Working Quarantine and House Animals

When I first started work, I was assigned to feeding the house animals from 9am to 12:30am and I had the cats in the afternoon. Usually, they give quarantine to people who are only going to work for 2 weeks, but we had a shortage of volunteers and so I was one of the people assigned. This entailed picking out the food for the animals, cutting it up and serving it. It's an easy job in general, but the animals can be difficult.

Feeding the pios or Bolivian ostriches in the morning is a blister rendering experience. The pios seem to be dumb animals who can only eat food that is cut up into tiny pieces because they don't chew, just swallow. There are 5 pios; nuns donated 4 of them when they could no longer care for them. I could spend a good hour just cutting up the food for the pios if working by myself. The knives are not great to use either and so I hated this part of the job. Then, bringing the food into their area is a potential blinding experience. The pios get so excited when food arrives that they start pecking at the bucket I bring in. Unfortunately, since I'm shorter than the pios, they tend to peck at me. I've tried putting the bucket on my head, but then they go for my head. For the most part, I push their long necks out of the way to keep them away. At night, a couple people always have to put the pios away into their houses since they do not have good eyesight and can hurt themselves running around. Two to three volunteers are then responsible for running around the pin to round up the pios into their houses. The biggest one has separate accomodations and the smaller 4 sleep in the same room. I've never had this job, probably because I'm shorter than the pios and they may just run me over. Although, I have had to let them out in the morning and dig up their crap on the floor to clean out their area. Unimaginable fun.

The worst part of the job is feeding the toucans and macaws. I've never been a bird person and I have a real aversion to birds that peck. The toucans have very long beaks and I enjoy throwing up pieces of banana for them to catch in their beaks. However, upon entering their cage every day, they like to peck at my boots. I don't enjoy this at all and quit feeding them after a couple days. I have to enlist the help of a local or have the other person working with me do it. The other birds I don't like to feed are the macaws. They are gigantic beautiful colorful birds. However, I think there are too many of them in one cage and they are angry about this and therefore constantly pecking at each other. One of them likes to hang out at the entrance of the cage and then attack whoever tries to enter. I can't go in alone and I actually prefer when I don't have to go in at all. I'm a horrible volunteer.

I do enjoy feeding Herbie, the tapir, and Bambi and Rudolfo, the deers. They live together and are quite cute and cuddly. Herbie's nose always twitches when I bring him food. Bambi only has one antler and a hurt foot. She has had a parasite and so is always starving and quite thin. They are lovely animals and I love just watching them eat and petting them.

I also feed Marocha, the spider monkey, and Faustino, the howler monkey in the mornings. Marocha is quite a curious one and is always getting into trouble. She loves to be the center of attention and will do anything to get it. When working in quarantine, Marocha came in every day to mess with the other monkey there. I had to remove her several times a day. She would jump onto my shoulders and be carried off. When jumping down off of my head, she always gave me a monkey tail burn. She would jump down while keeping her tail around my neck and then whip it off quickly when she hit ground.





Faustino, on the other hand, always seems depressed; maybe because he is in constant alcohol withdrawal. He prefers to just sit in the laps of women and be petted and cuddled. He even sleeps every night with Karen, one of the long-term volunteers. The most action I see from him is in the mornings and early evenings. He bellows out his howl and everyone joins in. I love howling with him and he seems to enjoy it too because he gets louder when we join in.


After a week of working with the house animals, they moved me to quarantine for my morning job. More short-term volunteers showed up and I think they knew that I didn't like birds or maybe I complained too much. Working in quarantine posed different problems though, but I never complained. In quarantine, a cappuchin monkey named Martina, a night owl monkey without a name, a tigrillo named Mariano and a bunch of birds reside there. Although we call it quarantine, many of the animals are not new and have been there for awhile. We just don't have an appropriate spot for them elsewhere.

