For a bit of context, I spent a month in the Bolivian Amazon volunteering for Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi. I divided my time between Jacj Cuisi and Ambue Ari, two of their wildlife conservation parks, nestled away deep in the jungle. Inti Wara Yassi works to rehabilitate animals that have been rescued from the illegal pet trade, as well as providing a sanctuary for rescued big cats who cannot survive on their own in the wild (they’re often bought as pets when very young and discarded when they become too much of a handful, or a literal armful). At Ambue Ari, I worked with an ocelot called Lazy Cat, walking with her on trails through the jungle, feeding her, cleaning her enclosure and providing enrichment activities.
09/05/2013 Ambue Ari, Bolivian Amazon
It’s my second day walking Lazy Cat today. She’s a beautiful ocelot who loves licking. Today she was in a really good walking mood and went down loads of trails, not stopping to lie down or sunbathe at all. Yesterday we walked a full trail without turning back but at a very leisurely pace. There are cooks employed here who cook lunch and dinner, unlike at Jacj Cuisi where we had to take care of our own meals, and the food here is really tasty. There are so many mosquitoes but at least the weather is cool (even a little chilly at night) so wearing layers during the day to protect myself against bites isn’t unbearable.
Yesterday Lazy was in a much more excitable mood and would quickly change from affectionately licking to suddenly biting. She even nipped my chest quite hard (she loves climbing into laps for cuddles). Still a wild cat for sure.
12/05/2013 Ambue Ari, Bolivia
Kat (my cat partner) is leaving today so it was my first proper day alone with Lazy. She walked so far today, we walked for about 2.5 hours and was generally in a good non-aggressive mood. She almost strangled herself today by going into some really dense undergrowth which I couldn’t get into. The rope connected to her collar ravelled around all the branches until it was wound up so tight, as she kept going further and further into the roots. I could see her, stuck with the rope pulling tightly at her neck and making choking sounds. It was such a dilemma. I ended up smashing down the branches with my hands in order to get to her as I’d left my machete back at her enclosure.
We went to the laguna yesterday. There were loads of Mennonites (strange people) but swimming in the water and relaxing after the mosquitoes and heat of camp work was a godsend. We had a barbeque at the laguna as well which was nice. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t unintentionally finished my entire bottle of rum the night before at the cafe, a little open shelter down the road from camp built by Ambue Ari volunteers for Friday night fun.
As aviary cleaning is my task for the week, Tali just asked me to take her on an aviary tour. There are toucans, macaws, parakeets and pios (an emu-like bird). The two toucans, Flighty and Bitey, are so aggressive. To get into the aviary without being attacked, one person needs to hold the broom and wave it at the toucans and the other quickly needs to clean up the toucan section whilst they’re distracted by the broom.
On the subject of birds with cheeky personalities, Gordo, the camp parrot is so naughty it’s hilarious. His wings were clipped by his owner before he came to Ambue so he’s entirely flightless. This doesn’t stop him from being a little terror in camp though. One of the guys in camp was cleaning the ground underneath Gordo’s perch, whilst he was sitting on it. Looking down at the guy, Gordo suddenly swooped down and kamikaze attacked him, pecking him on the back of his neck. As he can’t fly, and very well knows he can’t, he landed in a crumpled heap on the floor, belly up to the sky and feathers all ruffled, LAUGHING in a really funny (but kind of sinister) cartoon villain way. It was amazing.
He’s also bit of a player and can tell boys in camp apart from the girls. The other day as I was walking past in shorts, Gordo wolf-whistled at me and then started squawking “Hola! Hola! Hola!” (Yes! Completely in the right context). He only does this to girls though. It’s so weird how animals can tell guys and girls apart.
14/05/2013 Ambue Ari, Bolivia
Lazy’s being lazy today, just chilling in her enclosure. I’m sitting outside on a log writing this. There was a crocodile/cayman outside the comedor (where we eat) last night. It was about a metre long, so not huge, but still cool to see one in the wild. There are so many monkeys who have joined Lazy and me, swinging above us in the trees as I write.
There are so many mosquitoes here I kind of can’t wait to leave (you’ll understand if you see this picture of my hand after Ambue Ari – and this was several weeks after we’d left the jungle. PG15 though, don’t say I didn’t warn you). Jacj Cuisi is so much nicer. The trails feel more jungley at JC as well, really in the middle of rushing streams and tropical forest. Days are pretty boring when Lazy doesn’t want to do anything. Yesterday I had to pretend I was getting her meat by cutting patujo leaves (she associates that with dinner) just to get her back into her enclosure.
22/05/2013 En route to La Paz, Bolivia
On a bus from Santa Cruz to La Paz now, nearly there. So sad to have left Lazy back at Ambue Ari.
Two days before we left, it was Callum’s (Lazy’s new walker) first day so I was training him up with her. We got to the enclosure in the morning and she had giant gashes on both her front paws, which were oozing pus and looked incredibly sore. She was just hiding in her little hut which was weird as she usually comes to the gate to meet me. Luckily Carmen the vet, who was meant to be going to Santa Cruz that day, hadn’t yet left camp so we went back to get her to come and have a look at Lazy’s paws. She decided Lazy needed stitches so she returned down the trail to camp and didn’t come back for ages. I sent Callum to go and look for her in case she had gotten lost (there are several trails that intersect so it’s quite easy to do this if you’re not familiar with the trails).
