Week 5 Sacha Yacu Volunteering

Now in the jungle again. There is really nothing here. On the bus I saw tiny houses on the mountains, laundry always hanging out. Two volcanoes, how they are perfectly shaped as a cone and are so much taller than the other mountains. Chimborazo & Tungurahua. Bumpy taxi ride where the wheel broke down. Arrived in the middle of the night. There is no electricity, no refrigerator, no hot water, not really a bathroom. We sleep in little huts on poles, under mosquitonets. In the morning, it's 'find out for yourself' how to make breakfast. Other volunteers have been here longer, Merit, Morten, Natalia, Cara and Becca came later, Cameron and I are new. Raul shows us around. It is huge and beautiful, but somehow sad at the same time. I don't feel at home here. The cages are quite small and handmade, wood and chickenwire. But there is ranforest all around. The cages are put quite far away from eachother, so the animals can feel free. All animals were rescued by the animal police and put here for recovery and then release. Most were pets and given the wrong food so they went blind. others worked in the circus and were beaten. others were kept in small boxes so their hair fell out. They have a lot of parrots, green ones with yellow, blue, red. Big blue ara and two big red ones. A small cute monkey who is so rare that they can't put it back in the forest, it will get sotlen again and sold for a lot of money (songo). Tortuga's, capucin monkeys, night monkeys, more monkeys, and two ocelots. One angry male and one friendly and playful female on the other side of the river. THe paths are hard to walk on (it's not really a path, but who needs a apath when you have boots?). it rains alot. It's amazing to touch the monkeys, they lick you, and to play with an aosselot is priceless. Osselot? Leopard? No sé.
In the afternoon we went fishing, - pesar - for the Ocelot. I caught one and i was too scared to get the hook out of its gills. Then a chicken came to feed to the Ocelot. But we have two Ocelots! So Andrea primero put a anail through the pollo's neck, despues Natalia and Raul held it and Morten cut it in two with a machete and corta su cabeza. l mismo machete que we used that afternoon to chop sugarcane for eating. We had also picked some lemons which looked like oranges (te oranges look like mandarines) to make lemonjuice and cocoa beans para secar y hacer chocolate!
At dinner I hear stories of what happens here. Sometimes monkes die, new ones come. Tarantula's someone chopped off the of a serpiente which was venimous! Mostly we lie in the hammocks whilst the house pig (pecary) runs around us like a dog (Uangalita). Wild squirrel monkeys play in the trees around us and on the cages when we feed the monkeys, looking jealous. When you're feeding the tortuga's they steal the food. This morning we went to feed the birds, Merit is really good with them.
Now, wild pecaries run around the cabin. The girls are making rosti for almuezo. tuesday is grasshopper day so we're going into the forest to catch them by hand for the weird animals that looks like an anteater (coati)
I caught 14 grasshoppers! You have to quickly frasp them with the palm of your hand, don't let it escape and slide them in an empty waterbottle. The anteater loved them, ate them like they were sweets. At night we got cacaobeans, my hands are blistered from getting all the hot skins off. We put the freash chocolate on banananas!
In the afternoon Morten, Natalia and I went to play with the Ocelot one last time. Nana said it was nice and you could play with it because it used to be in the zoo. But when we got in the cage it played pretty aggressively and bit quite hard, it jumped upon natalia so we decided to play with it from outside the cage. we were happy for it, becase that means she's getting wilder and ready for realease.
Wednesday morning was my turn to clean the house, to cook and also feed pecaries, quarantine cage, small monkey (chichico), squirrel monkey and coati (anteater). The monkeys jump on you while you try to clean their excrement and leftover food. then you give them new food in their hand and hide the rest on branches in the cage. this afternoon was a dramatic goodbe of morten and natalia. Later we're going swimming and then we need to take the monkeys for a walk....
Wednesday afternoon was amazing I was really what I ccame here for. We got to Songo and it climbed on Becca's neck. She immediatelyjumped onto my neck. We couldn't stop taking pictures. She is the most beautiful and cutest creature. She climbed on a few trees and came back every time. Wild monkeys followed us which scared here. Sometimes she made the weirdest noises. She was checking every branch and leaf for insects, but ants scared her shitless. She ccame jumping back to me every time. Her little paws when she was eating on my shoulder! At first she made sure not to poo on me but later she did...
We ate rice again! and because Merit was so sad, we had ladies night with chocolate-banana-oatmeal cookies, tea and popcorn with caramel, after which we talked about boys.
Thursday morning we did the monkeys, one bit me because I took their little one from Andrea primero's neck. They love the eggs and he grass hoppers. The little one sat on my neck with its tail wrapped around me the whole time I was cleaning all the shit and putting in the food. Other names were sam, fred, ginger, ninja, grumpy and naughty.
Documentary makers from CBC Canada came by to shoot videos about Ecuadorian volunteerwork. "rugged and authentic" they called the rescue centre, "you all look very happy and peaceful here". Apparently there is another rescue centre, where visitors ccan just walk in, the cages are bigger and they have electricity. This is way better! I kind of feel more at home now. We are going to descanzar in a hammock now and then repair/reinforce the birds'cages.
We all got one machete, (mine still had chicken's blood on it). to cut leaves to make a new rooftop for the birds. Going up, a swarm of bees attacked me and got up in my hair. Andrea primero and I got in the cage to take down the old roof, but an ant colony was staying in it and was attacking us by biting. Enough bites for today!
After dinner we built a fire, lay down in our hammock and put on some mosic. We played 'would you rather'. It was Cameron's last day. It is so convenient to be able to throw your leftoer food through the window! well, window, we don't really have windows because its so warm, just holes in the walls.
On friday Andrea primero is putting braids with colored ropes in the girls' hair. With David we feed the ocelot and the mean monkeys (kinkyjuis). With fish and chickens. We made some pancakes with bananasoy flour and maple syrup. Afterwards we watched Pitch Perfect. I've got to have that movie!
Saturday morning. Cara and Beca left. I miss them already. They asked me 'do all the dutch people speak english as well as you do?' They were my sole distraction from the loneliness. While feeding the birds, saying goodbye, Merit and I decided we needed to get away. Packed our bags, putting some chocolate in, walked with the huge backpacka ll the way up the mountain(great view!) up a shitty road to catch a bus which we missed, waited for two hours, caught the bus with the others, went to Puyo to their house. The poorest house I've ever seen. The poorest town I've ever been to. It was very sweet of them to let us stay a night. We slept in the same bd in the same room because there wasn't enough space. They are so social, asking us to come along out to dinner, do karaoke, watch a movie, have a talk, but us europeans only wanted privacy and to be left alone... They looked poor but at the same time they were wearing cool clothes and constantly busy on their phones. Stealing wifi from the neighbours. They build their houses themselves and paint their own walls and that is quite obvious.
We go into an internet café for one dollar an hour while I decide where I want to go. The juice bar and heladobar are delicious. We eat in the local restaurants where you get a huge plate of arroz conpollo y jugo y sopa for 3 dollars, n waiting for your food, no menucard.