Broken Bones, Crashing Cars and Bye Bye Bolivia

After 20 months away in Bolivia we have safely returned home and are enjoying the comforts of hot showers, supermarkets and sensible drivers.

We returned to the park at the end of April for a somewhat eventful last couple of months. Matt returned to work in the office and I returned to working with the spider monkeys, however Matt, keen to have a final stint of working with Roy, filled in for a day. Whilst training other volunteers how to safely work with a large, wild feline, managed to get the rope caught around his hand and quite spectacularly fractured his second metacarpal (hand bone between index finger and wrist). After being patched up at the local hospital, one of the doctors (qualifications questionable) did suggest that he may want to be seen by a surgeon in Cochabamba. So off we went to go and see Cochabamba's finest surgeon (who has treated many a wounded volunteer) to go and have half a dozen screws and a plate inserted into his, now bionic, hand. After a couple of days in hospital Matt was allowed out but instructed to stay in the city and not to return to the park for 10 days to avoid any swelling, and so we went and stayed with some good friends of the park. Me being a somewhat unsympathetic wife (physios are known as 'trained bullys' with good reason!) decided that instead of helping to nurse Matt back to good health, I would head back to the park without him.

I got a private car from Cochabamba to Villa Tunari on May 28th as I was transporting a rescued sloth to the park. I thought the driver was driving pretty fast, but then they always do and so I decided not to say anything, when we swerved to one side of the road, and then the other, and then everything went black. I woke up in the car with the sloth on my lap, with no memory of where I was or why I was there or anything that happened over the last few days, especially not why I was holding a sloth!

To cut a long story short, we had a head on collision with a truck. My driver was killed instantly and I know that the truck driver was taken to hospital but am unaware of how he is. I tell this story not to be dramatic but to share that when people say 'wow you were very lucky' I have to reply that it really was not luck but a series of miracles that saved both me and prevented not more people from being hurt in the accident. Firstly the driver wanted to pick up another passenger in the front seat which is a common line that drivers use to make more money on a private contract. I said that that was fine but that I would not pay the full amount, so he decided not to bother. If he had, they most certainly would have died as well. Secondly, we stopped one metre infront of a 100m cliff drop, after having slid at least 15m to the other side of the road. Thirdly I only had enough battery and credit to call one person before my phone died, and the only person who I could remember at the time was our friend in Cochabamba who was looking after Matt and able to come straight to the hospital where I was treated. And finally and maybe most dramatically I was sitting less than a metre from the driver who was killed, and yet I was let away with minor concussion, whiplash and a few scratches.

I know that people may think there is a technical explanation for this, but I know that I was saved by a miracle, and that God is giving me a second chance. So thankyou so much for all of your concern, but please be reassured that we are both fine, and if anything this has brought Matt and I closer together and more determined to make the very most of our very fragile lives.

So after returning to Cochambamaba and staying in the same hospital that Matt had been discharged from a few days earlier, we eventually made it back to the park for the last couple of weeks of work before many tearful goodbyes. Living and working in Bolivia has been an eye opening and humbling experience and we have been lucky enough to meet some incredible people and make some wonderful friends, most notably Nena, the park director and now President of Inti Wara Yassi, who is without doubt the most inspiring woman I have ever met. We will look back on the time we spent in South America with many happy memories, but it will also be a time that has taught us to really appreciate what we have here. And so it is that the Brimbles Bolivian Blog ends and we enter a new chapter in our lives invol

ving 9-5 jobs, council tax and cooking at home which is still about 8 times more expensive than eating out in the nicest restaurant in Villa Tunari! But it also involves spending quality time with friends and family and each other.

With all our love to everyone still reading and apologies if we haven't been in touch yet but we will do our best,

Matt & Sarah x

Long Overdue

Despite promising to do a better job of updating the blog more regularly in 2009/2010 I am fully aware that there has only been oneblogentry in 2010, due to the usual excuses of rubbish internet connection and being ridiculously busy. I think after last year in Bolivia we were under the impression that because we knew what we were going back to, it would be much easier to cope with, and therefore I would make more time to keep in touch with people and do the blog etc, but sadly that has definitely (evidently) not been the case!

