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Let's get into this then...
My journey into the Amazon didn't start that well. What I mean by that is the night before taking a 7 hour bus trip from Santa Cruz to the Ambue Ari park I spent roughly an hour violently throwing up a small pizza into the dorm toilet. Luckily, this was an extreme but short bout for food poisoning reering its head once again, and I felt perfectly fine the following morning.
The bus journey north was long. The scenery is largely just endless soya and sunflower plantations. Interesting how so much of the rainforest has been cut down so that the ingredients of environmentally friendly fuels and plastics can be grown...
Abruptly, I made it to Ambue Ari. One of the most impressive places I've ever been by far.
I came to Ambue Ari to research for an article I'm going to write in the Bolivian Express magazine. It's one of three parks around Bolivia owned by Communidad Inti Wara Yassi - the premier wildlife refuge organisation in Bolivia. It's actually a vast organisation, with many major overseas fundraising backpackers and many in country operations.
Ambue Ari was both an island of gringos in a remote and usually unvisited part of Bolivia, and an island of rainforest amongst a sea of deforested, dry to a crisp grassland.
When I arrived at Ambue Ari, I was nervously greeted by a gravelly voiced Kiwi, Amy, who was the main coordinator of the park, Andrea, a former office worker at Samsung's Bolivia's branch turn administrator for CIWY and John, the owner of a large British tour company who helped purchase the land (once a cocoa farm) that Ambue Ari currently sits on, around 15 years ago.
It was a strange first evening where I was bombarded with information about the history of the park, and came to the realisation that winter happens in the jungle to and the place was a) incredibly dry and b) actually pretty cold.
Throughout my time at Ambue Ari I mixed well with the volunteers, mostly girls, largely from Holland, the UK and Australia, although there was an American Jew who wanted Californian independence and a Canadian girl who'd grown up in Indonesia and was studying veterinary in Budapest. It's high season for volunteers being both dry season and university holidays across North America and Europe.
Although I did have a pretty good idea what I wanted to see and research for my article, I was more than happy to oblige when they insisted I go with the volunteers, to see how things were done. So a couple times during my trip I visited the Tejones, coati/racoon like animals, feeding them and evening walking one on a leash. Whilst it did pull a lot more than either of my dogs at home, a tejone is a lot weaker and so was a lot easier to control.
The main event of the first day however, was visiting the Howler Monkeys. Ambue Ari has 5 Howler Monkeys, 4 of them live together and the other, Biton, lives alone. This is because Biton is too alpha to admit that the alpha of the park, Lucho, is too alpha for him and so would just get into fights and be stressed the whole time if they were mixed. Luis, Lucho's skinnier, much smaller brother, meanwhile is very much accepting of his lack of 'alpha-ness' and so coexists reasonably happily with the main group of Howlers, albeit is a little too cuddly. Meanwhile, the girls Sabrina and Bruna are effectively, Lucho's cheerleaders.
It was so interesting, visiting the Howler's cages and then following them as they got released for their daily climb through the forest. The Howler's have done so well to a) be eating their natural, leaf based diet (monkey's really don't eat that many bananas) and b) be moving so well through the trees rather than walking on the ground, as both of these things have to be 're-trained' into these rescued Howlers because of being taken from their mothers at such young ages.
What was depressing, was Biton. Biton got very stressed whilst we were visiting him because, thanks to deforestation, wild monkeys often encroach the park. Whilst this is good for helping reintroduction and rewilding of the Howlers, Biton got very stressed when they got very close to his cage. Biton, because he doesn't really know he's a Howler Monkey, will often come to the human camp and try rile what he sees as 'his troops' with his howl, only to have to be returned to his cage because of course, it's a little too much to ask to abandon your family and become a Howler Monkey...
The following day we went to visit Kusly. A Jaguar. However, Kusly was very stressed thanks to some wild and unwelcome visitors the night before, so 2 new people, 1 white and baring a camera were not particularly welcome, a point he made clear with a rather spectacular set of ferocious roars.
So, we abandoned the plan to see 1 Jaguar and instead saw 2 Pumas and 1, different, Jaguar. The Pumas, Wara and Yassi, are epileptic sisters who are practically inseperable. It was just phenomenal being able to walk around the cage, followed by the pumas (happily, inside their enclosure) purring away contently.
But the Jaguar was a whole different shabang. We went to see a rather chubby Ru, but despite his chub (Jaguars easily gain weight) you could still see his awe-inspiring muscularity. Jaguars are nothing but utterly majestic and gobsmackingly beautiful. Once more, thanks to CIWYs efforts to keep the animals as wild as possible (they don't get any visitors, other than long term volunteers paired up with them and trained to deal with them, oh and pesky journalists like me) you definitely feel that he was the one in control of what you did and how long you stayed there.
Ambue Ari was no question, an absolute blast. I saw more in two days than most volunteers in two weeks +, the beauty of a press pass! But it was still such a fascinating and also responsible, and well-ran place.
But it's a place under threat. Whilst I was there, massive forest fires (or rather 'field fires' as the forest has all been cut down) were raging across the bone dry plains just a few kilometres away. The fires are under control, but thanks to the fire brigade requiring payment, and the fact most people in this region set fire to their land deliberately for agricultural reasons, Ambue Ari also turned into the main firefighting force of the region.
One of the aspects I really enjoyed about Ambue Ari was the people. In La Paz we have Wi-Fi + tend to be out all day and doing research etc. In Ambue Ari, we don't have Wi-Fi. So people talk. It was such a friendly vibe (don't get me wrong, La Paz isn't unfriendly at all, just Ambue Ari was super, super friendly and welcoming). I was obviously a novelty, being a reporter, and not just that, but a 19 year old English reporter who goes to Oxford and yet is working for a Bolivian magazine. It was definitely the place where I've met some of the most memorable people since coming to South America.
On the last night we all headed to the Cafe. I.e. a rather derelict building half an hour down the highway where the volunteers colonise every Friday night to dance and get pissed on luke warm beers, sickly sweet Bolivian wine and copious supplies of rum. It was a fine night, and a long one, because I had to hail one of the night buses travelling from Santa Cruz to Trinidad (where I am now/the largest city in the Bolivian Amazon) - passing the refuge at around 3AM.
As a result, it was a very fun night, Bolivian beer is utterly diabolical but other than that just a great way to spend my last night in Ambue Ari. I managed to hail the second bus I saw travelling in the correct direction, but annoyingly had to sit in the cabin with the driver. Hence, I had to listen to endless reggaeton as the bus driver swerved round potholes with a cheek fat with coca leaves.
I've been very dazed this morning. Almost hungover but without having had proper sleep. Its been a restful morning, and thanks to Trinidad's lack of hostels, I'm staying in a hotel so the nicest place I'll stay in this whole trip. I've even got a tele! And 2 beds! It actually feels bizarre staying in a hotel, it feels so long since the last time, having a room key and not having the stench of smelly feet (or rather other people's smelly feet).
It's gonna be a resting day today, maybe a pramble round Trinidad, before I head west to the carnage of the Fiesta de Moxos...
Vamos!
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