While I was in Colombia I met a (fabulous) guy who told me about a wild animal refuge in Bolivia where he had volunteered. While listening to his stories, it became obvious how rewarding his experience had been and his enthusiasm was infectious. Spending time volunteering at this refuge became one of my “must-haves” for Bolivia.
Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY) runs three animal refuges in Bolivia. CIWY’s name represents the natural elements in three different languages of indigenous Bolivian peoples: Inti means “sun” in Quechua, Wara is “star” in Aymara, and Yassi is the word for “moon" in Chiriguano-Guarani.
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| Greg with Katie |
Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY) runs three animal refuges in Bolivia. CIWY’s name represents the natural elements in three different languages of indigenous Bolivian peoples: Inti means “sun” in Quechua, Wara is “star” in Aymara, and Yassi is the word for “moon" in Chiriguano-Guarani.
The founders of CIWY did not originally intend to open an animal refuge in the Bolivian jungle. They were originally working with underprivileged children outside of La Paz. Their aim was to provide education on a variety of topics including the destruction of the Bolivian rain forests. On a field trip to a city in the jungle, they encountered a spider monkey that was being force fed alcohol and forced to dance for the locals' amusement. Another trip found a capuchin monkey tied up in a bar where patrons could pay less than $1US to punch him in the face -- the poor little guy had a broken and dislocated jaw. It was from the desire to rescue these and other wild animals that CIWY, the first wild animal refuge in Bolivia, was created.
Since 1992, CIWY’s goal has been to rehabilitate and care for all types of wild animals rescued from situations like those above, from circuses, from markets participating in the illegal pet trade, or from the homes of people who didn’t realize that keeping a wild animal as a pet is never a good idea. The hope is to release all animals back into the wild, for those animals who cannot be rehabilitated due to age, extensive trauma, or other factors, CIWY provides a safe and healthy home.
Today, CIWY has three wild animal refuges in Bolivia which have saved approximately 1000 animals from the illegal animal trade and other instances of abuse, they have shut down a wild animal market in Sucre, Bolivia, and have saved over 1000 hectares of forested land in Bolivia.
I volunteered for nearly 5 weeks at Parque Machia in Villa Tunari, Bolivia.
Parque Machia is home to over 700 animals in over 30 species: pumas, turtles, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, parrots, macaws, eagles, toucans, an Andean bear, ocelots, terrapins, and many more. I worked primarily with about 65 capuchin monkeys. What an amazing group of animals!
Most of my day was spent cleaning cages and their outdoor enclosures. Learning to clean with a monkey on my back was a bit of a challenge!
Fortunately, the monkeys tried to pitch in and help whenever they could!
We worked around 11 hours each day. Between 5 and 6 of those hours were spent cleaning. Another hour or two was for preparing food and feeding the animals three times each day. We also hiked into the jungle each day to cut down branches, leaves, grasses, and even termite mounds to enrich the monkeys' diet and entertain them. It was long days and hard work but, without question, this was the most rewarding work of my life.
Getting to know each of these monkeys and learning their individual personalities was fascinating.
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| Shy Kendra |
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| Baby Damien |
I woke up each day excited to get to work so I could see in what clever ways they would surprise me.
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| Harold with Termites |
Capuchins are incredibly intelligent animals. They learn quickly and have long memories. And they love to be crafty and try (and frequently succeed) to outwit us!
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| Evil Martin |
But having the opportunity to make their quality of life markedly better than what it otherwise would have been is the reason this refuge exists and the reason I was honored to volunteer there.
Some of these monkeys now have a permanent place in my heart and I'm looking forward to returning to Machia for a much longer period of time. . .
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| Tuto Grooming Me! |
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| Sweet, Sweet Chuki |
After writing my blog post about the illegal pet trade in South America (http://bothsidesnowblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/amazon-animal-encounters-part-2-dark.html) several people asked if I knew of organizations that can help. CIWY is an excellent organization that is in need of financial assistance. Any donations go directly to helping care for and potentially rehabilitate Bolivia’s wildlife. If you are interested in donating, please visit CIWY’s website: http://www.intiwarayassi.org/articles/volunteer_animal_refuge/donate_eng.html#donatehere. Animals arrive each week in need of space, housing, food, and medicine. As an example of the power of your donation, the rainforest adjacent to Parque Ambue Ari costs about $40 per acre. CIWY is urgently trying to buy this land before the current owner burns it for farming. These acres of rainforest could be used to release rehabilitated capuchins into the wild.
Of course, CIWY is also always in need of volunteers. And I’m more than happy to share details and information with anyone who would be interested in volunteering!
Leaving Parque Machia was incredibly difficult, but I will always remember my time there: good times, great people, amazing animals. Voy a regresar!
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| Bandito, the One-Armed Bandit |
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