Inti Wara Yasi

I always said that i'd like to do some voluntary work on our round the world trip, and that i'd especially like to work with animals . I heard about an animal sanctuary called Inti Wara Yasi when I was doing some research on one of the travel planning websites. People who had been there had recommended the place as it's a low cost volunteering opportunity, whereby the money that you pay, actually goes to the park to buy food for the animals and the veterinary equipment and medicine. A lot of companies charge a fortune and none of the money you pay actually helps the organisation you're working for. I didn't want to work for one of those places and give them a lot of money for the privilege. Our original plan was always to come and work in the animal sanctuary for 1 month and to travel in Bolivia for another 2 weeks. However we've been over-running on time in other countries, which meant that we can now only offer to work here for 2 weeks. I originally wanted to work with the big cats, but you have to stay volunteering for a month if you'd like the opportunity to work with a cat, so that was now out of the question, which was a shame as that's what I always wanted to do. So we had it set in our minds that we wouldn't be working with the cats and that we'd just have to work with the smaller animals that have been rescued and are living in the park.

Inti Wara Yasi has 3 different parks all over Bolivia with different animals. The main park where all the big cats are is Ambu Ari, which is the park we were originally going to come to. However as we were now not going to be able to stay for a month, we decided to come to a different one- Park Machia, as the other park doesn't have any electricity or hot water, whereas, this one does . Park Machia is the oldest out of all the parks and does have over 30 species of animals; including a bear, a puma, an ocelot, lots of monkeys, birds and small mammals. There is a better infrastructure at this park, but it's also the smallest of the parks. It's around 15 hours by bus from La Paz. We thought we'd come to the park after La Paz and then we hope to do the salt flats after working in the sanctuary. We have stayed longer in a few of the countries and to even stay here for 2 weeks is pushing it a bit, but it's an experience I couldn't possibly do without on this trip. I was willing to sacrifice the time in other countries so we could have this experience.

We took a night bus from La Paz to Cochabamba, and from there we were suppose to take a bus to Santa Cruz and ask the driver to drop us off at Villa Tunari, which is where the animal sanctuary is based. That proved to be a little more difficult than we first thought. From Cochabamba, Santa Cruz is quite a lot further than where we needed to be dropped off however we nearly didn't get dropped off by the bus driver . When we bought tickets from the bus terminal in Cochabamba, I specifically asked the driver if we could be dropped off at Villa Tunari, and they agreed. But when we were looking for a bridge as a landmark, we thought we had passed one with the name we needed, so panicked but luckily it wasn't the right one.

Then about an hour later, we came to the village of Villa Tunari. The driver said he would stop there, but I thought he would keep going. We then saw signs for Park Machia, so knew it was the right place. The driver wasn't stopping, so John went and asked them to stop, however they kept going for ages and didn't stop. We eventually came to a halt so we could get our bags and get off the bus. We were about 4 miles further down the road than we needed to be, and 4 miles walking along a road with all your heavy rucksack feels like a long time. I was so angry with the driver for not stopping as we made it clear several times that we'd like to get off here. 

We started walking towards the park and after a few minutes of walking, it started raining . We stopped under a tin roof at the side of the road for shelter and hoped the rain would stop. However, it didn't look like it was going to let up, so we had to continue and we got absolutely drenched while walking. Most of the things in our rucksacks also got wet. If only the driver had dropped us off where we was suppose to, we'd have gotten there in the dry weather. We met another traveller along the way, who had also taken refuge from the rain, so we walked to the park with him. We asked if he was going to volunteer and he said no, only visit the park for a day.

