Inti Wara Wassi

I have just finished my first week at Parque Ambue Ari. It has been a challenging but very rewarding one.

Every day wake up call is at 6:30. We all roll out of our bunks and start our daily and weekly tasks- things like setting up for breakfast, cleaning out the aviaries, cleaning bathrooms, feeding the piglet, or prepping food for the animals. My weekly task was to help feed Rudolpho the Deer and Herbie the Tapir, so I would go chop veggies and banana leaves, then put on my mud boots and head into the jungle to feed and water them (and give Herbie some love. He is such a sweetie that people used to take turns sleeping in his enclosure at night so he wouldn´t get lonely). At 8:00 we all have breakfast together (two rolls, tea and coffee, and a hard-boiled egg) and then get ready for our morning cats.

I take care of Katie the jaguar in the mornings. She is a lovely girl- I´m really lucky to have gotten her. She was raised as a house cat in a family that actually treated her fairly well, so she doesn´t have any of the issues with people or terrible health problems that so many of the cats have as a result of the abuse they endured when they were little and fuzzy and adorable. Unfortunately, she isn´t able to go outside of her enclosure right now, as there is a wild male jaguar prowling around-we see his tracks around her cage every morning. Therefore, my partner and I grab her food and water and head out to hang out in her enclosure. We bring toys and try to get her to play, though most of the time she just lazes around and occasionally rolls over for belly rubs. She does love to play with the Nalgene she stole from me on my first day, though! We hang out in her cage for a few hours, then wrap her meat up inside banana leaves and stick them in tricky places so she has to hunt for them.

After that we muck through the mud back to camp, then have lunch. Lunch is the best meal of the day- often meat or pasta with rice, salad, and some form of potato (of course). After lunch we have a bit of free time, then change into a second set of wet, muddy clothes and head out to visit our afternoon cats (we can´t smell like our morning cats or the afternoon cats may get upset). My afternoon kittie is Vanesso, a male ocelot. I am on him by myself and walk him on trails through the jungle, and he is by far the most challenging part of my day, even though he is so much smaller than Katie. Vanesso can be a bit of a grump sometimes, and likes to growl and jump on you if you try to keep him walking longer than he´d like, if you get too close to his food, or if he has to get his paws wet. Which is all the time, as all of his trails are under a foot and a half of water. Yay, wet season. Things are getting better every day, though, because he´s learning to trust me and I´m learning not to be afraid of his jumps. The last two days I have been able to relax at times and enjoy watching him stalk through the banana leaves or curl up and take a nap. He has also started giving me a tiny bit of affection sometimes- friendly head bumps on the knees and such.

After I´ve walked Vanesso for a few hours (actually, he walks me) I give him his food and water, then head back for my glorious cold shower and dinner. Human dinner usually consists of a lentil or veggie soup. It´s usually dark by the time we finish eating, so a lot of people walk a mile down the road to ¨the shop¨, an open-air shack that has munchies and refrigerated drinks. Luxury! The other night we had a clear sky, and I saw the milky way more clearly than I ever had before as we walked back. Most people are usually passed out by 10 pm or so.

So that is our life for 6.5 days a week! Saturday (today) we do a big camp clean up in the morning, then just go into the jungle and feed our cats so we can have the afternoon off to hand wash our laundry or take the 45 minute busride to Guarayos to use the internet.

The 40 volunteers we have are absolutely amazing. It´s hard to describe the atmosphere that this lifestyle creates. Everyone here suffers through mosquitos that swarm and bite through three layers of pants, being wet and stinky and covered in mud all the time, and living without the slightest bit of privacy or comfort without a single word of complaint. Painful foot fungus is rampant as everyone is wearing wet boots all day, as are stomach issues and cuts and bites from all sorts of critters. Yet everyone is so obviously thrilled to be there, doing what they are doing. It´s unlike anything I´ve ever seen- very, very cool.

Next Friday we are celebrating Carnaval by having a dress-up party and an auction. I´m not sure how dressing up for Carnaval works when you can´t expose a single centimeter of skin without losing it to mosquitos, but we will see! The auction will be to raise money for emergency repairs on one of the cats´enclosures, and should be a lot of fun. Apparently, at the last one, volunteers sold opportunities to shave their heads or watch them mud-wrestle in the compost pit. Should be fun!