As you know I arrived back in the park in October and Matt followed on in early December after finishing a job with Raleigh International in Borneo. It quickly became apparent that the problems we had to deal with in the park last year were just a warm up to what was to happen this year. Without boring you with all of the details for quite a while now there has been a growing rift within the internal management of Inti Wara Yassi - the NGO that we work for. This came to a head this year when the president of the organisation launched an unpleasant and personal attack on both the vice-president and Matt (the administrator), and so the first few months of 2010 were taken up with endless paper work and meetings with lawyers on how best to move forward for the benefit of the community and the animals. It was decided that this would sadly involve removing the president. It was a really tough and draining time for Matt (largely due to the presence of death threats and an ensuing restraining order taken out against said president), and so it was almost a blessing that at the same time we were very short on volunteers and so Matt had to escape to the jungle most days to walk with Roy – the puma he has been working with off and on since 2006.

I continued to work with the spider monkeys until January when I left the park to start working with a group of Quest gap year students, who I have been with for the last 3 months. It was my first time doing the full three month stint and I have to say that I was more than ready to relinquish control to Matt half way through, when he joined us to become the expedition leader. The three months involved 2 and a half weeks of Spanish classes in Sucre followed by a 4 day tour of the Salt Flats in Uyuni, and a trip to the mines in Potosi. The students then did a months work of volunteering in the parks which is broken down into 2 weeks of construction work in our newest park, Jacj Cuisi, and 2 weeks of working with animals in our oldest park, Machia. The final part of the trip is the expedition which Matt was in charge of and involved trekking and activities in Bolivia and Peru, culminating with walking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu dressed as super heroes.

We finished with the group 4 days ago and were looking forward to a few day of relaxing and time to ourselves, but work seems to have taken its toll on us and we both came down with illnesses the day after all the students left! As I write this we are on our way to La Paz for a final day of relaxation (or recovery) and shopping before returning to the parks for our last stint of work. The current plan is to return to the UK around the end of June... and then who knows? It is both sad and exciting thinking about leaving Bolivia. We have made many friends here and feel that we have truly become part of the community, but at the same time we have given all we have to give, and are both more than ready for some home comforts!

Sorry that this blog entry has been so totally boring – it is difficult to know where to start when so much has happened, but hopefully who ever has taken the time to read this will appreciate it’s nutshell like character and be happy going on with your day.

Lots of love ‘The Brimbles’

Matt and Sarah go there separate ways

So when we left you last time Matt was working in Borneo with Raleigh International and I was in the UK about to return to Bolivia. Matt´s group went well, no lawyer-murder and one fully functioning gravity water-feed system in place. The trip finished with the lawyers taking Matt and one of his best mates Jim (technically his boss at that time) to a five star resort for two days. They fully made the most of the happy hours! Once finishing with Raleigh Jim and Matt went to the Philippines for a spot of diving, biking and kayaking before returning back to the UK for some Bolivian visa fun (straight off the plane), quick family visits and Quest training weekend.

During this time I was sweating in the jungle in Bolivia, where I was back into the role of coordinator and in charge of the spider monkey park within 2 hours of arriving. It was a tough time as the park director was away for a lot of it and matt wasn´t there so I was stuck with all the income and expenditure, idiot volunteers to deal with and 30+ monkeys to look after. In addition to all that fun I was elected as Guinea pig of how to get a 12 month temporary residence visa in Bolivia, involving 5 24 hour return journeys to La Paz, only to find that all the documents I had got in La Paz were invalid and I had to go through it all over again in Cochabamba. A chance to see Bolivian Bureaucracy atits finest!

Fortunately 5 weeks passed relatively quickly and Matt and I were reunited at Santa Cruz airport (deja vu as that is where we first met 4 and half years ago... ahhhh). Throughout December our feet barely touched the ground as we worked all the hours that God sent, regardless of chrsitmas or new year, wknds, evenings etc sob sob violin music. On a more serious note though it has been a tough few months as there have been very low volunteer numbers (we have hit the lowest ever recorded number of volunteers - 16) which has met that matt has been working with two cats, as well as being volunteer coordinator, cat coordinator, accomodation coordinator, administrator etc etc (basically he is just trying to get the largest number of titles he can - and according to him, holds the current record).