They didn’t come back again for two hours. In the meantime Lazy came and laid down on me and we vegetated on the jungle floor. We had a little nap. I got so many mosquito bites on my forehead and terrible pins and needles but I didn’t want to move Lazy because she was in so much pain and clearly in a comfortable position. Carmen and Callum finally came back with all the medical equipment, including the blowdart pipe to put Lazy under for the stitches. I found out this had all taken so long because Carmen had had to go all the way to Santa Maria (the nearest little village to Ambue Ari) to phone Nena, the founder of Inti Wara Yassi, in order to gain permission to anaesthetise Lazy. Obviously, they wanted to avoid the situation as much as possible because it can be quite dangerous for the animal, and Lazy isn’t a young ocelot.
I put Lazy in the double doors of the enclosure so that Carmen could dart her. The two door system’s used so that you can close the first door behind you and then open the second door to get to the cat without them escaping. She asked me to talk to Lazy to calm her down. Lazy figured out what was happening when the first dart hit her but didn’t stay in. The second dart worked though. It was just so sad, Lazy started retching and then slowly collapsed onto the floor.
Carmen then proceeded to try and put stitches in her paws. The needle broke and she had to use a new one, but it was too difficult to push through Lazy’s thick pelt. She was getting quite anxious because of the time, as only minimal doses of anaesthesia are allowed. Lazy kept having trouble breathing as well so every few seconds we’d have to lift her up and pull out her tongue while she continued vomiting. Finally Carmen gave up with the stitches because it was proving impossible. She cleaned the wound and applied a healing spray to it. She asked me to prepare a dose of ketamine in a syringe and we administered it to Lazy as she was beginning to wake up.
This whole episode had taken about 6 hours and we’d missed lunch (it was about 3pm by this point). We stayed with Lazy until 5.30ish, trying gently to wake her up because Carmen wanted to make sure that she was alert and ok before she left. She missed the bus to Santa Cruz that day as well.
It was so cute, every time Lazy felt nervous she would come to me and try and get in my lap. Carmen and Callum thought it was really sweet.
The next day was my final day with Lazy. We did her longest trail but halfway through it she stopped and sat because her paws were in so much pain. She didn’t want to put any weight on them at all even though she kept trying to put her paws back down on the ground. I picked her up and carried her for about ten minutes until my arms got so tired – she’s not very light and weighs about 10 kilos, so I lifted her down to the ground again.
Lazy was testing Callum by biting him, he was still nervous around her as they were both unfamiliar with each other. It was soo sad leaving her at the end of the day. I was alone with her and we were just sitting there, Lazy in my arms, licking me. I had to go back to camp because it was getting dark and I didn’t have a headtorch so I lifted her off me. I’m sure she knew I was saying my last bye because she started being really vocal, saying something in ocelot-speak. I put her on her platform where her bed was and she came back and put both her front paws on my leg. They were obviously still hurting (and still filled with pus) but she was putting her entire weight on me, not allowing me to stand up. She then started vigorously licking my face. I really had to leave so I got up and went towards the door. She jumped down from the platform and ran in front of me, blocking my path to the exit.
I finally got out of the enclosure and she just stood there at the door watching me walk down the trail until I rounded the corner and couldn’t see her anymore. I thought I’d left the key in her cage so I went back to have a look and walked the whole way around the outside wired enclosure. She followed me closely the entire time. Also, when Callum and I took her for a walk and I went back to camp to get her medicine, he said that she stopped foraging around in the bushes when she noticed that I left and started following me. They then followed me all the way until she wasn’t allowed to go down the trail any further.
Lazy’s paws – healed a bit
Before she got injured, on Friday I think, she got a little excited and decided to hump my leg. I couldn’t move because she was gripping my arm tightly with her teeth and my skin was caught. I think she’s on heat or something. She’s spraying every 5 metres on the trail. I usually manage to dodge the sprays but on Friday I got sprayed as well as humped.
It was quite funny, I lost my flip-flops one day so I went on a search for them during my lunch break. I then see a pair exactly like mine, size 41/42, same colour/brand/everything. Naturally I assume they’re my missing pair, lying outside Anne’s van, so I take them. Later I see Anne and tell him I took my flip-flops and then he starts laughing and tells me that they were Henrik’s flip-flops, who apparently came out the van very confused, “What the fuck? Who the fuck would steal flip-flops? What the fuck man.” I was like “oh, oops” and put them back in Henrik’s dorm. We had a laugh about it at breakfast.
Our ride into Guaraya on Tuesday was fun. Six of us hitchhiked in the back of a pick-up truck going over 100km an hour. When we got off our faces were tingling in random places as if there were spider webs on us. There were so many Mennonites in town (take a look at them here). There were a few at the taco place just staring menacingly at us the whole time, blond with blue eyes, very strange-looking and out of place in rural Bolivia.
Some woman on this bus has been advertising something for the past half hour. Just looked up, she’s advertising a toothbrush, not even an electric one, just a simple toothbrush. Oh that’s nice, I just got a free toothbrush and I needed a new one anyway. Thanks.
[You can tell this bus ride was a long and boring one]
Ambushed by a howler monkey on my way back from a trail in Ambue Ari
