Ecuador: Volunteering at Animal Rescue Centres

Dear Family and Friends

Just over a week ago, we arrived in Quito, Ecuador after a quick one hour flight from Cali. For both safety and comfort reasons, I decided not to do the 20 hour bus journey through this very mountainous region. Not only had we had been told we shouldn’t travel the road  at night because of bandits, mountain roads pose quite a challenge to those of us prone to motion sickness. We’d already had the experience of a much shorter trip through the mountains in Colombia in which I had my head in a plastic bag vomiting, Philip-Maynard turned various shades of green and Emilia, with eyes closed, sang every song she knew to herself to keep her mind off the nausea. You can imagine their vote when we were deciding whether to fly or take the bus!

At 2800 meters, Quito is the second highest capital in the world.  So after the tropical heat of the Colombian coast, we were back in “tierra fria” (cold country). The amazing thing about climate  near the equator is that it’s all altitude-based. Sea level is always hot, and things cool down as the elevation increases. I remember when I was a child living in Bogota, we would sometimes go to “tierra caliente” (hot country) to spend a day near a river. We’d drive down the mountain for a couple of hours and suddenly be in an area that was sweltering hot. At the end of the day we would drive back up to cold country.

We had fun painting new signs with some very artistic volunteers from Australia and Argentina

After a few days in Quito, we traveled five hours south to the edge of the Amazon Basin where we have been working at two animal rescue centers. Our first week was at Centro de Rescate Los Monos, a rescue center that takes in animals which have been illegally removed from the wild, some having been kept as house pets. When we arrived, we were quickly surrounded by Woolly, Spider and Squirrel monkeys. Most of these monkeys live outdoors in the trees and do not leave, as they’re fed there.

Arms full of Spider and Squirrel Monkey!

Paulita the orphaned Wooley Monkey

It was amazing to have the chance to be so close to creatures that are so much like us. Because these monkeys have been habituated to humans they can never be released back into the wild.

Feeding time!

At 8 in the morning we gathered with other volunteers to start chopping cases of papayas, watermelon, pineapple and veggies. The tropical fruit diet of these monkeys left us northerners envious! It was quite a sight when the fruit and vegetable delivery for the monkeys arrived. The monkeys would run out, jump onto the pick-up truck and start feasting on their favorite fruit. We had to load wheel barrows and try to get the supplies indoors while peeling monkeys off ourselves and the fruit. Other chores are less pleasant, such as scooping up monkey poop and washing the floors of the monkey house (which used to be a human house), from top to bottom.

Adam the baby river otter

Although the center’s main focus is monkeys, they do have other animals. A couple of months ago a baby river otter was brought in. It requires almost the full-time attention of a volunteer to keep this little guy happy and well nourished. Philip-Maynard and Emilia took on the responsibility of his care for the week we were there. This included taking Adam the otter down to the river three times a day for a long swim and fish feed. He would then trot back up the trail behind them to get his warm bottle.

On Sunday we started work at Merazonia, an animal rescue and rehabilitation center. Because the goal at this center is to return animals to the wild if possible, we have a totally hands off approach with them. It’s a well run center and good animal habitats are a priority. The past two days we have felt like Indiana Jones as we slog our way through the dense tropical rain forest, knee deep in muck swinging a machete. Our mission is to come back with small trees and branches to “decorate” the cages  in order to provide the animals with a more stimulating living space.

Volcán Tungurahua

We work from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM. and these first three days have felt a little like Boot Camp. Building a new enclosure for a howler monkey, lugging rocks up from the river, and tree cutting excursions are very different than the monkey cuddling volunteering of last week. No complaints from Emilia and Philip-Maynard, though, other than a comment last night when we took our socks off that they smelled worse than a dead animal!

As we came into town this evening to write this blog post, we saw a big cloud of ash being spewed out of Volcan Tungurahua, which is about one hour from us.  Apparently this volcano periodically rumbles back to life, though the locals tell us that there is nothing to worry about.

We’re counting down the days to May 2nd, when James comes to join us!