So we find ourselves standing on the edge of another separation. Gazing into the gorge of loneliness but happy in the thought that we will still bask under the same sky of love that will keep us together and unite us despite the distance between us(yes - matts words not mine) . Matt and I have left the park and we arrived in Sucre on Thursday for a mad couple of days of getting things organised for the first Quest groups arrival on Monday. Our hard work has paid off though and so Matt and I are enjoying a whole day of relaxing together today - the first we have had in many many months! Sucre is a beautiful city and quite compact so you can walk everywhere. The main square is lovely and there´s always lots going on. There´s lots of good food and the climate is mild, so it is a welcome change from the steamy heat and torrid rain storms of the jungle. I will be in charge of the group this year, so we will go our separate ways for the next three weeks whilst I stay with the group during their language classes in Sucre, and Matt returns to the park. We will briefly reunite in La Paz before another 4 week stint apart: 10 days of construction work in the new park followed by 2 weeks working with animals in the old park, whilst Matt is off doing a wrecky for the new expedition route. Finally on March 8th we will be reunited with the group to run the expedition together. Hopefully we will fill you in around then!

Sorry for the lack of updates... we don´t expect to improve in 2010.

All our love,

Matt & Sarah x

Brimbles Bavarian and Bornean Blog

So its official - after a mere 6 trips to the Bolivian Immigration office in London I have finally obtained a visa to return to Bolivia and so the Bolivian Blog will restart in a few short days. But I know it has been a long time since we have written anything, so before part 2 continues, let me get you upto date with what we has happened since leaving Bolivia:

Not ones to enjoy a slow paced life, we got off the plane at Heathrow after our flight from Lima with enough time to stop off for a bacon and egg fry up with grandma and grandpa before heading down to Brighton for the Quest reunion. Despite us flying around the world for it, sadly only 5 of our students made the effort to come (ungrateful *&$%%££$s!) but at least we got to play on the bouncy castle so it was all worth it in the end.

After enjoying a rare few days together, Matt headed down to Somerset to catch up with his family and then off to Brighton for a very successful Quest meeting with the British Standards people. I joined him briefly with a pretend fractured sesamoid which managed to get me out the karaoke evening but didn't see us getting out of signing up for another year with Quest. We're still not really sure how that happened!

Off we went for an extremely civilised Brimbles-Richards trip to Cat and Tobi's wedding in Switzerland. Beautiful views, sunshine, cow bells and excellent company provided a wonderful weekend and a relaxing start to our time in Germany... which wasn't quite as relaxing. After Matt finding out that he had been offered a short term job working for Raleigh in Borneo (which took place during our holiday in Borneo), we also found out that the situation in the park in Bolivia and the road being built through it was a lot more serious than orginally thought and so a large part of our time was taken up reorganising our future, which now involves me flying back to Bolivia slightly earlier than expected (next week) and Matt staying in Borneo for over a month and joining me in Bolivia on Dec 1st. Matt’s time with his mates who came to visit provided a good distraction from all the stress and they filled four days with beer and sausages at the oktoberfest, whilst I enjoyed four days all to myself (heaven!), before hanging out with the Clelland seniors for a few days.

After another manic week in England of organising and sorting it was finally holiday time! Although being in the UK and Germany was great, it didn’t really feel like a ‘holiday’ and so we headed off to Malaysian Borneo to visit Jim and enjoy a somewhat shorter version of the originally intended 3 week holiday (now only 9 days) The first couple of days we hung out with Jim in his beautiful 10th floor apartment with sea view (beats Valle Grande!!) and we both quickly fell in love with the area of Sabah – the food, the people, the beaches… and so we found ourselves regularly asking why are we going back to Bolivia and not Borneo??!!



