Author: Accounts from past volunteers
Placement:
Placement 0143
Period: Not
applicable
TO VIEW THE PLACEMENTS PAGE CLICK HERE
This project has been accepting volunteer since 2003 and here are a few comments from these volunteers!
Anders H Nielsen
Comments: Truly, truly a great experience - one that I will
never forget.. Working so close with these kinds of animals is once in a
lifetime..and actually feeling that your actually doing something for these
animals instead of just travelling about, getting drunk in various places for 6
months...
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Left on 19 Apr 2006.
Kate
Browne
- Australia
Comments: I spent a month at the park in September 2005 and have to say that month was the highlight of my one year long trip. It was incredibly challenging, physically, mentally and downright bloody hard work at times but the experiences made up for the dramas.
If you can go, go. If you can stay longer, stay as long as you can. I found the more time I had there, the more I enjoyed it because so much responsibility is given to you it can take a week or two to settle in. However it was such a treat to spend my days with Rico the beautiful (though sometimes grumpy) Ocelot and see what his world was about - amazing.
And nothing can beat
going to work with several monkeys wrapped around your head every morning.
Loved it - and if you go say hello to the animals for me, I miss them.
Left on 18 Apr 2006.
Jeremy BR
Comments: I hope Charlie BR was some use to you in looking after Gato. Your website certainly helped his bereft parents imagine what you are all up to; and, importantly, it reassures us that you are a really worthwhile cause, and not some evil mechanism for conning teenagers! I wish you all the best.
Left on 4 Mar 2006 .
Mai
Comments: Hi. I worked in the park in 2000. It was a great experience! And i can recommend it to everyone. The stay and work inspired me to take a degree in biology and i hope to come back soon to use some of the knowlegde i have aquired. What these people are doing is great, most animals there, have been threatet really bad before they came to the park. I hope people will go there to help and that they will bring some of the stuff that are needed in the park.
Left on 26 Feb 2006.
Nathalie
Comments: I took a 3 month career break to come and volunteer here and it was by far the best thing I have ever done. Although they do not rehabilitate the animals like they portray on their website, they are doing a fantastic job with very limited resources. The satisfaction of working with a beautiful ocelot and having that animal turn from attacking me each day for a week, to craving my attention and curling up on my lap is indescribable. The days are certainly long and hard - espicially when you have to stand out in the pouring rain for 11 hours. But, the "walk to work" up the path to the monkey park with one monkey wrapped around your neck and another squealing with delight at seeing you certainly beats sitting on the M25 in rush hour traffic!
I would highly reccomend this to anyone going to SA or looking to do some volunteer work. And stay as long as you possibly can - it will be worth it
Left on 13 Feb 2006.
Tom
KItson
, UK
Comments: I soent a month at the park in August 2003, and can comfotable say it was one of the most fantastic experiences of my life. Yes it was hardwork, a month wihtout a day off, yes it was sweaty, dirty and I have never been bitten on the hands so often but who cares! I looked after Tigre which was a privelage. Very sad to hear about Boudi, bless her. Anyway if you are thinking of going, do so, its not time out from travelling, its what travelling is all about and I am still friends with people i met in the communidade.
One day i will return to the new land and continue the work, i believe the park does so brilliantly! Remember, its all about the animals.
Left on 21 Dec 2005.
Kate Lewis
Comments: I volunteered for two weeks in May 2005. I wish I had had more time because I would have loved to stay there much longer!! I had a truly fantastic, if slightly surreal, experience while at Inti Wara Yassi, loved every minute of it. its not every day you get the chance to get up close and personal with pumas and monkeys!! And seeing how happy the animals were, and the fantastic, important work the refuge does for the animals who go there made it all the more special. I was in the monkey park, which was so great. May sound odd, but you literally become friends with all the monkeys. I miss them all, and I would love to go back some day. Send my love to Fidel the fat monkey!!!