Martina, the capucchin monkey is just like an undisciplined 3 yr old always demanding and getting what she wants. I believe that animals should never bite the hand that feeds them, but this theory apparently does not apply to her. I learned the hard way that she does not like to be around more than one person and she does not like anyone to touch the rope that is attached to her. I would have read the quarantine book that explained these nuances if someone could have found it. So, on one of my first days, while I was trying to untangle her rope while with another volunteer, she bit me. Now, this bite was not just a nibble, this was a “let's try to rip off the top of her finger” type of bite. She ripped off a few layers of the top of my finger and punctured the side of it. I had to go to the vet clinic and get disinfected, sprayed on with chemicals and wrapped up. At least she doesn't have rabies. Despite being bitten, she is quite affectionate on a one on one basis. I let her bond primarily with Amanda who worked all day in quarantine since I only worked mornings. But when alone with Martina, she would sit atop of my shoulders, remove my mosquito net and then pick through my hair for bugs. This is a natural tendency for monkeys. Her tongue would stick out and grab onto what she thought were bugs, but more likely my dandruff. I would then reciprocate and pick through her hair while she sat in my lap. I never found anything worthy of grabbing with my tongue, but pretended to take things out with my fingers. She even tried to feed Amanda random bits of things she deemed worthy of sharing. Amanda pretended to eat them, but Martina could tell she had not and insisted she eat more.



The other monkey is a night owl and he never leaves his dark cage. Although, I am sure he is more afraid of me, I am pretty afraid of him. He has big buggy eyes and stays in the dark of the cage. One day, I cleaned out his entire cage so I could put new branches in. However, he had nowhere to hide in his cage and started to freak out. I freaked out and had to get out of there. We later stuck some temporary branches in until we could find more to fill his cage. Sadly, he doesn't even have a name since no one can play with him and he can't leave his cage. So, I just put food inside and sweep it.

My favorite animal of the park is Mariano, the tigrillo. He is just like a domesticated cat, but with much sharper teeth. I would just hold him and let him suckle on my jacket like normal cats do when they are breast feeding or just happy and content. He purrs loudly and when I put him down to play, he would just jump back on my lap and suckle. When we do play, he attacks the rope I pull around and jumps around in his hay attacking invisible creatures. He only gets upset and growls at the chanchos, which I am often chasing out of quarantine on a daily basis. He also growls when he is eating his meat and doesn't want anyone to get near him.



One day, while taking him for a walk, I lost him. We never use to put a leash on him and he would naturally just follow us around. However, while sitting on the log, he decided to head off into the jungle. Amanda and I went searching for him and could not find him. I brought in a search of team of 5 people to help and to no avail. I later learned that this is the third time tha he has wandered off and not returned. I felt so bad for losing him and didn't want him to get eaten by the pigs. However, the next day, he showed up at the very spot where we had lost him. I was so happy to see him!

The next time I took him for a walk, we used a leash. However, when a chancho came up behind us, Mariano freaked out and wiggled out of his leash and ran off into the jungle again. Amanda and I went searching for him and found him thankfully. However, I think he hurt some nerve muscle and had trouble walking. When I left, his leg had gotten worse and he was just limping around. He seemed happy as usual and not in pain, but his leg maybe had no feeling. I must be the worst volunteer ever. Zandro is providing him with additional vitamins although, I'm not sure what else he could do, maybe realign his back?

The birds in quarantine do not scare me as those in house animals did. Plus, KP, another volunteer, showed me how to bond with birds and I have a new appreciation for them. She taught me to sing to them and talk to them so that their feathers fluff up to show that they are excited and happy. They never get any attention and appreciate whatever attention comes their way. One day though, I lost one of the Amazonian birds. I was in the process of cleaning out their cage and accidently dropped a large branch. This sent one of them flying out of the cage. He had some trouble flying, but made it into the trees. I could not get him down and so I left some food for him at the top of the cage. The other volunteers joked that I was trying to free all the animals. A couple days later, he showed up and Amanda was able to put him back into the cage. When he returned, the three birds in the cage could not stop yapping. The other two wanted to know what is was like out there and so they gossipped all day long. They are quite funny and I enjoyed their company greatly.


In another cage, suicidal bird tried to kill herself. Zandro had to wrap up her wing after she kept pecking at it. She lost her lover and has been depressed ever since. On my last day though, she looked much happier.

Inherent Risks

When I arrived unnanounced in the Bolivian jungle to work at Inti Wara Yassi as they had suggested since they have no cell phone access or internet to make a reservation, I had to sign some liability waiver that stated that I was aware of the "inherent risks" of working at the wildlife refuge. Fern, a Brit who started the same day as me, asked, "what exactly do you mean by inherent risk?". We were told that we could break or sprain an ankle by running through the jungle. I then specifically asked if there is any danger in working with the pumas and jaguars. We were told that there is no worry. I then asked if there have been any accidents working with these animals. Again, I was told, nothing bad. Of course, after signing the waiver, the other volunteers told me the horror stories.