After hanging out with Jim, we transferred to the island of Mabul where we stayed for 4 days diving. The diving was INCREDIBLE. It’s difficult to say what the highlight was as there really were SO many: a school of over 20 reef shark, holding onto a rock for dear life during a really strong current whilst 100s of barracuda were swirling around 2m above with shark on the edge and garden eels everywhere poking there heads up, or the huge number of giant green sea turtles gliding silently through the water, or dozens of brightly coloured nudibranch and flat worms, or a rare blue ribbon eel, or flamboyant free swimming cuttlefish, or the gorgeous coral gardens, or a school of giant bumphead parrot fish… the list goes on. Our last dive how ever was perhaps the most special – my first night dive and Matt’s 200th dive, we saw the mandarin fish’s nesting spot, octopus, cuttlefish and so many weird and wonderful things, in addition to me experiencing my first ‘phosphorescence dancing’ session with Matt. It was a magical four days where we clocked up 14 dives!!

The next day we headed north to the village of Sukau, situated on the lower Kinabatangan river. We stayed in a beautiful lodge backing onto the river and went on a tranquil river cruise where we spotted numerous groups of long tailed macaques, two wild Orangutans (very cool) and group of Proboscis monkeys, including a mail giving one of his harem a bit of a ‘seeing to’! We also saw two of the highly acclaimed Hornbills (Rhinoceros and Asian pied) and a few Kingfisher birds. It was a wonderfully relaxed afternoon and it was incredible to see such pristine and untouched rainforest.

Before returning to Kota Kinabalu we visited the Sepilok Orangutan rehabilitation centre where we saw one of their feedings and took lots of rubbish photos. It was very interesting seeing a project similar to ours in someways (they rescue orphaned orangutans as a lot of the rainforest and the Orangutans natural habitat is being destroyed by the palm oil industry, and rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild). However, at the same time the project is so different as they have government backing and heaps of funding and support... two things we have in very short supply in Bolivia.

Now I'm back in the UK with my sis for a few days before heading back to the park for another year, and Matt's group of Junior Lawyers have just arrived for three weeks of installing a gravity water feed system in the northern Pitas district of Borneo. Huge apologies to those who I meant to catch up with whilst being back but have not managed to. It has been such a whirlwind stay and I can't quite believe we are already heading back.

Lots and lots of love to all and I will check back in from the deep Bolivian jungle asap,

sxx

WHERE HAVE THE BRIMBLES BEEN???

I know – WHERE HAVE THE BRIMBLES BEEN? Are they OK? Was Matt finally beaten by Roy the puma? Did Sarah get so bored of looking after sick students that she moved even deeper into the jungle to join a wild spider monkey colony? Sadly nothing quite so exotic has befallen the Brimbles and the boring truth is that the Brimbles have been busy. Plane, boring old western style ‘too busy to keep in touch’ kind of busy. Sorry. So, before we get to bore you all in person when we get back (less than 3 weeks!) with the details of what we have been up to since May (even more boring for us than for you), we will write it all here, so please don’t be offended if when you ask us we refer you back to the blog, entry of August 20^th, ‘Where have the Brimbles been?’.

We managed to get rid of most of the Quest students at the end of May, when I immediately sped the 36 hour bus journey from Cusco back to the park. Matt followed en suite, having still not quite managed to shrug off one of the students who followed him back. After 7 short days working and being in the park together, I returned to Cusco to meet up with Mr & Mrs C for the looooong planned Peru/Bolivia adventure , leaving Matt in the park. Mum and Dad’s ‘concerns’ about travelling in a 3^rd world country worked to my advantage as I swapped 2* ‘modest’ hostels for 4 & 5* luxury hotels, and travelling ‘local’ style (aka in a sardine can) for private cars and aeroplanes (not private ones, sadly). After a wonderful ten day tour of Peru (Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cusco & Lake Titikaka) and Bolivia (island of the sun and La Paz). We finished off in the park where we met Matt and his dad, Mike, who came out to volunteer for two weeks before a spot of travel with Matt. Despite having three parents around at the same time, which was about three too many (just joking oldies), it was very special to share our home and our lives with them and we really enjoyed having them here (yes, they are reading this). After a couple of days in the park Mum and Dad departed and Matt and his Dad set off to travel Sucre, Potosi, the salt flats and Santa Cruz, which I am lead to believe went very well (yes, I believe Mike is also reading this if he can figure out how to turn a computer on). This time it was my turn to be left in the park , not only managing 30 monkeys but also coordinating 50 + volunteers, managing accommodation and at times also in charge of all park income and expenditure.

