Bolivia: Inti Wara Yassi - Thats an Anaconda at your feet

Covered in sweat and soaked to my waist in the putrid swamp water that I have been marinating in along with Koru (my Puma) and few million variations of insect for 4 hours I finally allow my well walked feet a moment to breathe. 8km walking and its not even lunch yet. Sigh. As I allow my self a moment to doze, surrounded by the sounds of the camp and surrounding forest, I am suddenly drawn back from the brink of eye closure by an excited Irish accent in a beard.

“Hey Corey, youll love this” Colin, the owner of the beard suddenly jumps into my field of vision.

“Ok” I reply, still half asleep. In my head im trying to prepare myself to act excited in case the situation arises that what he has to say isn’t that exciting and I may have to fake it so as not to hurt his feelings.

“We were mapping out the edge of the park, over by the rice paddies, and we came across a BIG boa. We couldn’t see much of it but it could have been 3m long. It looked like it had just eaten something big because it looked swollen”

I have made a name for myself as the go to snake guy so this generally happens when people find something interesting. Ok Colin, you now have my attention I think as I sit up a little straighter. A 3m Boa would be the biggest I had seen yet. Within minutes there were four more guys standing in front of me wearing swamp gear with expressions on their faces that wouldn’t be out of place on adolescent boys on their way to an amusement park.

“Do you think it would still be there, can we go find it” they each ask in a blur of sound.

“Maybe, if its digesting there is a chance.” I don’t even remember finishing that sentence, in moments we were on the road and I was getting asked a barrage of questions that were really pushing the boundaries of my snake knowledge. After 20 minutes of walking down a road we suddenly veered left and down into the rice pattie that was holding knee deep water at the time. Like armatures we stormed strait in without even the slightest consideration for where we were and what we were doing.

“Just over here somewhere.” Colin said after 10m of splashing about. “Keep your eyes open, he was just sitting in the water.”

Hmmmm, I thought to myself, Sitting in the water that we are just splashing about in like a group of French wine makers in a barrel of grapes. Maybe we should slow down a little. I didn’t even have time to express my thoughts to the rest of the group before there was an stuttering gargle of verbal excitement.
 

“There, that shadow in the water, that’s him.” Colin yelled at no one in particular.
 

There, amongst the low reeds, was a rather large protuberance of scales. That’s pretty big, I think to myself, that must be where he has eaten something……..

Not so.

After a closer examination of the “3m Boa” it was apparent that this may have been an under estimation. Once we were able to follow the shape of the shadow beneath that water from its tail it was apparent that this was allot bigger…. And not your usual Boa.
 

It wasn't until a head emerged 30cm in front of us, 6m from where we could see the tail, that we truly got an idea of what we were dealing with. An Anaconda.

This is that Anaconda, a huge find and a massive tick in my box of species.

Niki´s bits: hmmm boys and their ¨big snakes¨....

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.

Bolivia: Init Wara Yassi - Intermission

A lack of tangible time in a location in which technology is readily available has limited my posts of late. Fear not, there will be a barrage of over articulate nonsense with a few pretty pictures on its way soon. In the mean time let me just tell you in brief a little about Inti Wara Yassi´s Ambue Ari reserve in Bolivia.

Its hot........ Like sweating through your eye balls hot. And the humidity is so intense that your sweat forms a permanent layer around your body actively transforming you into a marine species that lives in its own small ocean. There are apparently over 180 different kinds of mosquito's here and some of the look like alien droid ships...... big enough to carry a small child away to their home planet of Omicron Percii 8. They also have these animals here called Tahoons..... they are deceivingly cute (but ultimate savage) little mammals that will rip off your face if you get between them and a piece of anything edible.

All of that being said...... I do get to care for an amazing 9yo male Puma named Koru which deletes all of the above statements from my registar. Koru was rescued from a military base when he was 13 months old where he was kept on a very short leash under a verandas and fed nothing but rice. Although he still displays some level of aversion to humans he can now be taken on walks through the jungle, chase squirrels and climb trees to his hearts content..... just ry not to look like a Squirrel because it wont be pretty. Although he can never be released again, thanks to Inti Wara Yassi he lives a much better quality of life than he would have (if he lived this long) in his original captive environment.

Despite a few obvious flaws in the way the park is managed it is doing work that no body else in the country wants to do and consistently comes under scrutiny due to a lack of understanding of the importance of conservation among the average Bolivian. This being said, It is doing the best it can under the circumstances and should be supported nationally so it can optimise the effectivness of its activities.

Stay tuned for a few more detailed posts on the park,the activities within and some illustrative pictures in the near future.