Accounts, bitten noses and bribing officials

So after 8 weeks of hard work in the park, Matt and I have managed to escape for a couple of days of well earned rest in La Paz, with very little to do except have lie ins on our non-straw mattress, in our non-smelly, non-mouldy room, showering in our non-cold shower (that actually has water in it) in our non-cockroach and non-frog infested bathroom. All that, WITH electricity and a television. Oh the joys of modern comforts!

We left the park on friday night to catch a 10 hour night bus to La Paz (only one seat left on the bus so bless him, Matt attempted to sleep in the 10cm wide isle which appeared to have somewhat over zealous floor heating), followed by a 4 hour bus to Copacabana, then a taxi to the Peruvian border to renew our rapidly expiring visa. After bribing various officials to let us straight back into Bolivia (sometimes you really can´t complain about corruption), we returned on a mini-bus - which not only referrs to the size of the bus but more to the size of the people it is designed for - back to La Paz. We will stay here for a few days until the park truck is ready to drive down to the new land - more of that in a bit.

I have continued to work with the spider monkeys, interjected with a few days here and there of working with a beautiful puma called Sonko. Work with the spider monkeys is both demanding and rewarding and as the ´oldest´volunteer in the spider park, I have been able to build up a wonderful raport with some of the more difficult monkeys who now greet me with a huge cuddle in the morning and usually get themselves so excited that they wee all down me. Now that´s affection! Some days are hard at the moment though as it is rainy season and the male monkeys are very sensitive to climate change and sense the onset of rain and often go quite loopy, attacking other monkeys and volunteers. Up until last week I have had to act as alpha in the spider park which means I have had to protect some of the weaker monkeys during confrontations and discipline the difficult monkeys. This has led to some interesting situations like having a monkey jump on my face and bite my nose! Fortunately a returning volunteer arrived last week who worked with the spider monkeys for a period last year and knows them well, so he has the lucky position of alpha now. A welcome break for me!

Matt has continued to battle through Bolivian inefficiency and over-complication of paper work in his quest to help the park install an effective accounting system. Just to avoid him becoming lonely infront of the computer, he has continued his work as volunteer coordinator, and also took on the role of accomodation coordinator after I threw a strop and told him I was giving up. I think he was actually quite pleased as he can now do it ´properly´:o)

The park is going through interesting times at the moment as it has recently acquired 360 hectares of land near Rurrenabaque and the Madidi national park, a huge tourist hit for people who want to do jungle and Pampas tours. As of yet there is little infrastructure in the new park and there are huge amounts of work to be done to construct areas for volunteers to reside in, in addition to building dozens of animal enclosures and cutting trils for the cats. Currently there are just 2 volunteers who have mapped the whole area with GPS, and Matt and I will visit them later this week, as we intend to bring the group of Quest students down there to do construction work in mid-March. The aquisition of this land is of monumental importance for the park as it is going through difficult times. There is a looming threat of the government building a road straight through the old park - Machía - in the near (in bolivian terms) future, which would obviously signal the end of park Machía where it is. In addition to this park Machía, with only 38 hectares, is already over-populated and realistically can no longer accept new animals. Furthermore park Machía is situated next to the main through road from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz and next to a truck-stop town which also causes problems as any animals that go for a wonder may well end up being road kill, or being stolen by locals and re-sold into captivity. Relations with the neighbouring town, Villa Tunari, have never been great and support for the park is minimal and so all arows are pointing towards a brighter future in the newly named park - Jacj Quisi. If any of you are interested in the new park or helping out in any way - man power, materials or donations then please do drop us a line. Any help would be hugely appreciated, as this is the largest undertaking the park has ever attempted since it started in 1996!

After we return back to the park at the end of this week, Matt will only have 2 more weeks until his Quest Group come out and he heads to Sucre to meet them for their first month of languge classes. I will stay working in Park Machía, and so we will be going our ways for a little while :o(. Scary to think how quickly time is going! So that is about it from us. Apologies for the lack in contact and many thanks for the emails you have sent. Internet near the park is appauling and too frustrating to use more than once a week. Sorry!

Lots and lots of love to all,

Sarah & Matt