We continued walking in the rain and finally arrived at the park. We went to the wrong entrance first, so had to walk further down the road in the rain. We found the volunteer cafe and all the volunteers were having lunch. They all welcomed us and we sat there to wait for the volunteer co-ordinator. Someone came over to us about 10 minutes later and we told them we wanted to volunteer for 2 weeks. They said that was great and they will have a chat with us later about which animals we'd be working with . I kind of hinted that I'd like to work with the ocelot as I like cats. They let us leave our stuff in the office and we grabbed some lunch as we were starving as we'd been travelling by bus for around 16 hours. They said they would give us a tour of the park after lunch. It was still pouring hard, so was a bit miserable to be walking around the park, but after all, we've arrived here in rainy season. It's a bit annoying as it could be raining hard every day, but hopefully it won't.

When we'd finished lunch, Jack, a guy from New Zealand gave us a tour of the park. He showed us around the monkey, birds and small mammals, but didn't get to see the bear or the puma. He also told us that when you are assigned to work with a particular animal, that you are not allowed to go back and look at the other types of animals. After the tour, we also met an English guy called Mike, it was his last day today and he'd been working with the small animals so he reckoned that either John or myself would be working with them . Neither of us wanted to work with the small animals, we either wanted to work with the monkeys, cats, or John would have loved to work with the bear! 

We knew that for only working 2 weeks that we couldn't work with the cats or the bear, only the monkeys, or small animals, or birds. We spoke to a lot of people trying to find out about the different roles involved for working with each type of animal and found out quite a lot. We even considered staying longer if it meant we got to work with the animals we wanted to. Jack called us into his office to have a chat with us and go through the formalities. We said what animals we were interested in working with and he asked us a few questions. We signed up for 2 weeks, paid the money, and he said thanks. Jack told us that he'd get back to us after they decide what animals we'd be working with.

Gatito and Balu......

After waiting what felt like forever, we were about to find out what animals we'd be working with . Everyone kept asking us if we'd found out which ones it was yet, so we had to keep saying we don't know yet! Jack called us back to the office to find out the moment of truth. You can't really ask them which animals you want to work with, but you can suggest that you like certain animals, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get to work with them! He proposed to us that if we can work for just 3 weeks instead of 2 weeks, John will be able to work with the black bear called Balu, and i'd be able to work with a Puma named Gatito. Needless to say it didn't take us long to make the decision to stay for 3 weeks, although we are running out of time in South America. It is going to be worth it to get to work with a bear and a puma, not many people get the chance to walk a bear and a puma through the jungle, and we may never get this opportunity again, so we just had to take it. I hadn't even asked to work with the puma and didn't expect to be working with it, but it will be amazing to work with this animal. I expected to get the small animals as the guy finished today, but luckily for me I am working with a beautiful puma .

After we got told what animals we were working with we went outside to tell the group. They were all dying to know which animals we were going to be working with and when we told them, they were surprised by what animals we had been given. Afterwards we all went out for dinner to say goodbye to Mike and also to welcome us into the place, which was really nice. The town of Villa Tunari doesn't have much to do and there are a few of the cheap local restaurants, so we went to one of those. We also got given a private room with an ensuite bathroom so we've been pretty lucky really. After dinner we returned to sort out our things for our first day of working with the animals.

Week 1

I met the girl who currently works with the cats last night, her name is Katja funnily enough. She will be working with me for 6 days and showing me the ropes before I have to take over and work with Gatito myself . Katja seems like a really nice person, she is Danish and speaks very good English, she absolutely loves cats, like me. We have to be ready to start work at 8.30am, so it's not too early compared to some of the people that work with the monkeys, who start at 6.30am. John also has to be ready to start working with the bear at 8.30am, but they have to prepare food for him before this. So we had our breakfast early, ready to start work. They serve good vegetarian food in the cafe based at the park, so you eat breakfast and lunch here and go somewhere else for dinner. We ate breakfast in the cafe on our first day and some of the other volunteers wished us luck. 

I was slightly apprehensive on the first day as I was going to be working with a wild, potentially dangerous animal. We collected Gatito's medicine, water and food and set off to his cage. As we approached the cage, Katja shouts "hola Gatito, buenos dias". You have to let him know you are coming to the cage or he could be frightened. Once I turned the corner and got my first sighting of him, I nearly cried. He was so cute and walked with a slight limp on his back right leg. He's really playful in the morning, so when you go to attach the lead to his collar, he sometimes tries to bite you playfully! You have to be ready for him. I let Katja do this the first morning, as I wanted to let him get to know me first before I get close to him.

