things I am expected to do in an average day include;
Motivating a jaguar to run and jump.
Discourage a jaguar from running and jumping.
Anticipating when they are likely to pounce on you or to go running off down the trail, dragging you after a lizard or wild pig in the bushes.
Understanding how their behaviour will likely change given the change in wind, rain or temperature.
Finding new places to hide their food to encourage them to "hunt".
Finding new ways to make their day more interesting.
Finding crickets that one of our sick monkeys would like to eat.
Going out at night to retrieve a stuborn and "in heat" puma and her two handlers.
There is very little training and no literature to peruse but luckily these sort of things come quite naturally to someone who has spent time working with salmon such as I have.

Alas I have spent most of this month with two jaguars but also a bit of time with a puma and two ocelots. In all that time I have received two wounds and both of them from a miserable Macaw that I feed in the ealy morning. I am secretly hoping for a better scar which I can share with people as I get older. "Yep", I would say, pointing at the scar across my chest and neck. " That was a jaguar what got me back in 2010". Then I could retell the story over a pint of ale.

I have about 3 more weeks that I plan to help here before moving on. There is lots to do and volunteers have dropped from over 70 to about 30 in the last 4 weeks. More work but more rewards.

Until next time. Cheers from Ambue Ari, Bolivia, Roy

jjj

Yaguaru´s first day on his new "runner" which allows him access to the river for swimming and playing.....he chose not to swim this day

Ru unsure of whether to come out of his enclosure, or else he is feigning apathy so that I will come closer in order to teach me that I really don´t know anything about jaguars at all.

---

Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr!

Life in prison - February 2010

To escape a violent and controlling husband, Cheryl needed money. She wanted to leave South Africa and start a new life. She steeled herself to do anything.

I met Cheryl here in La Paz, in the women´s prison and have spent much of the last several days visiting with her. She is a very frank and engaging person and has experienced more than most in the past 26 months. She accepts full resposibility for her actions and told me about her life before and during her time in prison.

A friend of her husband agreed to give her $5,000 if she would trasport 2 suitcases from La Paz to Mallorca, Spain. She agreed, flew here, rented a room and awaited instructions. She was given $500 for expenses and told to purchase enough clothing to fill the suitcases which arrived at her room, seemingly, empty. The cocaine was pressed flat between carbon paper to fool X-Rays, then covered in coffee syrup to fool the dogs and hidden in the base of each suitcase. Foolproof.

After 5 days in La Paz she took her suitcases to the airport and was boarding the plane when she was pulled aside. She remembers the name of the beautiful but well trained golden lab which was running back and forth between her two bags on the tarmac. She denied the bags were hers however, the luggage tags matched those on her boarding pass. The customs agent fired up a chainsaw and ran it through her luggage sending white powder everywhere.

I tried and failed, 3 times, to bribe my way into the men´s prison here, after reading/hearing about how interesting it is inside. Then I learned about a white lady busted for smuggling so decided I would ask to visit her and am glad I did. Cheryl thanks God that she was busted in Bolivia instead of Europe or USA where she would recieve 10 to 20 years in a hard prison. Or in Asia where she could be executed for smuggling 8kg of cocaine worth over $500,000 on the resort beaches of Spain.

Her life is not all that bad she says, considering. She is locked up at night, to sleep, but during the day can wander around the prison, sit in a courtyard, take classes, purchase food in a restaurant, go to church or sit in her little "suite" to watch a DVD, cook, read, or listen to music.

On the occasions I came to visit we would sit outside and order lunch or a drink off one of the prisoners licenced to sell food. The banana smoothies are pretty good. Several of the ladies had children. They were running and playing and arguable better off in prison with their mothers than outside, orphaned on the street, like so many others. Cheryl misses her english speaking friend, a Philipino lady who was released a few weeks ago. She has not had visitors and her family has not been to see her, though her parents send her enough money to cover her expenses. She has 3 boys, with her first husband, from 15 to 23 and is not sure if they even know her situation.

Cheryl has been imprisoned for 2 years and 2 months though she has yet to be tried or convicted. She gave $4,000 to her lawyer, with assurances that this would be enough to pay her way out. It was all she could raise and he simply put it in his pocket leaving her angry and broke and vulnerable. Like all the prisoners, she must pay for everything inside. She must rent her room from the prison, though they deny this to Amnesty International, Prisoners Abroad and other interested groups. She purchases her food, toilet paper, and a shower costs 30 cents. She has had over a dozen visits to court. Each time she is acompanied by 2 police. She pays taxi costs and if it occurs over lunch then she pays for lunch for her guards too. To see a doctor it´s the same. Pay for the taxi, consultation fee and any meds she might need.

If a prisoner does not have family to send money, they must find a way to get it. Some steal, some find a job in the prison, others manufacture cocaine which they export, usually stuffed into condoms and hidden up inside their older children, who leave to attend school. The condoms are provided by a church group, trying to prevent women from becoming pregnant or infected while in prison.

Cheryl doesn´t speak much spanish and there are no other english speakers in prison so she was quite grateful for the company and conversation. I brought her some things she can´t get inside, like english books and movies, make-up and some fresh fruits. 3 limes is the maximum however, as people inject them with alchohol to take inside. I wish I could share a photo with you but cameras are forbidden and perhaps it´s best.

My visit yesterday was my last, sadly, as I´m leaving for the Amazon jungle today. I went to the prison with a few other backpackers who were interested to meet with her and they enjoyed their time as much as she did. With luck this will continue. People going to visit with her and telling others who do the same. It´s a chance to give something to someone in need, while learning a little bit about life in Bolivia in return.

Cheers, Roy

pics 39 to 43

Some pictures from the

"World´s Most Dangerous Road"

A beautiful bike ride

Washing off some of the mud

Town at the bottom of the hill

Aparently I can´t put pics in order

pics 34 to 38

Stopping for a rest

pics 29 to 33

View from where Leandro wiped out

One of the washouts due to rainy season weather

Rewarded half-way with some Bolivian coke

pics 21 to 28

Trains used at the turn of the last century

Goofing around in the Salar de Uyuni - salt flats

Carnival dancer in Oruro

Repairing tire after Leandro´s wipeout

pics 13 to 20

Notice cheeks bulging with coca leaves

Reflection of a church in Salta

Cemetary south of La Quiaca

Tupiza hostel

Bus terminal

$2 room

pics 5 to 12

Guard dog in my hostel

Scenes from the Quebrada de Cafayate

Learning how to improve on explosives

Why are you running?

You said we had 30 seconds