Samaipata, Day 1

Ok if I don`t talk about the park a bit more I`m never going to do it as I`ll be caught up in other stuff. I have to be briefish though cuz the internet here is pricey and I have a few things I need to do.

I loved my cat Wayra and I felt guilty leaving her. I wanted to leave a day or two earlier than I did, actually, but I promised Noemi, a long-term volunteer who does some of the organizing, that if someone showed up who could take over Wayra for me I would stay a bit longer to help train him or her. Anais, a girl from France, showed up Sunday, so I stayed on a bit more and though I wanted to leave I felt better about it knowing my puma had someone to work with her.

The whole time I was there I was torn between thinking we weren`t doing enough for the animals and thinking they have much better lives than the ones they came from. They do indeed have better lives, but they still live in cages. Theoretically, with the right organization and the right amount of volunteers, the park is a very good idea: the animals have someone (ideally long-term) working with them everyday, keeping them company, playing with them, taking them for dayly walks and sometimes swims in the river, and helping to make them as happy as possible given that most of them can`t be released into the wild. In practice, however, because of poor resources, poor organization, and a severe lack of volunteers especially in the rainy season, this doesn`t happen: if the volunteers are spread too thin the animals can only be walked occasionally, don`t get as much attention as they need, and become frustrated at being in their cages too much.

On the other hand, all the animals have come from bad places. Some are orphaned after poachers kill the parents, some were kept as pets, abused, kept in small cages with their legs tied...So the lives they have now are better, no doubt about it. I just wish their was something more we could do. Juan Carlos and the rest of the permanent volunteers have their hearts in the right places, but they have a long way to go before the bad feelings I have about the place go away.

Even after 4 days away from the park I think I would go back and help again, but I couldn`t do it for long. They need to focus more on the long term, on perhaps improving the living conditions to attract more long-term volunteers, and to do more advertising to help with fundraising and awareness.

I have left much unsaid of course, but that is generally how I feel. The park has the potential to be a wonderful and productive place, but without more money it will only just survive as it is surviving now.

Some of the people I met were wonderful, the burn burn burn people I love so much and I hope we keep in touch. And it`s because of them, as much as the animals, that I have fond memories of the place. I think projects like this are extremely important and though I have problems with it I look forward to working with others, to see how they run and how effective they are in their purpose.

For now though I am happy to be travelling again. I reached Samaipata last night in a local micro bus. It`s a small town, lush because it`s so near the jungle, dirt roads, few tourists, a gem for sure. It`s very laid back, muy tranquile. I`m staying in a hostel called Andoriña which is such a cozy warm fuzzy art sort of place. The couple who run it are Dutch and Bolivian and are very helpful, full of information and advice. I think I could stay here a while but since there is no bank I have to make sure my money holds out for Vallegrande and area.

Tomorrow a British couple and I are going to rent horses for the day!