Still not time for us to be in one place at one time together, Matt kindly stopped off to surprise me for 10 hours in the park after Mike left, before speeding on to La Paz to meet his next group. The four weeks after the ten hour reunion were pretty tough for both of us. I managed to get one day off from the 7 days a week 14 hours a day work, and Matt didn’t get a single day off as he was with his ‘group’ of two girls working in three different parks. One more tag team was played as Matt arrived with his group the day before his birthday, so fortunately we did get to spend his birthday together... until midnight when I got a bus to Santa Cruz to meet my friends Emma, Lucy and Caroline. Apart from Caroline’s bags being lost twice before she even got to the park, we had a great trip – a couple of days in the park followed by Sucre, Potosi, the salt flats and La Paz (original!) before Caroline left. After that the three of us trekked the three day Choro trail and then spent a couple of days on the island of the sun before finishing the trip with a couple more days in the park. Again, it really was very special having them come and visit and I really appreciated them giving up their summer holidays to come to Bolivia – not the most exotic of places (they’re reading this too :o)!

So, the Brimbles are finally back in the park together for two weeks until making our way up to Lima for our flight home. This is the part where we are probably supposed to write some deep thoughts and reflections on this year, but that all seems a bit final and I am tired just thinking about the last few months so we will leave it for now.

Big love to all, Matt & Sarah x

Quest Expedition

As I write this I have five long, empty days stretching out ahead of me as Matt has gone with the group to treck in the Huayhuash mountain range, south of Huaraz. Unfortunately one of the students has come down with some Peruvian lurgy and so it is that I finally have time to catch up with the blog.

Where were we? Just finishing off four weeks of tough, dirty, sweaty volunteer work in the Bolivian jungle I believe? So, the first stop after the park was in La Paz, the third largest city in Bolivia (after El Alto, which lies above it and Santa Cruz), lying at some 3500m above sea level. Needless to say, the change in altitude and climate was enough for the first students to drop like flies and so it was that yours truly started the fun 'hanging-around-while-Matt-and-students-go-off-and-do-fun-things' game, as they went iceclimbing. PHOTO: Looks too cold. wouldn't have wanted to go anyway.

As if La Paz weren't cold enough, we headed over towards Lake Titicaca (3812m altitude). As I am not sure my own words can do it enough justice, I thought I would treat you to an extract from the student's group update:

'the following day we went to copacabana in a bus. then we went to isla del sol in a boat, then we went to bed in a bed. sunsets are awesome, so are sunrises. lake titicaca is big, swimming in it is cold. sally looked awful on the boat ride back. i think she felt sick. but you can never tell with that one. when we got back to copacabana we snacked and then bussed it to Puno, via a sweet border crossing. got to Puno and had supper in an italian restaurant. post supper a few sprightly characters headed to the cake shop and unfortunately paid the price the following day, vomit-wise, making the reed islands less than jokes'

This demonstrates two things: 18 year olds can no longer write English (where are the capital letters at the beginning of sentences? Since when are full stops and commas interchangeable? And Mr Sealey definitely told me there has to be a verb in every sentence...). I have just realised how much that makes me sound like my mother... moving on: Secondly, this signals another sitting around in a slightly odd smelling hotel room for me - waiting for students to stop chucking. I have to admitt it is a strange job, this being an assistant leader thingy. Basically it consists in both waiting around while other people do fun things, and then hearing all about the really fun things that people have been doing. It seems like an odd way to make money, but I have to admitt that there are definitely worse ways of making money. PHOTO: Uros Islands - looks too silly. Wouldn't have wanted to go anyway.

