La Senda Verde, Bolivia. 2-14 de Noviembre.

Dos semana voluntariado con los animales.




La Senda Verde is a wildlife sanctuary in the jungle below La Paz. Matt and I opted to volunteer there for 2 weeks after hearing about LSV from fellow tourists.

The sanctuary has over 200 animals: 42 monkeys (Spider, Squirrel, Capuchin and Red-Howler Monkeys), an Andean Spectacled Bear, a Margay, numerous birds (Tucan, Macaws, various budgies etc), Coatis, Tortoises, Boa Constricter, Caiman, plus pet dogs and cats.

These animals are all here because they have been picked up by the Bolivian Animales SOS (similar organisation to RSPCA but for exotic national animals). They were being kept captive as pets or were picked up for sale on the black market.

Sadly, because of Bolivian laws and too much human contact, these animals are not allowed to be released back into the wild. La Senda Verde gives them the best possible home.

LSV runs solely on a small team of local staff, volunteers and donations.

Matt and his new best friends - Cannello (Red Howler Mono) y Cacao (Spider Mono)

We headed straight for La Senda Verde from the La Paz airport which took us down the “new world’s most dangerous road” - the old road being the one which we will later cycle down (next blog entry). LSV is 79km from La Paz but a very hairy 3 hour drive. The road initially winds up to 4700m and then winds down to 1100m. It seems Bolivian drivers have no qualms passing in cloud, on blind corners – a little frightening at times to say the least.



Two hands, head first - Nico



Wara was doing her best to get into the porridge bucket but then just gave up and guarded it instead.

 Nikita

Basically our duties as volunteers (donned in beige safari shirts) were to prepare meals and feed the animals (most of them 3 x per day), clean their enclosures, and to entertain and keep a watch on tourists/guests whilst up at he monkeys area. The cycle company Gravity turns up to LSV daily after riding the WMDR for lunch, a shower and a frolic with the monkeys, so the afternoons were always spent minding the people and monkeys - bribing belongings back with peanuts or beans.

Beautiful Leo tucking into his porridge.

Breaky was my favourite meal of the day with the monkeys as porridge got everywhere. They don't prefer to eat off their table, ofcourse the bowl or bucket or our shoulder is better. Porridge would end up in our hair, round our necks, all over our shirts/pants & all over the little guys.

Cacao hitching a ride.

Cacao is your typical adolescent male and could be considered the naughty one of the pack. He only has eyes for boys with facial hair and even then really only had eyes for Matt.
If Cacao wasn't on Matts shoulders then he was probably pulling Matt, walking hand in hand, to show him something somewhere.
Cacao and Wara are the two spider monkeys notoriously jumping the river and fence to create havock down at the restuarant area - ie picking mangoes and throwing them on the restuarant roof!

At LSV the people live and eat in cages and the monkeys roam free, although they do their best to get in (Cacao).

 

My new best friend Nina.

The Spider monkeys are generally really cuddly with humans. The Capuchins on the other hand are extremely playful and naughty and are really only cuddly when they're worn out.

All of the Capuchin and Spider Monkeys roam free, with the exception of the two alpha males who are aggressive towards humans and some of the other monkeys.
There are also a handful of capuchin monkeys on tether because they have very strong human sexual preferences because of the way they have been treated in the past.
Meaning they will immediately attack either male or female humans the moment they're let off.

Aruma the Andean Spectacled Bear. He is fed peanuts up the back
of his enclosure to allow us to get in to clean and set out his food.
A lil daunting the first time cleaning a bear enclosure!

Aruma is so gentle he purses his lips to hide his teeth as he takes it off you,
otherwise he will lick it off your hand.

Nina, whilst sitting on my lap - loved her reflection in my camera lens

At times it was tough

Sasha - Andean Margay



Snuggles with Leo

The Capuchino monkeys especially are incredibly cunning and will test every new face that enters their habitat (including us initially) – opening buttons, zips and velcro to reach into pockets and take any goods people failed to leave behind (and they were warned).
There was always one in every group so many people lost jandals, coins, hair clips, sunglasses, bracelets and they would even try for cameras. Most of which we can bribe back with peanuts as it's usually just a game……………but if they get something really good then they're off out of reach and will soon have the sunnies in 3-4 pieces.

The term "cheeky monkey" couldn't be more real. Quite often they'd be sitting on my shoulder and I'd feel a cheeky hand reach down my top into my bra. Then the top button would be undone and one would climb inside my shirt as Oregano is here.



Matt having a dental check up........was also checked for lice by Pomello earlier in the day. 

At meal times the Capuchinos usually prefer to get some food and then retreat back to your shoulder to munch in your ear. If you're lucky (as Matt was here) you'll get fed also. Now these guys are not silly and know if you're doing the pretend chew.......and will opt to physically examine your mouth to see that you have swallowed. If you're even more lucky you get a hand in there just to make sure.
I was forced to eat numerous leaves and shared banana/watermelon. Don't worry they're all immunised against rabies and other diseases!



The cheeky times soon become cuddles.....

It was a daily occurance to have a monkey nesting into your shoulder/neck and then feel a warm wet stream down your back - must have been a comfort thing...........

Matt was especially lucky to be poohed on numerous times.



Macaws

 

Coati - really friendly animals related to the racoons.



Paprika (baby capuchin) my other new best friend.



Canello

Was amazing to see the interaction between the three species of monkeys. The Spiders would often fight over who was going to look after the baby howler.

These guys just get cuter - Wara having a snooze on Carbon the owners dog.



The Yungas valley - our walk to work

 

Volunteer accommodation - LSV across river in the distance.



We ended up leaving the sanctuary two days early as 5 new volunteers turned up and there really wasn’t enough work to keep 8 volunteers busy. This was ok though as we wanted to keep moving as much as we wanted to stay.

Sadly we had our last cuddles and hair pullings and took the drive back up to La Paz (much more relieving driving uphill).

In the days to follow we both really missed the monkeys and all the team at LSV!!