Volunteering

I arrived in the small western Panamaian town of Boquete a few weeks ago and Ive been pretty much "stuck" here since then. I had met Tom from Norway in San Jose on my first day there, and he had told me about some volunteering he was doing in Panama. It sounded good, and, unlike in Costa Rica where volunteers pay to work, this was free, so I ended up in Paradise Garden and have been there most days since.


Its a really nice place, and as well as loads of monkeys and birds, it has the odd more exotic animal like Lotti here, a Margay, similar to an Ocelot (or a small Jaguar I guess), who is a great attraction. Like a lot of the animals, she had been rescued from owners who tired of their "pets", in her case she arrived with atrophied muscles and a kinked tail from living in such a confined space...shes in pretty good health now though, as any of the many small birds that make the mistake of entering her enclosure know.



Most days I spend showing people around as a sort of tour guide, which is more fun than i thought it would be, even if sometimes Bengy here likes to play a little too much with his hands... always seems to do it in front of the prettier girls, for some reason...
Tom and I also walk the dogs, feed the animals, build cages and enclosures and make the tea, so it can be pretty busy, but never too stressful to be honest.



My favourite animal though has to be Macie, a 10 month old nappy wearing howler monkey, who sits on my shoulder while i work, or sleeps under my T shirt. Shes currently being prepped for rehab back to the wild (she was an orphan) and will be sadly missed, though it is the goal of Paradise Garden to release as many of the animals as possible. Apart from working, Im doing a bit of spanish and have had to do a couple of the tours in spanish, which is pretty difficult given my level, but educational.
Better go change that nappy...