Decided to do some voluntary work and I went to a place called Villa Tunari to work with abused animals in a placed called "Inti Wara Yassi". Its a wildlife refuge in Parque Machia part of the amazones jungle of Bolivia. The refuge houses monkeys, dozens of birds, tortoises, wild cats and other animals most of which were illegally poached and kept in private homes and circuses. Many come to the refuge malnourished and badly abused. The main goal of the refuge it to rehabilitate the animals and if this is not possible ensure the utmost freedom for each animal. The refuge is run solely by long term volunteers with no government support and non permanent volunteers who come from all over the world

I was working at a placed called "The Mirador" with the aggressive capuchin monkeys. They are aggressive towards other monkeys and are thus kept way from them. Its about a 20 minute walk into the jungle and I worked with two others. A typical day was wake at 7.00am for a 7.30 start. Get the monkeys food for the day then give them breakfast and let them out of the cages and put them on the runner or take them for a walk. Clean the cages prepare lunch and have our own lunch break for about two hours. After lunch clean the cages again then maybe walked the monkeys, do bits and pieces, prepare dinner and finish at 6.00pm. A long day but not hard work. Often to pass the time would play cards or read during the lacks hours.

The monkeys we had were Elvis - my favorite, a real sweet monkey who was not aggressive at all. Used to always roll over like a dog and want his belly rubbed, loved his food and when we wern´t looking would clap his hands to gain our attention and then usually roll over waiting to get patted

Fidel - quite aggressive and had some unusual habits I wont get into. Wasn´t aloud out the cage but was going to be released into the wild shortly

Mama, Papa and Hijo - a family with little Hijo only two months old. Again would always want backrubs. Aggressive to some but ok with me

Bill - the most frightened monkey there. Couldn´t get close to him. Was bitten quite badly by Fidel and run away before returning in a couple of weeks.

I believe there are over 2,000 animals presently in the park. It was a great experience working here. There were about 40-50 volunteers so after the days work it was out for dinner and often we had group dinners or special events like a cocktail night to raise money. Met some great people and great fun working in the jungle although not be able to use repellant was bitten alive by mosquito's.