From Puno we headed over to Arequipa to prepare for our first treck, which, would you believe it? EVERBODY managed to go on - even me!!!! We spent three days descending, traversing and climbing out of the Colca Canyon, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Due to the demands of the 1100m climb out of the canyon, we got up at 3:00am on the last day to get out in time for banana pancakes in the nearby village (and to avoid the sun). We managed the climb in less than three and a half hours with only one girl passing out, which we though was a pretty decent result.

After a couple of days in chilling in Arequipa and some good nights out, we headed down to the pacific coast. Our first stop was a small, isolated beach called 'Puerto Ica', where we camped on the sand and grilled fresh fish on a barbecue. Idyllic. Unfortunately this somewhat tranquil scene was interrupted by having to sleep an entire night with an Epi pen in my hand as Matt's airways nearly closed up after his second allergic attack to seafood (the first being after eating exactly the same dish at exactly the same restaurant 3 years previously - you'd think he may have learned his lesson the first time...). Anyway, apart from Matt everyone enjoyed the ability to run around without a headache, nausea or shortness of breath after spending so much time at altitude, and so the students decided to punish their bodies instead with sunburn and sunstroke.

Despite some students being unable to don their shoes or bras as their sunburn was so severe, we continued up the coast to Nazca where the students flew in five-seater planes over the famous Nazca Lines. Vast quantities of overpriced tourist tack later, we headed upto Huacachina, a small Oasis town near Ica for an afternoon of spinning around the sand dunes in sandbuggys, and racing down the slopes on sandboards. Having scared the daylights out of all the students prior to this somewhat dangerous activity, the students all behaved themselves and it was a great afternoon.

The following day we wizzed up past Lima, leaving just enough time for Matt to nearly get the entire Quest budget mugged from him, and get in a heated argument with a waiter over a jug of beer which cost 60 pence more than Matt thought it was worth (!). We have now arrived in sunny Huaraz, which is where the very first Brimbles Bolivian Blog update was written, nearly six months ago. Can you believe it? The trek that the group is are now undertaking is the same one that we did when we came in November, so its nice to be able to imagine JUST how beautiful it is and JUST what an amazing time they will be having without me. Sob. ;o)

Less than 3 weeks to go of Quest Exped and then... mum and dad Clelland and papa Brimble will be out here. Should be some entertaining blog entries to come then! Lots and lots and lots of love to all. Hope all are well. PLEASE keep in touch. Even if we don't reply we hugely appreciate every mail you send, sxx

Quest Project

Sorry for the lengthy delay in blogging - since the last entry the Quest group have completed their project work and we are now over half way through the expedition, so lets start with the project phase:

The team of 13 students plus Matt and a handful of both local and international volunteers worked extremely hard for their 10 days in Jacq Cuisi and after blood, sweat and tears managed to complete two puma enclosures, with only minor incidences (the wrong cage diametres being given so 60cm deep trenches had to be redug and softy students passing out on various occasions due to the humidity.)

After the hard toil of Jacq Cuisi the team headed over to Park Machia to spend two rewarding weeks working with animals. Although usually animals such as pumas require volunteers to commit to a minimum of one month of work (due to the lengthy procedure of building up trust with such animals), the park makes an exception for Quest students, and so Matt was held responsible for 13 hyperactive 18 year olds running around the jungle with pumas, ocelots, a variety of monkeys and even a speckled mountain bear.

The students worked well and appeared to have a great time, despite various monkey bites, twisted ankles and even the odd case of trench foot. Although Matt was apprehensive at first about what he would be doing in the park having been away for while and officially not being involved with the accounts, he was quickly sucked straight back infront of the computer, but also managed to fit in a few days of treking through the jungle with his boy, Roy. As for me, I continued cleaning up shit, getting weed on and being bitten by my babies in the Spider Monkey park. Sadly Cussi, Quillas baby who I previously wrote about, went missing on our last day of work. At only 5 weeks there was litle hope of finding her alive and she is now officially presumed dead . However, for every sad event that occurs in the park there generally appears to also be a positive, and so it was that we found out that one of my girls, Negra, is pregnant!

Hanging out with Negra