When we've attached Gatito to his lead, we have to put him on his runner outside his cage so we can clean inside there . The tasks involved on a daily basis are to scrub his bed platform, check for any nasty surprises and clean them up. We have to change the hay for his bedding and replace with some new hay, we have to sweep around the floor to remove the soiled hay, and throw it away. We have to clean his food bowls and remove any traces of meat or bones that might be left over from the night before (not my favourite task!) and empty these in a container ready to be disposed of later in the day. We have to feed him the medicine by putting this in his water, collect fresh water from the stream to wash the surfaces and come the end of the day, we have to give his food to him. This is usually a whole chicken, including the head and we have to get this out of the container and then inject more medicine into this, which is another horrible task. However the best job you do get to do is walk a puma in the jungle for the whole day!

Once Katja showed me the daily tasks and i'd helped out, we were about to take the puma out into the jungle . I could not believe that I was about to go walking in the jungle with a puma. We took him off his runner and he was ready to go. If you don't do the tasks quickly enough in the morning, he gets grumpy while he's waiting for you to take him walking. Once Katja grabbed his lead, she said "vamos chico", which means let's go boy! No sooner are the words said, and he's taking us on a walk. I didn't want to hold the lead today as I was nervous and wanted to get to know the puma a little before I took hold of him. Gatito lead us into the jungle with Katja holding the lead, and he set a fast pace. As we started to climb the steep slopes of his path, I realised that we were going into the real jungle and that it was going to be tougher than I first thought. I just presumed that we'd be walking along flat paths, but we were traversing across dense forest, up and down steep trails. To top it off, it's been raining for a few days, and the trails are so wet and slippery. It's certainly going to be an adventure anyhow .

Katja lets Gatito choose his trail for the day as he has a few that he can take. Once we'd set off, Gatito was leading the way, Katja following and I was at the back trying to keep up with them. As we were walking uphill, I was struggling to stay close as I was worried I'd slip over. I thought Katja managed to keep up with him well. The humidity is bad in the jungle, so although it was raining, I was getting really hot and sweaty. We walked uphill for a while and we came to the tourist trail, the bear Balu crosses path with Gatito here. This morning, it just so happened that Balu was at the bench being fed a banana. I was glad to have seen the bear as it looked such a big cuddly bear. John, his guide Esteban, and a French guy had to tie the bear to a tree while we passed him by. As we approached the bear, Gatito came by cautiously as he's a little scared of Balu. Once we safely crossed the bear's path, we carried on walking our trails.

Gatito is a 19 year old puma who has been at this animal sanctuary since he was very young. He was taken from his mother at a young age and made to perform through rings of fire in a circus. In order to do his tricks, he could have been hit with a stick to make him perform. I was so sad when I heard this, it's such a shame that a wild animal was taken from his mother at a young age. Inti Wara Yasi took him in to give him a better life, however unfortunately he could not be released back into the wild, so he will spend the rest of his days in this sanctuary . Because the circus trainers who beat him were male, Gatito does not like men, so it's only females who get to work with him. As he's old in terms of cat years, he walks with a slight limp on his back legs, but for an old puma, he's pretty fit, considering all things. In the wild, pumas can live for around 10-12 years, but in captivity, they can live for around 20 years.

We need to let Gatito rest when he needs to, as he's old, he stops more often, which is fine by me, as I can also stop for a rest too! We must have been walking for around 2 hours, and then we come to a point on his trail where he will rest for about 1-2 hours. When we got there, Katja let me know we'd be there for a while and we chatted for ages. It's a pretty little spot deep in the jungle and the only noises around us were monkeys swinging in the trees and birds singing. It was so peaceful to sit in the jungle for a few hours with just us and the puma. I hadn't yet touched Gatito, so I wanted to stroke him. I thought while he was resting in the jungle would be an ideal time, so I stroked him on the back of his head . He let me do it and I thought he was really sweet the way he was just laying there. Once i'd got that out of the way, I felt more confident to touch him and hopefully hold his lead tomorrow.

