I have been volunteering at Parque Ambue Ari for the last three months and it has been an unbelievable experience in so many ways. The park is located 6 hours outside Santa Cruz, and sits on a 800 hectares of jungle. I live with no electricity, no hot water, and all the mosquitoes you could ever want, but I love it here. I wake up every morning at 6:45 and begin my tasks at 7. The morning tasks change both daily and weekly, so one week you may be cutting food for the birds and the next cutting up food for tapirs. The daily tasks are chores around camp to keep things running, from doing breakfast to cleaning the toilets & showers. The volunteers are responsible for keeping a good work environment and the camp running smoothly.
After breakfast My cat partner Josh and I walk 10 min down the road and then brace ourselves as we slowly enter the swamp weaving through trees, trying not trip over roots and vines. Once we are out of the swamp we yell out “Hola Maggie!” And wait until we hear “Meow” back and that´s when things start to begin. Maggie is a female Puma is the park and is such a fun and interesting cat to work with, she always keeps you on your toes. When we get to her enclosure we reach through the fence as she rubs up against it purring, and begin to give her affection by giving her scratches and once she has had enough she will turn look at us and bolt off like a spaz. The spaz sprints. That´s when Josh and I get our ropes hook ourselves on, and get ready for the walk. One person goes into the double doors and one stays outside, the person in the doors opens another door to her cage and lets her into the double door and clips her on. Lets just say its quite the experience going in the double doors with Maggie. Once clipped on we let her loose on the world, we walk down trail with Maggie and along the way I have experience her trying to kill a turtle(failed), lay down and sleep for 1 hour, have her sprint down trail, and jump me when she wanted to play. I love Maggie and she is such an awesome cat, I love going out her everyday and taking her on walks through the jungle its an experience you cant find anywhere else. Once she is done with her walk we feed her and give her medicine. Then were off back to camp for lunch.
At 2 I begin my afternoon cat which requires 30min of walking through swamp, mud, and jungle but the journey is worth it when you get close to the enclosure you shout out “Hey buddy! Whats up Ru?” And the most handsome Jaguar comes up to the fence to say hello to you, and give you licks all over your arms as you scratch him under his neck and behind his ears. Ru is a caged cat meaning he can´t walk. At one point during his time at the park he was a walking cat, but because he was so playful and didn´t know his own strength he ended up doing some damage to some volunteers and the Bolivian government made the park cage him. Ru is an amazing cat that is full of love for people he just doesn´t realize that he is a huge Jag. My job is to keep Ru happy. I give him affection and he gives me some, then we begin to play through the fence by him stalking up on me, and right before he jumps I bolt off and he comes running after me, and then we trade I begin to stalk him and then chase after him. I also let him on his runner which is a long piece of cable that runs down a tree from his cage, and I will hook him up to that to give him time out of his cage and just explore a bit. After all that playing and affection I begin feeding time.
I lock Ru in his management cage(Smaller cage attached to the main enclosure) and enter his big enclosure. I take all of his food wrap it up in huge leaves and wrap them in vines to make it difficult for him to get at, and the proceed to hide his “packages” in various spots around the cage, mostly up in trees to get him climbing. Once I am done I lock the cage up and let Ru loose to find all his food which is amazing to watch. You put a package up tree that 10 meters off the ground and he is up tree in a heart beat, its absolutely incredible to watch. Once he is done I say goodbye and make my journey back to camp to enjoy a cold shower and nice bowl of Bolivian slop mmmm.
I have loved my time at the park and the last two months have flown by, and I cant believe my time here is almost up. I have met some amazing people, have made some awesome friends, and have made so many incredible memories along the way. Ambue Ari is the place to be.