Inti Wara Yassi currently has 2 animal refuges in different parts of Bolivia and they have just raised enough money to put a down payment on another jungle area to continue to grow their space. The one I went to is much more remote with 5 jaguars, 11 pumas, 7 ocelots and 1 tigrillo. Each animal has its own history and is leading a better life in the jungle with this organization than if it was sold on the black market as most are. The biggest animals are definitely the jaguars. On my first day, I learned of how a volunteer pulled the leash of Rupi, the biggest jaguar, and Rupi slashed open his leg which then required 20 stitches. By the way, you are never suppose to pull the animal's leash. They lead us and not the other way around. With each new volunteer, Rupi likes to show who is boss and he puts their head in his mouth, tackles them to the ground and sometimes scratches their stomach. Some people quit the first day, others change animals, but those who stick around are in the end thankful for the experience to work with a jaguar. Aaron, an Aussie, who is the newest volunteer for Rupi can't even wear his shirts annymore after Rupi slashed them to threads on his first day while he was wearing them. If Rupi really wanted to kill a volunteer, he could, but he hasn't. He has been trained since he was small to not close his mouth on volunteer's heads. Apparently, jaguars go for the head and pumas go for the neck instinctually. Rupi requires two male volunteers to walk with him since he is so big and 2 men can help stop him if he bolts. Also, he gets overly excited when there are women around and might do more harm to them. I don't have a pic of Rupi, but here is a pic of Amira who use to be a pet for the Mafia. Interestingly, many of the animals have gender issues and can not work with one gender or the other. Usually, this is because of who mistreated the animal and with which gender the animal associates abuse. Waiyra is a puma who use to work in the circus. Due to mistreatment, she is a little psycho and can go crazy at anytime. I don't now why anyone would put themselves into harm's way by working with her, but they do. Flo, a Frenchman, works with her and she decided to bite into his hand one day. Below is a picture 2 weeks later as the hand is still healing. Trent, an Aussie, showed me his leg scars from Tupac, a puma going blind, who decided to bite into his leg. Thankfully, he didn't have any nerve damage and now he is on great terms with him. When I look at the volunteers who have been around for some time, I see the irrepairable scars from animal wounds. Jo, an Aussie, told me that on her first day, she had to remove Vanesso, an ocelot, from Naomi, the main Bolivian person running the place, after Vanesso attacked her face. Naomi required stitches to put her torn ear back. Here is a pic of Lazy Cat so you know what an ocelot looks like. Supposedly, I was given the three sweetest pumas with which to work. They are named after the park, Inti, Wara and Yassi. Inti is the bully of the three and the one on a diet since she doesn't exercise much. On my first day with the sisters, I had to walk Inti. After I carabined myself into her with rope, she bolted. I wasn't ready for her to do this and so I fell flat to the ground. She then dragged me through the jungle for a bit and I scratched up my face; I'm still hoping the scar goes away. I then nicely uncarabined myself from Inti and handed her over back to Jessa, an Ausssie. Alan 2, a Brit, started the same day as me with the sisters. On our second day, he walked Yassi. They got a little lost in the jungle and out of the blue, Yassi jumped at him and scratched his stomach. Later that evening, Wara refused to be chained up. We always chain up the cats before we feed them so they don't charge us. Wara hissed at Flo when he tried to chain her to a pole and so Flo let her be. When Flo came back into the cage with meat, Wara charged him and Flo just threw the meat at her which stopped her charging. Very scary moment because I thought for sure she would take him down. Alan 2 quit that day. Naomi moved him over to work with Carlos who is a baby puma. All in all, the sisters are adorable and just sometimes overly playful. One day, I was working alone with them since for one reason or another, my teammates were not around. Yassi just ended her time being in heat and had a little too many hormones running around inside her. She kept jumping her sisters over and over again. I asked Zandro, the park vet, to stick around outside the cage to make sure I would be ok inside. At some point, Yassi decided that I should join in the fun and she jumped me and would not get off. Her claws and teeth hung onto my back. I yelled for Zandro to help me, but he had trouble opening the