The next day we came to the cage together and Katja went through more of the routine and we cleaned out his cage. As soon as you get to Gato's cage, he's happy to see you and starts purring, which is really sweet. He climbs down from his bed and comes to greet you. When Katja tried to attach his leash, he's playful, so sometimes he tries to bite you. This morning, he tried to do that, so I was a bit wary of him, but you could tell he wouldn't try to bite you to hurt you, only playfully. Katja asked if I wanted to hold his lead that morning, but I said i'd hold off until later on in the afternoon. 

Once we cleaned the cage, he's ready and waiting for us to take him for his walk. He can choose which route he takes in the jungle and we just follow him holding the lead. It's so lovely to see that being here to walk Gato really makes a difference to his life, without the volunteers here to take him for a walk, he would be pretty miserable in his cage all day. I feel so proud to be able to have this opportunity to get to know him and take him out. I walked behind Katja and Gato and headed out to the jungle once more. These first few days have been still raining, so it's a bit miserable having to go out and be wet in the jungle . The trails are so slippery and I'm always watching my footing as you can easily slip over. Also there have been swarms of mosquitos, so i'm getting bitten alive in the jungle. We had a successful morning and I felt ready to hold the chord, so in the afternoon, I held it for a while. I was trying to concentrate on waking on the new trails, as well as not letting go of the lead, and not falling over. When Katja walks with him, i'm sure she goes so much quicker than I do, i'll get faster over time.

Over the next few days of the first week, I got more and more confident with Gato and with the trails. I felt that I was getting to grips, knowing the trail routes. For the first few days, I did not really look at where we were going, but over time, when things felt more familiar, I picked things up easier. Katja and I got along well, so it helped to pass the time by much quicker while we were both out and about. We could just sit and chat at the times when Gato would be laying down resting . Sometimes he could rest for 10 minutes, sometimes he would rest for up to 3 hours, so you just never know how long it would be for. I was really growing to be very affectionate for Gato, he's such a lovely puma.

For the last few days before Katja left, I had full control of Gato. I would hold his lead for most of the day, and by now, I knew all the trails and what I was doing regarding the cleaning routine for his cage. One day before Katja finished, Gato bit her on the back. We were sitting down while he was resting, but Katja had her back to him, we think he mustn't have liked the fact that we were talking all the time and bit her. It did hurt a bit, but we don't think he was doing it to really injure her, or he would have sunk his teeth in more. It still reminds you of the fact that he is a wild animal and he could hurt you. When it came to Katja's last day, I was a little nervous to be taking over on my own, but also the fact that i'd be looking after a puma in the jungle on my own was pretty cool . I was sad that Katja would be leaving tho. That evening, we all went out for dinner as a group as it was Katja and Mike, the American Chinese guy's last night. We all went to Jasmine's for dinner, which is a popular choice and we've been coming out here for quite a few nights. It's such a lovely atmosphere, as everyone goes out together as a community, and you really feel part of the group. We had a send off for Katja and Mike and wished them well for the rest of their travels.

Week 2 and 3

So this morning was my first day I would be working with Gato alone. I was nervous and excited at the same time. Katja and Mike were up early for breakfast this morning as they were coming to see Gato and Balu as their paths sometimes cross on the tourist trail. I got the medicine ready and collected Gato's meat to take to the cage and then set off on my own. I was slightly apprehensive as I would be going into his cage alone, and in the mornings when you try to put his collar on, Gato can be playful and try to bite you . This bite could still really hurt you tho. I approached the cage cautiously this morning, and called out to Gato. You have to let him know you're coming, so I said "hola Gatito, buenos dias". I unlocked the cage and he came down from his bed to greet me, and he was purring, which was really lovely.

