The best decision we've made so far was to go to a rescue animal refuge in the jungle and volunteer for a week. It was brilliant at the time but today we left and came back to La Paz and I miss it so much it was obviously even more amazing than I realised.
It's called la senda verde and most people find it by cycling the World's Most Dangerous Road which runs between la Paz and Coroico. It's actually the old main road but they opened a newer slightly safer (bar landslides) road which regular vehicles now take. Despite that 26 people die per year on the WMDR, who pretty much deserve it considering they have a choice of road to take, not to mention it's name. So we took the new road which now having done this route you can see why the old road isn't just dangerous because of it being 3m wide next to a cliff edge but also the weather. You basically drop into the valleys between the Andes, where it becomes humid amazon terrain, compared to the dry cold air above in la Paz. So we were actually driving through the clouds which became like fog so you literally couldn't see a few meters in front of the car, and then suddenly it would break and you just see the amazing jungle valleys. Luckerly our driver was more interested in chatting to the old bloke in the passenger seat so drove very slowly. We took local transport to save money, and 8 of us were packed into a people carrier meant for 6.
We werent too sure whether we were going to stay as guests or volunteer, but the decision was made for us and we were thrown some shirts as uniform and shown around.
La Senda Verde is basically a refuge for saved jungle animals from a mistreated or unsuitable life as pets or tourist attractions, some in theory could be released as its their native habitat but the government say it's illegal, they are basically more worried about humans than animals. So the refuge gives them the best life they can and as wild as they can on their private land. Most of the monkeys, Amazonian parrots, and coatis are completely free but come back to get fed. Our job was to look after, feed, clean shit and try to enrich their lives. As a volunteer we could sit with the monkeys as they played around you, or came for cuddles. It was so surreal, as there is no other environment that would have allowed that after only 1 week. They were so intriguing, each with their own personality, and were also so cheeky. We would constantly have to scare them away from eating the bird and tortoise food, and twice they broke into the prep room over night and raided the fridge!
The most bizarre and amazing experience was looking after Aruma, a south American spectacle bear. On his hind legs he was about 7 foot tall. When charged with cleaning his enclosure which was an open cage on the edge of his own hill side of jungle, one person would hand feed him peanuts (which you were meant to throw) through a temperamental electric fence while the other person went inside the enclosure. Pretty scary and no health and safety standards in sight... It was amazing! It's hard to describe the experience with the animals - just look at the photos.
There were 12 other volunteers, most just like us but staying 2 or 3 weeks and a Dutch girl called anneka who had stayed 8 months. We had to share a tight dorm with the other singles in the volunteer house as there were no couple rooms left, that was the worst bit. As volunteers there are no maids or cleaners and the insects - mainly giant moths were the main inhabitants. I had to get over my spider and insect fears pretty quickly, especially after someone spotted a tarantula in the monkey's bananas in the prep room...
It was bloody hard work and by 6 we were gagging for a beer and food. We got on well with the others, a mixture of Dutch, English, Colombian, Canadian and Bolivian. There was a bit of politics going on but that's just like any job. Every day a group from Gravity - the WMDR cyclists - would arrive and it was our job to show them round. Most understood the refuge's concept but some stupid American girls started squealing on sight of the monkeys and started saying they would really like one as a pet - I wanted to kick them, idiots.
The food was also a bit rough, served up by extremely grumpy kitchen staff. To be honest there wasn't much complaining as you were starving and the nearest shop was a 40 min taxi drive away to Coroico. We went on Friday for a steak dinner and to stock up on snacks, it was a good night and everyone got a bit pissed. There was some sort of celebration when we arrived that consisted of crap fireworks being fired at the crowd and middle aged men dancing in elaborate dresses- it was very strange but quite entertaining! It was such a friendly atmosphere, much better than la Paz.
On our last day there was a bit of excitement when a protest march of supposedly 1500 people passed by the refuge. They had been marching for 3 months from the beni river north of Bolivia, their cause was pretty worthy. There us a road being built through the amazon near Rurrenbacce, and they want it stopped so were on their way to la Paz to the government office. Our job was to stand on the road and make sure they didn't kill any of our monkeys! Despite protesting against a cause to stop the destruction of the amazon, these people were indigenous, and therefore hunt and eat their food, and have a particular taste for spider monkeys. There was a bit of drama, but they passed by very uneventfully, so we fortunately didn't have to take any bullets for the monkeys.
Our last day came and went and we departed reluctantly for La Paz to make a sharp exit to Uyuni and the salt flats in the south.
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