Bolivia: Inti Wara Yassi – The first breath……

Paddock, Paddock, Rice Field, Forest, Town, Rice Field, Paddock, Paddock, Forest…… Heading north out of Santa Cruz we wiz by a landscape that once was thick Bolivian forest, but has now been raped for the purposes of agricultural production. The only remaining areas of forest are the rare eruptions of large boulders that protrude from the mud and act a fortress walls, protecting the tall trees and vine thickets from the invading bulldozers and tractors. As the natural areas dissolve into the anthropogenic landscape, it becomes apparent the important role conservation organisations such as Inti Wara Yassi are going to play in the ongoing protection of Bolivia’s natural heritage.

By the time we arrive at Inti Wara Yassi we have done our best to play our part as the annoying foreign travellers……. We have been late back to the bus after a brief toilet break, we have asked “Cuanto tiempo a El Parque?” (how long till the park) over 10 times and we have overtly checked at every stop to ensure our bags are not mistakenly (or deliberately) removed from the luggage compartment. Needless to say, when we did arrive at the park and the bus assistant begrudgingly threw our luggage out into the jungle with a big smile, they were glad to be rid of the two lost illiterates. After taking a moment to heave the 23kgs of dead weight that we call our packs onto each of our backs we turn to see the bus trundle away in a puff of blue smoke, revealing a group of soggy looking human beings, shrouded in smoke, peering out at us over the edges of a a small. This would later be fondly two referred to as the “Fumeador” or, for English speakers, literally the “Smoke House.”

From the swirling cigarette smoke emerged a young, skinny and shirtless red headed Belgian with an awkward smile on his face, the kind of smile that says Gee I hope you guys aren’t arseholes, because we are going to be living and working together for a while and ill find it hard to pretend I like you if you are.

“Hey guys, I'm Eve. I'm the accommodation manager, and its my job to make sure you guys have beds…….. which isn’t likely considering were pretty much full.”

As we paused for a moment to process this statement, throwing confused looks at each other, we didn’t even realise that Eve had begun to walk away from us. He stopped and turned around, catching our confusion. His awkward smile had transformed into one of jest and he now looked pleased at the impact of his joke on the newbies.

“Are you guys coming? You do want beds right?” We followed Eve down a small rock lined track that wound its way down to the camp accommodation and administration buildings. Being tired and unreasonable after a 6 hour bus ride, our first impressions of the park and its existing residents weren’t good. A group of dirty smelly bohemians sat on some homemade furniture in the middle of a group of shoddy, deteriorating and dirty buildings. Everyone smiled up tiredly at us as we walked by, most of them offering some form of greeting. We would later learn that most of these individuals were very “normal” people, many of them becoming our friends over the next few weeks, and it was indeed the circumstance that had defined this first impression. After all, it’s hard muddy work taking care of semi-wild feline species such as Jaguars and Pumas; and clothes and the people in them tend to become quite tatty and dishevelled in the process.

I don't know what we are in for but here we are....... Lets see how this goes.