So after surviving the adreneline of death road, we were well and truly ready to leave La Paz for the final time and head towards the one destination that was set in stone for this trip. The Inti Warra Yassi is an animal sanctuary that takes in animals that have beed abused, rescued or are now unwanted pets. The sanctuary mainly consists of monkeys but housed a whole variety of different animals from the Bolivian jungle ranging from birds to Andean bears to pumas.

So after spending a night in Cochabamba on our quest to the sanctary our spirits were high on the idea of working with monkeys, however were also anxious as we read on the website that we would be out with the animals that most needed the volunteers. So with that in mind, our spirits were high on the idea of working with monkeys!! (postive thinking!)

We finally made it to Parque Machia after 3 hours in a mini van from hell from Cochabamba. I realise its mentioned frequently about the driving, however, again they somehow are able to blow us away every trip. Suprisingly, we were dropped off on the side of the main road opposite a small cafeteria where a few people were sitting, and after breathing a sigh of relief that we were still alive headed over to have a chat.

Another Aussie couple and a Scottish guy had arrived that day along with an Israeli guy, so at least we weren't only ones and were told to hang out till 5pm when we would get shown around the park and would also be allocated to our areas. The park ended up being more than just a cafeteria on the side of the road thankgod. It wound up and into the jungle and some volunteers had to walk 2 hours to get to their animals. The Capuchin monkeys were at the bottom of the jungle, the smal animals (kawatis, snakes, noctunal monkeys) was a little further up as was the birds. And finally the spider monkeys large cats and bear was deeper up in the jungle.

After our little tour and a meeting with the volunteer co-ordinator we crossed our fingers, gritted our teeth and awaited the answer of where we would be for the next 2 weeks!......Monkeys it was! Hooray!! However as Lex and I are a couple (I know....strange), we couldn't be in the same area so I was in the Clinic with the other Aussie guy, Dan, and Lex was off to the Quarentine with Craig the Scottish ranga. We were told to be at work by 7:15am. When the new monkeys were brought to the sanctuary, their first stop would be to the clinic (my area) where they would have a check up and be cleared of any illness and would stick around for a while before they were moved over to Lex's area in quarantine where they would stay and call home. If possible they would be rehabilitated there and be readied to head back to the jungle.

And thus started our volunteering experience. On our first day I was greeted by hungry monkeys and after fetching them bananas to munch on whilst being removed from their cages, I was shown the ropes by Gala one of the older volunteers. After coming to terms with the fact that I would be hanging out with real-life monkeys for the next 2 weeks, Gala pulled me back down to reality and introduced me to another real-life thing I would face every day. s***. And lots of it. Once all the monkeys had been removed from their cages, us trusty volunteers would begin the process of cleaning. s***ty cages, s***ty floors, s***ty blankets and s***ty wooden boards that they slept on at night. Scrubbing, scraping, rinsing, stacking, sweeping and washing s***. AND THEN.......we could play, cuddle, connect, hide, seek and laugh with the gorgeous little animals that would be our new little mates. Then it would be time for lunch and we would do it all over again. And again after dinner.......and then again after bed time. Until 7pm. Needless to say it was a long day with no mosquito repellent (it was forbidden), a lot of sweat and tired feet. In the time between this they were treated to snacks and fresh juicy grass that we would search and chop down in the jungle. Spoiled little monkeys!!

Not all the monkey were gorgeous as I came to realise though....some were psycho towards women and these were the first I drilled into my memory to stay away from. Although on one fine afternoon whilst sweeping under a cage, a lovely (evil) monkey by the name of Piccolo, reached out of his cage and grabbed me by the hair with both hands and tried to pull me towards him. Luckily I was rescued by one of the vets but it felt like my scalp was being torn off!! Poor Dan, one of the Aussie guys was treated with a deep bite from another special monkey and recieved 5 stiches as was Gala who had the top of her finger bitten almost off and one of the vets who recieved a few stiches from another monkey bite. Besides my hair pulling incident, a bite to my hand and the back of my neck, I was in the clear of any bad damage.

However not all the monkeys were bad!!! They all had their own little personalities, quirks, expressions and temperments. On my first day I was a little overwhelmed as to how I would recognise them all however on my last day I didnt know how I couldn't recognise them!! Everyday we would learn something new about their characters whether that be who liked to be thrown around, who liked blankets and who ate their own poo, everyday was a little lesson.

All in all there were around 50 volunteers at the sanctuary consisting of all nationalities and personalities. After work everyone enjoyed a deserving beer together and chatted about their day and swapped stories before heading off to clean up and head out for dinner, brush up on their general knowledge for trivia night or break some notes for poker night. All this was done through torrential rain that continued the majority of the time we were there. One night the lightning was so bad that we all woke from the same BANG that lit up rooms and shook the walls. Was pretty crazy but awesome to see the jungle storm at its best. On the days that it didn't rain, it was hot. HOOOOOOOT. And on the days when things seemed normal, the town's water had been cut off and we had a day and a half of no water which made cleaning terrible and communal bathrooms putrid. Ahhhh, Bolivia.

The 2 weeks flew by faster than expected and out of nowhere it was our last day and time to say goodbye to our new friends which, of course, was very hard. Lex and I finished the same time as the Aussie couple (Dan and Gita) and Craig the Scottish ranga. So we decided to all travel off together in the direction of Uyuni where we would discover the beautiful salt flats of Bolivia.