Left on 16 Dec 2005.
katykaty
Comments: hi, firstly i'd like to say - I MISS MY MONKEYS SO MUCH!! CIWY is like a parallel universe and i loved it so much and i am saving my pennies to go back. yeah its hard work, yes you get bitten and shat upon but you get to expereince changes in the saddest of monkeys and watch them change and make new monkey friends and eventually see them in the wild and away from the corruption of humans. everyone at CIWY does such a top job and i feel thankful to have part of it! see you all soon xxxx p.s i love BABY T - my lil tejon baby!
Left on 14 Dec 2005.
Jeanette
Comments: Hi...I worked in this amazing place from 13/8-20/10 2005 and I must say, it has been an experience for life. I worked one month with Leoncio, wich is one of the pumas, and one month with Sama, the jaguar. It is really interesting work, you will come to enjoy whatever animal you will work with, you are in beautiful and peaceful nature...It can be hard at times, but it is ten times as rewarding. So if you have the right intension , that is ofcourse to do whatever you can to give the animals the best possible life, then dont hesitate a second to volunteer, you will never regret. And if you go..send my love to the animals right? :-)
Left on 26 Nov 2005.
Benjamin PHELIP
(FR)
Comments: I had an awesome time at the monkey mirador, working with monkeys in the jungle area, meeting great people!
I really hope the community will continue for a long time, you are doing a great job there, thank you!
I wish I will be able to come back...
Left on 16 Nov 2005.
eyal nir
Comments: ambue ari park is amazing , smaller in size than the machia park but has all the same big cats you got in the other park. i worked with inti warra and yassi three charming pumitas that need all the loving in the world. this park is less knowen and there for has not to many volunteers. it is not a no man`s land as the site says, it is running for allmost 3 years now and has more or less all the fasilitis for volunteers. because it has less people working in it the animals get less atention and there are no sufficiante people to take out all the cats. please please help them and advertise that this park needs volunteers as well.
Left on 25 Sep 2005.
maya
Comments: voluntteering at the park was one of the greatest expiriences of my life! i had so much fun, i learned alot about myself and how much i love animals, of course there were some bad moments but it was all worth it and i will definitely go back! i don't even understand how i left...
Left on 14 Sep 2005.
Thomas
, UK
Comments: FACT: it's the most amazing thing you will do on your trip. In addition to physical resilience, you need powers of concentration and focus. This is very hard to start with, but you build a mental bond with the animals and come to understand their motivations and thought processes on a second-by-second basis. So you not only look after the animals, but also learn from them, and you will find this primal wisdom immensely valuable. After this experience, most of all the crazy stuff in south america will feel very mundane, and you will long to return to the animals.
Left on 16 Aug 2005.
Botho
from Germany
Comments: Itīs been almost a year now since I worked in the park and I still look at the website to see whats going on there. Actually I only wanted to visit the park to keep on moving after that, but in the end I stayed 3 weeks. Working with the monkeys is the best thing you can do. I was travelling because I needed a brake from my medical studies. After working with the monkeys who are extremley human I decided to go back to my studies and not to brake up.
well it was perfekt! I have a big picture of Fidel, the fat monkey who alwas eats too much in my room...
I loved it
Botho
Left on 29 Jun 2005.
Jake Dury
Comments: I showed up expecting to stay for 2 weeks and have a lot of fun wrestling and playing with pumas. Well, I ended up staying 7 weeks and there was very little wrestling going on but volunteering was one of the best experiences of my life, let alone the trip. It is most definitely hard work, don't expect to free load, but it is so rewarding. I can't even begin to explain what it is like to develop a real bond with a puma and to know that you are truly helping it live a happier life (though it would be nice if people just left them in the wild.) The monkeys, birds and other animals are fascinating too. And as an added bonus I met a cute little English girl there with whom I travelled for the last 5 months and fell in love with. We will always be thankful to Nena and the whole Inti Wara Yassi group, people who I will consider friends for life. I will be returning asap, I hope to see you there.
Left on 12 Jun 2005.