We walk down from the main road, down a slippery steep 'shortcut' to the road/path that leads to the animal sanctuary. The first thing you see are hammocks slung up underneath varies huts dotted around, promising a relaxing atmosphere. We are greeted by the family who run the place and they embrace us with their warmth and love that they clearly hold for us as well as the animals.
Negro the family dog that walked into the shelter and decided to stay, is the sweetest thing and reminds me of my dogs back home and so to combat missing them I cuddle Negro all the time :)
The kitchen is very basic yet feels very much like home. We settled in really quickly and soon the centre became familiar and the feeding of the animals became a routine. I loved feeding the birds and the kinkajous, the birds would fly onto you and chat to you while you cleaned their cage and gave them food and the kinkajous are similar to a slow loris and marmoset combined, super cute and Luna the little one loved climbing all over me and licking my neck with her weirdly long tongue! It was adorable.
Animals can get away with being weird without coming off as creepy, like the monkey called Junkie who decided to cling onto my leg and search my pockets and check under my shirt, bit weird but supposedly he loves women and is scared of men, which is a good thing because as a girl it's very easy to feed him but is a bit worrying as it makes you wonder why he is scared of guys.
We spent the last 6 days cleaning, feeding and building new enclosures! Lots of satisfying manual labour and the nicest part is you can physically see the difference that you are making as the fences go up or the walls of the new house are built.
(Cafe in Baños)
It's an interesting part of the 8 weeks as people know each other but just not well enough into backgrounds so assumptions are made and frustration and anger can sometimes feel more exaggerated then what is really going on. I think in the next week it will shift to be more positive, because three main members of our group left. Heidi, Horatio and Joe left early Friday morning as they were only doing three weeks. And for me it was hard as they were super positive and silly and the people I generally felt comfortable with. But the rest of the group are super lovely and so I am excited to get to know them even better. I am actually sitting in a Cafe with Evvy who has the best sense of humour, we are just chilling here while the others go off doing some adventury stuff. We have had one day away from the jungle to shower and relax before heading back into the jungle for two weeks. One week at the animal sanctuary and one helping an Amazonian tribe.
The Amazon itself is insane. You can stand on the hill above the animal sanctuary and see just jungle and clouds for miles and miles. Makes you think how powerful nature is and how important it is the save every individual tree. Each tree is covered in mini ecosystems of all different type, from the base of the tree to the branches with vines twisting around them. I just feel so at peace and at home in the jungle, without the comfort of modern society you really focus on what you are sensing around you and within your feelings as well. You become tuned into your inner person, it's beautiful.
Pictures will come soon, once I get a connector cord and have some time to sort through the best ones.
Besitos
Xx
