Traveller Not Tourist:

Jay’s Journey by

Jay Chavez

Part 2: Walking with pumas

I spent my 26th birthday in Lima (my birthplace) in the company of people I had known for just a few days. For someone who normally makes the most of birthdays, it felt strange to be so far away from my family and friends but I was still positive about my trip and excited about my packed itinerary. I started with a fairly predictable journey down the West coast of Peru –  

•    Paracas/Ballestras Islands: A trip around some islands covered in birds which produce what was at one point, Peru’s biggest export – guano (bird poo) – apparently it makes very good fertiliser! There are penguins there too (but no snow!)
•    Huacachina: An oasis near Ica where you can indulge in a bit of sand buggying and/or boarding – very cool.
•    Nazca Lines flyover : Squeezed into a tiny aeroplane with 4 girls screaming about how their father would kill them if he knew they were doing this – mine took me on the same trip when I was just a baby, bet the aeroplanes were in a worse condition in the ‘80s too! Apparently I slept through the whole thing the first time around but I was definitely awake for this one - the lines are really breathtaking , it certainly gets you thinking about the alien hypothesis.
•    Nazca Inca Burial Grounds and Aqueducts: Slightly scary skeletons, especially since most of them still have hair. The aqueducts were amazing and most of them are still in use today!

I then travelled to Arequipa (more about that later) and then onwards (ever onwards) to Bolivia. Here I made a bit of a detour from my planned itinerary (the first of many) to visit the Salar de Uyuni, which turned out to have been a great idea. If you are going to Bolivia, make sure you don’t miss it. And then, finally, it was time to volunteer at the animal refuge. I was already pretty excited about this just from browsing their website but during my travels I had met several people who had just come from there and they all said it was the highlight of their trip so I was practically brimming over with anticipation by the time I got on the bus that would take me to Parque Ambu Ari (one of the Inti Wara Yassi project sites). I think an extract from the email I wrote home at the time is the best way to describe my arrival:

“It's one o'clock in the morning and I've just been dropped off in the middle of the jungle after a 5 hour bus journey that turned into 9 hours. I can see the entrance to the park but there are no lights and I can't hear any people. Maybe I should be scared but I just can't keep this huge grin off my face. I'm finally here!”

Luckily I managed to find someone to let me in and find me a bed, and so started my Inti Wara Yassi adventure. I was lucky enough to be able to work daily with 2 different animals for the duration of my stay: Lorenzo, a 9 month old parrot who had had his wings brutally cut to stop him escaping and Wayra, a 3 year old Puma who had been taken to schools and forced to perform tricks. My main duties were to feed and take care of the animals assigned to me. With Wayra this involved: Cleaning out the cage where she spent her nights, Feeding her - she didn’t like red meat so we gave her whole chickens; Playing with her - she liked football; Taking her for walks - the idea was to let her do whatever she wanted so, although she was on a lead, if she wanted to stop for a snooze in the middle of the jungle, that was what she did and we had to stay with her; Pulling ticks off her (bleargh!) and generally hanging out with her. Even though she was quite small as pumas go, she still had some pretty hefty claws so it was a bit scary sometimes.  I somehow managed to dodge her teeth and claws every time she went for me (mainly by mistake when she was playing) but not everyone was so lucky.

There was one girl who got caught in the rain with her when Wayra got scared – she used to live in a house with her owner so she wasn’t too good with the great outdoors. I sincerely don’t think Wayra meant to hurt the girl, but she did sink a few of her claws into her and this obviously made the girl a bit nervous around her from then on. I quite liked that element of danger (maybe because I never caught the sharp end of it), it meant that you had to be alert all the time and that made me feel more alive. I think that is something I felt for a lot of the time I spent in South America – because everything was new, it felt somehow bigger and brighter, sharper and more vivid.

Working with Lorenzo (“my” parrot) was a little less dangerous – although he did tend to shriek quite loudly in my ear whilst sitting on my shoulder so I probably should have worn ear protectors or something! He underwent a feather transplant while I was looking after him – the resident vet glued matchsticks (minus the phosphorus of course) inside his feather stubs and then attached flight feathers from another bird on the other end. I had to help him re-learn to fly, which I did by running with him on my shoulder and then catapulting him into the air so it was fly or fall!  This approach worked well most of the time and I would then shout encouragement in my best Spanish (which wasn’t particularly great at the time but I am sure he understood the gist of it!)

As well as Wayra and Lorenzo there were several howler monkeys who hung around the volunteers living area, a beautiful little night monkey who used to sit on your head (and then wee in your hair!), a baby anteater, wild pigs that would try to get between your legs when you went into the kitchen or dining room, several other pumas, a couple of jaguars, ocelots, emus (getting them in their house at night was NOT an easy task I can tell you!) and a few deer. The monkeys would just wander up to you and clamber onto your lap, the little ones would wind themselves around your neck and accompany you about your business. One baby monkey came in while I was there – his mother had been shot by a hunter and the bullet that killed her had shattered his arm so it had to be amputated. You could see the pain and confusion in his eyes and I remember thinking that I was very glad Inti Wara Yassi were there to take care of him.

But it was not just animals that took refuge in the park, there were also 3 children who lived there. I never quite understood the whole story but basically, they were unable, or unwilling, to live with their families for various reasons and had therefore been adopted by Inti Wara Yassi.

I could go on for a long time about my experience at Parque Ambu Ari but I think one of the most poignant lessons was that you have to take care of yourself when you are travelling – in Europe it is easy to get complacent with all the Health and Safety legislation and blame culture but in most of South America, and many other places too I am sure, the buck stops with you.  And it’s not just jungle animals you have to be wary of; even walking down the street can be dangerous if you don’t pay attention. I know of several streets in Arequipa that simply have huge holes in the pavements – perfect for breaking a leg in if you allow your mind to wander too much.

There is definitely a tendency to be a bit more wild when you are travelling, maybe because no one knows you or because you chose to travel to experience new things, but this, coupled with an unknown place, can lead to real trouble. I will never cease to be amazed that nothing really bad happened to me – I got myself into a lot of very dodgy situations whilst travelling. One night, after we had been out drinking in the nearest bar to the park (20 minutes car journey away), I decided I didn’t want to wait for the bus and walked home, alone, very drunk, along a very dark jungle road, with the occasional lorry trundling down it at high speed. Happily I survived (and in fact felt better than most other people the next morning) but it could have been a very different story.
One of the best ways to stay safe is to be aware of dangers by talking to other travellers, reading up on your destination and using your common sense (hope it’s better than mine!) Travelling with others makes you safer as does not choosing the cheapest option (it’s cheap for a reason – especially true with South American buses). It is normally quite easy to hook up with other travellers in hostels etc, sometimes it can feel a bit awkward asking someone if you can travel with them but the odds are they are trying to work out how to ask you anyway so be brave!

I left Parque Ambu Ari after an amazing month; by then we were well into the rainy season and the mosquitoes in the jungle were getting really unbearable, you just couldn’t leave a millimetre of skin uncovered for more than a second, so that made it a bit easier to say goodbye but I was still very sad. My memories from that time are very precious to me and would recommend volunteering there to anyone and everyone. You will learn a lot about yourself, grow in ways you had never considered and hopefully, you will love it as much as I did.

Next blog - Part 3: Hopeful Angels

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