gate. Eventually, Yassi got off of me and I left the cage. I only had a few cat scratches and a sore back, but the psychological damage was pretty severe that day. The sisters jumped me one other time. When we walk the pumas, we are at their beck and call. They call the shots and decide when we walk and when we sit. We are required to bring flashlights with us since sometimes, the sisters have been known to sit around for hours. When walking them, we have to keep them on a short leash when we pass other volunteers or their sisters since they might jump them. It is in their nature to jump. We can never have our backs to them either since that is due cause for jumping as well. When walking 3 pumas, we need at least 4 volunteers so that there is one volunteer with each puma and 1 volunteer to run in between the pumas to make sure everything is ok. Our alarm codes are: 1 “koowee” to signal where you are at, 2 koowees to signal trouble or I've lost my cat and 3 koowees to signal that you are lost with your cat. On my last day, the other cats and volunteers had already started walking home from the river and Wara and I were left behind because she wasn't ready to leave. So I just stood next to her while she sat there. I called her name and told her “vamos” as in let's go, but she ignored me. At some point, she got that scary jumping look in her eye and jumped up and clawed into my butt. She would not let go. I was all alone and wasn't sure anyone would hear me and so I screamed. Flo and Poncho came running back. Flo then told me never to scream since it only excites the pumas to play more. I'm sorry, but when a puma's claws and teeth are attached to my butt, the first thing going through my head is not to yell koowee twice. Poncho headed back to the other pumas, and Yassi, who might have been aggravated by my screaming attacked Poncho when he returned while Waldo was holding her leash. She jumped at him, clawed into his chest and took him down. Eventualy, he got her off. Rebecca, an Aussie, told me it was the worst she has seen. Yassi and Wara had been jumping Poncho and Waldo, 2 new Chilean volunteers, for the past couple days. The guys have been really good about it all, not screaming, and able to get them off each time, but this time, Yassi attacked and ended up marking him with a good scratch on his chest and a torn shirt. The other volunteers tell me that you get use to being jumped and scratched; it's all part of working with these animals. I must be a total wus and really am not sure I could ever get use to it. When the cats are in heat, they are the most calm. They just sit in their cage all day and meow like crazy hoping a male puma will respond to their desperate cries for love. I feel bad for the cats. It's unnatural for them to stay in heat without any action. The last thing the park needs is a baby cat, but I wish there was some kitty condom we could use for them. The cats are in heat for almost 2 weeks every month. Yassi cries out the most and sits on top volunteer laps. She gets especially excited around male volunteers during this time. Wara yells a lot too and likes to wrap her paws around my legs and pretty soon my whole body is engulfed with hers. Inti doesn't do much of anything and just sits around listening to her sisters meow. Every day, I bury their poo and remaining meat in the ground outside their cage, give them fresh water, scrub down their platforms where they eat, and feed them. If they are in heat, then I work on buiding a pool for them, play with them in their cage, clean up their trails using a machete (I am now a machete master), chop down ferns to add to their cage, or whatever needs construction. If they are not in heat, then we go for walks and swims in the river. Swimming with Wara and Yassi has been the highlight of my time with them. They are amazing swimmers and I love being in the water with them with my full space suit to keep the mossies from attacking me. Wara and Yassi really only like to swim when the volunteers swim with them and they don't just swim anywhere. They swim directly to us. However, we have to be careful since they swim with their claws out and they keep their eyes riveted on us. Inti doesn't care much for swimming which is probably why she is so overweight. Allthough, she dragged me through the jungle on the first day, Inti has not jumped me and was super affectionate to me on my last day. Wara use to be my favorite, but Inti now is. Yes, I´m fickle. For the most part, they are like regular cats. They like to play, jump, eat grass and throw up, be petted and meow a lot. They just have killer instincts and can't be trusted with your back turned to them. Upon reflecting on the experience, I feel so honored to have worked with them, but I'm not sure I can do it again.

