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
