Park Machia - day number 30


Today was my last day in Park Machia. Sonko was amazingly good, the weather was lovely and everything was calm and nice.

I took some time to photograph other animals, and I uploaded some nice videos here as well... I really recommend watching them as I only uploaded the most interesting ones (Sonko trying to eat Clancy, Sonko gives me some petting time, Captain Jack the Tucan enjoys petting etc).


So what did I do there for 30 days?

* Helped building a bigger fenced area for the turtles (including a private pool!)

* Chopped down coconuts with a machate to make halloween decorations

* Helped preparing food for the birds

* Prepared some games with food for the tejons

* Helped building the new kitchen in the aviery


* Chased monkeys away from the aviery quarantine

* Helped cleaning the monkey's quarantine and put some monkeys in their cages

* Got robbed twice by monkeys in the jungle (just food)

* Had more than 200 mosquito bites on my back alone

* Helped dismantling Gato's old cage and rebuilding his new one

* Used a machate to clear the trail from fallen branches

* Used an axe to clear the trail from falling trees



* Helped preparing a beercan chicken dinner 

* Cut down a christmas tree with a machate (!)

and...

* walked a puma 10-16Km in the jungle every day
 
So there you have it... My last month in a nutshell. Included among the rest parties every week, beers every day and way too much fried chicken!
Leaving Sonko was really hard as we got so used to each other, it was like walking with a friend eveyday. I kissed him on the nose on my last walk (Clancy promised to upload it to facebook! I'm still waiting...).
 
I would recommend this experience to any animals lover who travels in the area - it's very unique and you get so close with the animals - in a way I never would have imagined.


At night I took a bus from Villa Tunari. Unfortunately - there's really no bus station there, so you just stand at the side of the road waving at busses that drive by around midnight, hoping one of them will have a seat for you. It took me almost 2 hours to catch one! Lucky for me - I paid a very cheap price. Unlucky for me - it was since he only had a crappy seat next to the driver with no room for legs whatsoever... It was a VERY long 6 hours drive to Santa Cruz.
From Santa Cruz I had a very nice flight to Buenos Aires! My next location...

Wish me luck in the big city!

Gilad.