Extreme Conditions

When the reality TV show Survivor first graced our tv sets, I thought, I could be on that show. However now, after spending some time in the jungle, I realize that I have no real life skills and would probably die the first day. I don't even know how to use a lighter to light a candle. I'm pretty pathetic and so 3 weeks in the Bolivian jungle is more than I will ever spend in a jungle again, but I am proud to say that I survived and tested my endurance both mentally and physically. I met a few people who left after a couple days because they could not cope with the conditions. I also met people who have been there for 10 months but, I question their sanity.


To describe the entire experience is difficult to put into words without sacrificing blood and sweat writing it. Every day starts at 6:45am when a volunteer yells, “Good Morning Ambue Ari” and everyone wakes up at that time. We have 15 min to get dressed so we can start our morning job at 7am. Each of us is responsible for an animal to feed in the morning and this task changes weekly. At 7:45am we move to our 2nd morning job that changes daily. This could be cleaning the showers and outhouses to sweeping the patio to setting up for breakfast. At 8am, we have breakfast which consists of 2 pieces of bread and so most people buy jam and oatmeal in town to supplement it. At 8:30am, we have our morning announcements and our first work starts at 9am. At 12:30pm, we break for lunch and return to work at 2pm until 5:30pm. We then have dinner at 6:30pm and after dinner we sometimes go into town 20 min away to drink beer, play pool and dance or call it an early night. Only on Saturdays do we get a half day to go into the real town 45 min away to check our internet and buy additional food supplies. Other than that, we have no time off unless we stay at least a month and then we get one day off and never any mornings free.


My cabin consisted of 10 beds crammed into a small space. Cockaroaches visited frequently and chanchos or pigs lived underneath and smelled pretty bad. Since rain came every day, we often left our clothes hanging in the cabin to dry and so the room was often damp and musty. We had no electricity anywhere in the camp nor hot water. Bathrooms were simple outhouses that rats and big spiders visited at night. Our water came from a well and no one seemed to have any issues from drinking it.

Our food wasn't bad, but the daily stew got old fast. In terms of the food chain, we sat last on the list. The cats ate the best with their constant supply of fresh meat, then the birds and monkeys received fresh fruit and vegetables every day. We ate the same thing as the pigs since they had our leftovers. We rarely had fruit and most of our meals consisted of vegetable stew.

I did get sick on occasion and at one point, our entire cabin called Cochabamba went down ill. We never quite problem solved the exact cause since the illness spread to the other cabins and everyone was soon sick with the 24 hour bug that caused constant diarreahea and sometimes vomiting and chills. Some people I suspect had Dengue Fever and the rest, who knows. Cockaroaches and rats visit our kitchen each night and every morning we have to wash all the dishes for breakfast again.

The weather often tested my patience. Every day, I had to wear two pairs of clothes and a jacket to prevent most of the thousands of mosquitoes from biting me. Their suckers are so long, they can pierce clothing and still draw blood. I also wore two pairs of socks that were always wet because it rained every day, a hat and mosquito net. Walking around in my space suit while carrying heavy water for the cats, I often felt that I had created my own version of jungle Bikram yoga. I sweated heaps and took 2 showers a day to feel better.


Unfortunately, since the animals get sick from the mosquito repellent, we were not allowed to wear any. So, my body was often covered with bites that I scratched daily til I bled. Laura, who had some samonella issue and therefore spent much time in the bathroom, put mosquito repellent on her ass just to keep the mossies off while she used it. I should have tried that trick a lot earlier since I am still scratching my butt these days. During my time in the jungle, I think I lost what little dignity or grace I may have had and I hope I have not done irrepairable damage to my skin.

Besides the mossies, I ran into a bunch of fire ants while looking for my cat that I lost in the jungle. More about that later. I had never been stung by fire ants and really hope to never again. Their bite stings for quite some time afterwards and it feels as though the ant is just sitting on you stinging you the whole time. A couple of them stung me on my temples since they got into my hair. I ran out of the jungle screaming while shaking my hair wildly about. That same day, the flies laid larvae on me. Thankfully, I never had a problem with ticks unlike everyone else. My cabin mates often pulled them out of their skin with tweezers. Several people had foot fungus problems too. You may be totally disgusted at this point, but imagine how I felt living through this for 3 weeks.

To calm my nerves, I could have turned into an alcoholic if the town wasn't 20 min by bus away. We could not drink at the camp since Faustino, the howler monkey, is an alcoholic. He will take away any alcohol and he even eats detergent to get high and so we can not leave any lying about. He use to be hotel pet and the owners always gave him liquor.

This is a synopsis of the conditions. The animals added another element to the whole experience that I will write about later.