I went inside his cage and before I can open the door, I have to get his lead attached to his collar. I took the clip and tried to attach it to him. He was in a playful mood, so he tried to nip me, but he didn't actually bite me. You just need to learn when he's being playful, or in a mood, once you know you can avoid him if he's grumpy. If he tries to bite you, just hold back for a few minutes and it should be fine putting on his lead. I tried that, and it worked, after a few minutes I had his lead on. Once you've got him on his lead, he can go outside so that you can clean his cage. I did this while he waits outside until you are ready to take him for a walk.

He is mostly good, but some days, he is in a hurry to go walking, so you need to be quick cleaning his cage. I cleared the cage out as quickly as I could and then we were ready to go. I said "vamos chico", let's go and he was ready to walk. There are two main trails that he can take that lead to different trails, one is the waterfall trail, which the tourists can walk down this path. The other one is Lishou's playground and Sesame Street . I was hoping that he would not go down the waterfall trail today while i'm on my own, it's a difficult slippery trail and there is a massive jump, which Gato is too old to do now. 

Katja and myself on her last day, took Gato through dense jungle, crawling through the bushes, so he could avoid the jump and walk around to get to the waterfall trail. I loved this trail, but it's not what I wanted to be doing on my first day alone with Gato. The trail takes you on a lovely walk down towards a stream and ends up going past a waterfall, however, you can bump into the tourists, which at the weekends, there can literally be hundreds of them. It's dangerous because if you don't stop the tourists in time, they can try to walk right up to the puma. When you get to the point where Gato can choose which trail he takes he stops and looks which direction he wants to take, and you let him choose which way he would like to go. Today, he decided to go to Lishou's playground. I was pleased about this, as although it's not much of an easier trail, there isn't as much dense jungle to climb through, although it's still up and down a lot of hills. It takes about 2 hours to walk to this trail, but when you get there, he sits there for a while. 

When I got here today, he sat for 3 hours, so I decided to catch up on some of my blog. Just me sitting in the jungle with a puma for company . How cool is that. I was just taking in the sounds and sights of the jungle. There were huge butterflies, loads of tropical birds singing and you can also hear monkeys howling and insects calling too. The jungle is a pretty wicked place, and I am lucky to be having this experience. I just kept looking over at Gato, and giving him a drink is an experience i'll treasure forever. We have cut off the bottom of a coke bottle and you can pour the water into the cup, and he likes to drink it right from the bottle. I hold it right up for him, and sometimes he actually licks your hand and he purrs so much. This makes me happy, knowing that i'm making this puma content. If you stroke him, he also purrs, but again, you have to know if he's in the right mood for you to touch him.

I enjoyed my time alone with Gato, but it was to be short lived. When I got back from work that evening, there was a new lady there. I asked her name and what animal she'd be working with, and she said Sarah, and the puma . I said oh cool, well you'll be working with me then as I work with the puma. In a way, I was relieved that there were going to be 2 of us, as working with a wild animal in the jungle on your own can be very dangerous. In another respect, I was a bit gutted that I only had one day working with the puma on my own. But I would prefer to have 2 of us for safety anyway. So I got chatting to Sarah on our first day working together, and she seemed like a really lovely person, she in her 40s and has done a lot of travelling and is very knowledgeable. We seemed to get on really well together and i'm glad she came to work here. So now Gato was working with 2 new people instead of one. 

The first few days went really well, although it was hard to get Gato to come home some days, we still managed to get him back. However the third day, it was a different story. From the morning when we went into his cage, Gato was slightly grumpy and he didn't want to come straight out of his cage. When we tried to put the collar on, he hissed at us and showed us his teeth, as if he was trying to make a point to leave him alone . He had that wild look in his eyes, so we decided to leave him alone until he was ready to come out of his cage. We cleaned the cage while he was still in there, and after about half an hour, he was reedy to come out. We set off walking and after a while, it was all forgotten about. We gave him water out of the bottle and he was purring again. 

