It was the best of times, It was the worst of times

It was also the longest and shortest month I have ever experienced. After 7 days a week for a month volunteering at Inti Yara Wasi, our stay is finally over. I won´t miss the wet clothes, the tired limbs, the threat of puma attack, monkey bites, torrential rain, unbearable heat, insects the size of hats and wearing the same smelly clothes for an entire month. What I will miss is the company from people all over the world doing the most bizarre job in South America. We´ve been gone 3 days and already we miss the place, intensive experience that it was. The place was a story feast and here were some of the classics.

• A swiss girl fell asleep next to her puma only to awake with it´s teeth fixed on her bleeding nose
• a Peruvian entered the monkey park with 3000 US dollars only to see a monkey steal two thirds of it
• watching a spider monkey eat the book I was reading
• A girl got lost walking her ocelot to find herself wading across the river in the night with an ocelot on her shoulders
• one of the volunteers on their first night seeing a snake in their room
• a peruvian woman attempting to sell an ocelot skin to the parks owners
• monkeys raiding the bird cages 4 days in a row and taking off with an exotic species or three
• A girl thinking she could quickly clean the jaguar´s cage whilst he was at the far end of his runner, only to slip over and find a jaguar on top of her and being slowly pulled into his area. 17 stiches later she managed to escape.
• waiting 2 hours for a sloth to move so I can get my very excited puma back into his cage
• An on heat female monkey trying to get an English guys attention by throwing stones at him and rubbing herself furiously
• Hearing the crazy sounds of Kate´s ocelot Rico that sounds like a cross between a Tasmanian devil, an umpalumpa and ewok all rolled into one. Speaking of Rico here is a photo of him below

Our final night we cooked up an Aussie BBQ for all the volunteers and once again the famous $1 Boilivian Rum went down a treat. Now we start the trek southwards to chile thru the high altitudes of Southern Bolivias altiplano desert and then to the Atacama in Chile. From 300 metres altitude to over 5000 metres.... They dont call it chile for nuthin