Villa Tunari - Inti Wara Yassi

The Vixens birthday was coming up and she had 1 big wish, she wanted to be in the jungle for her birthday and she wanted to be able to play with monkeys, apparently the M´s antics werent enough monkeying around for her anymore!

So off we headed to a little village called Villa Tunari situated about 4 hours drive outside of Cochabamba and into the Amazon jungle. This little trip would see us leave the heady altitudes of Potosi (4200m) to a mere 290m of the jungle - no more huffing and puffing up stairs for the Mavrix thank goodness.

Our main reason for coming to Villa Tunari was a place called Inti Wara Yassi, a animal refuge and park that houses Monkeys, Pumas, Techons (funny rodent things), Oselotes (funny cat things), Turtles (you know what those are), some cool birds, 1 Andean Bear called Baloo and a bunch of hooligan volunteers who would become our family for 2 weeks! This animal refuge takes in abused animals found throughout Bolivia in circuses, markets, homes and even resturants. They take them in, get them well and then slowly integrate them back into the wild through a careful system that needs many hands and lots of time.

After a toss of the coin and some serious arm wrestling with some Israelis, Vix managed to get stationed at the Monkey Quarantine (score!) and the M at the Clinic (double score), this meant that we would both be working with monkeys and not have to deal with squawking birds or boring rodent things. M would be working with the vets and helping treat 17 monkeys while Vix would be working in stage 2 the Quarantine with over 40 monkeys who were getting ready to go to the next stage just as soon as they were parasite free.

The next day would be our first at work so we kitted up in 80´s chiche and some Wellington boots from the second hand shop and got ready to save some animals. Little did we know that saving animals meant A LOT of poop scooping, we would however discover this rather intimately in the weeks to come.

Our days basically consisted of feeding the monkeys, cleaning their poop, their cages, their poops, their blankets (all covered in poop), feeding them again and cuddling the monkeys...while they poop on you. Basically there is a lot of poop but you get pretty used to it pretty quickly after all Vix was to become named ¨The monkey whisperer¨and M ¨Dr Quin, medicine monkey man¨.

Vix birthday rolled around while we were here at VT (Villa Tunari) and wasnt it nice even the president pitched up in the village just to say hi! There was a big parade with marching bands, military, the old, the young and the foolish Volunteers from VT. What a sight it was! The prez even gave Vix a little wave and a wink happy birthday or at least thats what we like to think. Later that night though she was also given an egg in the hair with some flour for colour as a bit of a VT tradition. She was also spoilt as best as Bolivia could with a Traveling Sponge Bob hair dryer (no girl should have to go 1 full year without proper hair care) and loads of chocolates which put a beautiful brown smile on her face! We also celebrated with a dinner in one of VTs few safe gringo restuarants with some of our new found friends, Benny boy from Oz the philospohical surfer type that doesnt surf, Anna the unshaved arm pit 80´s rocker, Jack and Louise the animal haters (why they´re at a refuge no-one knows but they´re cool) and Gussilicious - do we need to say more.

But with every big night in VT a hang over morning follows and trust us you dont want to deal with monkey poop with a sore head but somehow you just do!

But wait, we havent told you about all our friends yet, Vix made big pals with Eddie the smartest monkey on the planet, give him a brush and he washes his own plates and then his hands. This little sweetheart even grooms your hair and arms he is such a clean freak! Vix also wanted to adopt Abraham the cutest lost case you ever saw, he had no fur on his tail, ate his own poop, freakin skinny and needed a hard core case of finishing school, so adorable ek se. Then there were the M´s little friends, Tim Tim the crazy monkey who just wanted to play fight all day, luckly for M his Wellington boots were thick and his hat was sturdy or he would be without some skin, then there was little Dominita, the polar opposite of Tim Tims tomboy antics, she was daddys little girl and would hold on for dear life to the M´s neck for hours if youd let her always wanting a cuddle never wanting to sit alone. These were just some of the little animal friends we made but there were also some loco characters liek Oscar the little bitch that hated Vix and gave her a nasty bite the one day on the hand, lots of blood ek se and a scar she´ll probably carry for life. Or Chulpa the crazy monkey M had to feed every day as he tried to snatch and bite him...unless that is he was otherwise occupied with his favorite hobby, giving himself oral pleasure.....crazy monkey....crazy monkey love.

Then there were the partys, probably the stand out one would have to be the 80´s theme party inspired by Vix and the Guss´s vivid dress sense at work! From what we can remember there was a lot of booze, fun and crazy antics from all but once again life wasnt so much fun the next day at 07h30 when we all had to report to work again...ouch my head hurts thinking about it.

Life at VT was good, we had made good friends and had good times but we were running out of time and needed to get to the Inca trail and a bunch of stuff in between so we said goodbye to the monkeys, the bears the pumas and the party animals we called friends and hit the road again to La Paz. A whole bunch of new adventures would wait for us here but thats another story.