25th Feb - 11th March

Days 1-3:

I was on the bird section for the first three days. Many species of Parrots. This is the routine I followed:

8-9:30 clean & feed birds

10:30 - 13:30 enrichment, cook vegetables & bird cake for their dinner

14:30-17:00 prepare food, clean and then feed the birds.

There was a lot of standing around with birds as preparing the food didn't take that long and enrichment opportunities were limited. Most of the day was spent in Monkey world playing with capuchins, spider and howler monkeys.

Days 4-8:

I was on the Quarantine section which is where the animals go when they first arrive at la sende verde and stay until there is room in the main section. Here there are tortoises, turtles, capuchin monkeys, tayras and birds. The routine I followed was:

8-9:30: prepare food, clean monkeys, birds and tayras and feed them all.

10:30 - 13:30: prepare food for tortoises, monkeys and tayras & feed and clean them. Clean the tortoises/tayras ponds if they are dirty. (That took until about 12:30) so spent a lot of time playing with the monkeys - we took them on walks to the river whilst they sat on our heads! So cute their little hands gently gripped around your neck/head!!

14:30-17:00: prepare food for the monkeys, birds and tayras and feed & clean them all. Again this didn't take too long so spent a lot of time just sitting with the monkeys :)

2 monkeys had been in a cage for a month as there was no free tether, so when they got out the cage they were very scared and nervous. Over the 5 days we built up their confidence and trust in humans (one hated me haha) One monkey (Abu) would jump on my head straight away and then start grooming my hair like I was a monkey, and eating things it found in there.. Worrying because I washed my hair every night!! Abu would grab some food and then sit on my head/shoulder eating it making such cute little munching noises and dropping half of it in my hair/down my back. Much better than the wee/poo that went down my back haha eww!!! The tayras are basically huge ferrets - massive teeth and claws but friendly and playful.. Too playful so many people were scared of them - personally I loved them - they were so funny to watch.

Day 9-11:

I was on the monkey section for these 3 days. Here's the schedule:

8:00-9:30: clean and feed monkeys their porridge

10:30-13:30: clean and feed them their lunch

14:30-17:30: Give them a snack and clean them. Prepare dinner and feed them.

The animals at sende verde use to be kept as pets illegally, some in terrible conditions and some were treated badly. One of the monkeys, called merka, was so badly beaten by her owner that she only had one eye. Many of the monkeys on the tethers hated females, as in Bolivia the women stay at home whilst the men go to work, which means the monkeys were treated badly by females! There were 5 monkeys females could not go anywhere near as they would attack us! There was one scary moment when one of the women hater monkeys spotted me (I was a long way away from her) and she started screaming at me and showing her teeth (a clear sign of aggression) this caused the other woman hater nearby to also start screaming and showing his teeth. This was fine, however, I had a monkey on my leg (moneys protect each other and if they are scared/crying the nearby monkeys will attack the cause of the noise... in this case me!) and had to cross in between the monkeys to escape. I cut through some bushes and made my way up the path away from that area and to safety!! Bloody hell it was so scary! I didn't go back to that area again, meaning James the guy I was working with had to do all the work... Every cloud!! When weren't cleaning/feeding we could just sit with the monkeys and play with them!! They don't quite know the boundaries of unacceptable behaviour; the worst was their tongue up my nose and in my ear... Such a weird feeling. They also like to share their food by yanking your mouth open and shoving it in; mud covered pasta, 2 day old fruit and rocks occasionally - mouth was firmly held shut!!! Along with capuchin monkeys, there were also howler, spider and squirrel monkeys - all of which had been kept as pets!! For protein some days they got chicken... The chicken that humans don't eat... Including the head!! I had to chop it up but left it to Loretta as eww it was horrible to look at. After being such a wuss in the prep room when we went to feed the monkeys, one grabbed the chicken head, jumped on my shoulder and started eating it... Occasionally dropping bits in my hair! Nice!!

Apache, the one who shows his teeth but is super friendly got under my work shirt and then under my T-shirt and he wouldn't come out without crying (bad news) so I took my shrt off but he still wouldn't come out... Meaning I had to take my tshirt off in the middle of monkey land to get the monkey off me! This went on for about 15 minutes!! After I took my tshirt off the monkey stole it and ran away with it!!!! Leaving me standing in my bra with James looking slightly awkward and monkeys surrounding me. I eventually got my tshirt back and we carried on!! Hahaha!!!!

Day 12-13: today I changed sections and was on turtles, tortoises, bears, cats and dogs.

8-9:30: feed the dogs & cacao the spider monkey and collect the turtle/tortoise trays

10:30-1:30: feed turtles/tortoises, clean their ponds, help feed the bears, feed the big cats and cacao.

2:30-5:30: clean more ponds, feed cacao and the dogs, help feed the bears.

There are 5 dogs at senda verde, rescued from various places: Cafe (my favourite), Linda, Pecky, Carbon & Samilla. Cafe kept appearing at senda verde and they kept putting him back outside... Until one day he swam across the river to get in so they decided to let him stay. Whilst we were there he went missing for 5 days and then casually retuned one day.

Cacao the spider monkey was the dominant male, however, after many fights with the dominant howler monkey he was put in an enclosure :( aww he was so cute, he just wanted cuddles all the time, like a big hairy baby!!!

We cleaned the ocelots pond out and after it was full he did a massive poo in it - the joys of working with animals haha!!

To clean the bears one person ha to distract the bears by feeding them peanuts through the fence whilst the other runs in and cleans and leaves the food. I was feeding Aruma, aww he was so soft, just used his tongue to scoop it put of my hands. So close to a beautiful animal feeding it peanuts - what an experience!!

Overall I really enjoyed my time at la senda verde, having the opportunity to interact with a vast variety of animals and play with them. 2 weeks was a good amount of time and we headed back to La Paz to continue our adventure!!!!