The Bolivian team emerged from the Jungle with just enough time to send us this account of their first couple of weeks of construction Parque Jacj Cuisi…they have now withrdawn from civilisation once again, this time into Parque Ambue Ari where they will be working hands-on with some of the animals there, including monkeys, pumas and jaguars.

AMBUE ARI QUEST 2012 BLOG 1
By WILLIAM PAGE

Nicknames:
• Emma ‘Yema the fashionable Aussie’ Mulrooney
• Will ‘Nutella’ Page
• Callum ‘Gay’ Ray
• Dan ‘Fat’ Stewart
• Dean ‘Danger’ Walker
• Beth ‘Beffy G’ Ecroyd
• Ewen ‘Yuka’ Trafford
• And honorary member…Emily ‘Crispo’ Crisp

We all arrived in La Paz safely where we managed to get lost in the llama foetus lined streets. We then had the pleasure of meeting the Fashionable Aussie, Emma. We went out for dinner lead by our wrinkled leader Pete. Here, Emma was introduced to the horror of mushy peas with fish and chips. Her subsequent brief illness was blamed upon this green terror. We met ‘Monkey Man’ Keith, who demonstrated the true art of Coca chewing.

The next morning we set off on our ‘20′ hour bus journey to the jungle; which soon became a 42 hour trip. The driver managed to get us stuck in a ditch overnight; before a bulldozer came to our rescue. We then discovered we needed to wait 7 hours until the road reopened from road works. Welcome to Bolivia. All the boys managed to pee out of the window, but Bethany G resorted to peeing in a bottle with the top cut off at the back of the bus, with Fat Dan heroically holding a towel out in front to prevent anyone seeing. Emma and Gay Callum managed to sleep through all the horrors of this trip, while poor Dan only managed about 2 hours.

We arrived at Jacj Cuisi after unloading 15+ people, all our bags and all the construction materials and equipment off of the tiny truck we rode in on. We almost lost Dean off the back of the truck and a crate of tomatoes nearly fell victim to being sat on by Ewen. Ex-Quest student Emily ‘Crispo’ joined the group. We thought she was innocent and sweet… Little did we know.

We soon got stuck into work. We experienced the pleasure of hauling sand and rocks up to Simba’s cage and the future monkey enclosure. We tirelessly slaved away, with blood, sweat and tears as Pete dossed around carrying water and complained about the tiny bite on his arm (massive absess…). We were able to complete Simba’s new management cage after many days of hard work. Fat Dan even managed to carry 50kg of cement up to Simba’s cage- a true champion. The management cage does exactly what is says on the tin – it’s somewhere for volunteers to put Simba to manage him whilst his large enclosure is cleaned or repaired, to control feeding times or for any veterinary attention.

We also finished painting the clinic, cleared an area for a small football pitch and for future accommodation and planted some banana trees. Sadly, the monkey enclosure didn’t arrive in time for us to build any of it (typical Bolivian time-keeping) but Simba’s cage meant we still had a lot of work to do and we were able to prepare the area for the future construction of the monkey enclosure.

At night we chilled under the Southern Cross, whilst tarantulas climbed fearlessly over Crispo’s head and played hours of intense Uno, Shithead and Smuggler’s Dice. Beth and I were treated to Spanish lessons where we learned essential Spanish phrases such as ‘Mono Descarado’ (cheeky monkey), ‘Mono Flaco’ (skinny monkey) and ‘Una Sacapunta’ (a pencil sharpener) amongst others. During our time off in the afternoon we relaxed in the creek, took endless selfies, raided the tuck shop and played with Gatito.

The 20th anniversary of Inti Yassi Wara (as Pete says) took place while we were in the park, and we were lucky enough to have a late breakfast for one day at 7:30! We celebrated with a traditional Bolivian Piñata which showered us with sweets, dulce de leche, plastic toys and cereal. During our stay we became friends with some local wildlife; Helen, a tarantula named after a girl who dropped out of the trip before we left was like a mother to us during our stay. Phil was our crazy bat friend who pooped all over the place and woke us up after his wild nights out. Kevin the caterpillar and Paul the stick insect made numerous appearances, and many fish were also befriended in the creek, especially by Beth’s legs.

After our hard construction we were gifted with a few days off on a Pampas tour. We made our way to Rurrenabaque in a 12 seater bus, which was filled with 20 people and all our bags. When we arrived we checked into a -5star hostel, had a descarado internet session, had dinner, and treated ourselves to our first night out as a team. I will let my fellow bloggers tell the rest as my memory is a little hazy.

Crispo’s night: After taking advantage of the 2for1 cocktail hour, happy hour soon turned into happy 6 hours.

Yema’s night: Escorting a certain blogger home after a few too many Pina Colada’s was a highlight. I was also rocking the amazing beach t-shirt.

Fat Dan’s night: After the amazing £5 steak meal at Julianos, I had a great night dancing to many filthy beatz.

Yuka’s night: Helped Devin beat the girls at pool. Danced my heart out in Luna Lounge with Dan and Kenny from Belgium.

Danger Dean’s night: Oreo cheesecake was amazing. Got bullied in the drinking games by Ewen.

Gay Callum’s night: It was exciting to have meat again after Jacj Cuisi. The dogs were really cute. One followed me from one bar to another. I also had to look after chief blogger .

Beffy G’s night: 2 males from the group took their relationship to the next level. No names, but one is fat and one loves Nutella.

The next morning was a little sluggish but picked up when we set off for the Pampas tour. See you in the next blog chicas!