Later on, when we were trying to coax him to come home is when we had a problem. He didn't want to come back and it was getting late, we were worried that it was starting to get dark and neither of us had a torch on us. If you can't get him to move, there are a few tricks you can try, one if them is tying him to a tree and both walking off. If you do that, sometimes he cries as he doesn't like being on his own in the jungle. If that fails, you can try singing to him, as he hates that, but it's a last resort. So we tried those things and nothing worked to try and get him back. By now it had gone 5pm, and normally by now, we would be back, so we were starting to get worried as it will start to get dark after 6pm . We called the office to let them know we were having a problem getting the puma home, and he said to call them again if we are still having problems. So after another hour, we managed to get him to move slightly and it was getting dark, and we were on a narrow path, Sarah had the lead and I had walked ahead, as sometimes if you walk ahead, he walks on. However on this occasion, he must have been confused as he tried to turn back around, and in doing so, Sarah couldn't get out of the way so he tried to pounce on her, I called out to check if she was ok, but luckily he hadn't got her. We managed to get him moving, but then he tried to turn and go for me. By now, we were both a little scared as he was becoming unpredictable, so we called the office, and they came to rescue us.

It was such an intense experience being in the jungle in the dark, being with a puma who could potentially kill us both, it felt really surreal. When they came, they did say that he's never seriously hurt people before only nipping them. I think they were trying to reassure us . The next day, we both went in cautiously and we didn't want to show any fear that we were scared, when he saw us, he was still growling at us, so we kept our distance at first, but when he was out of his cage, he was good as gold, and last nights experience had been forgotten about by him and us. 

After that day, the next 2 weeks were perfectly fine and he was really good at coming back home. I even think that Gato grew really fond of me, as on one of my last days, on the waterfall trail, I decided to stay back to cut down some of the overgrowth. Sarah plodded on with Gato, and she said that he came to a holt soon after realising I was gone and wouldn't move. Sarah came back to find me, and when I came back, I went up to stroke Gato and he was purring like mad when I returned. This was one of those really rewarding situations when I realised that I really have been contributing to the welfare of this puma, and he has actually grown to like me. I will certainly miss him and my jungle experience a lot . I'm very sad to think that I will never see this puma again, because he is really old and i'm unlikely to be retuning here again, as much as I would like to. I will hold these memories very fondly in my heart, and will treasure those precious times I got to spend with the best puma in the jungle forever.

During the last few weeks, we've had some amazing thunder storms at night, there has been fork lightening and it was constant for most of the night. It poured hard with rain when there was a storm, and I mean poured hard, and the thunder was real loud crashing noises. John said he wanted to see a good tropical storm, so he got his wish. Those times when it was thunder and lightening, everyone took refuge at the table by the cafe. One time it was so bad, that we all got wet sitting down, so we had to all cram into the cafe to stay dry. Luckily it didn't happen too often while we were here. 

On our last night, we arranged to go out and invited most people to our dinner . We chose to go to Mama Titi as this was closest and had vegetarian dishes, however, when we got there, they said they only had chicken, so we decided to go somewhere else. We have a lot of vegan and vegetarians here, so it was only fair on them. We went to Jasmine's, which has been a popular choice throughout our time here. There must have been about 20 people all trying to cram in to this tiny little restaurant for our leaving do. There were even some vegetarian dishes, so they were all happy. Everyone enjoyed the food and our company and we had a lovely evening. I will certainly miss the people, the food from Inti Wara Yasi, and if course the animals. If you are ever in Bolivia, and want to so some volunteering, come here. I'll provide the website link if anyone is interested in volunteering, or would like to donate to this worthy cause. Who can say they got to walk a puma and a bear in the jungle while they are travelling? These are memories that will stay with me and John forever. I could have wrote so much more, but didn't want to bore you all too much. Sorry there are so many similar pictures!

You can hear about John's experience with the bear in a separate entry.

http://www.intiwarayassi.org/