3 Days of Monkey Poo

It has been an exciting 3 days here in Ecuador. Mornings are punctuated by animal feedings, which could be my favorite part of the day. To begin we cut up various fruits and vegetables for all of the animals. Most of them seem to love papaya, banana, and grapes. I still cannot keep all of them straight.

Post food prep we split up into groups and head out. With most of the animals you enter the cage, scrape the old food/poop off the feeding tables, then place the new food. I am getting to know all of the animals and their very different personalities.


There are titi monkeys as big as your palm that are so flipping cute one can understand why people would want them as a pet. I mean look at that cutie pie? Oh wait, they are wild.

There are also scary as hell capuchins that freak me out! They are straight out of a creepy movie. When you feed them you cannot go in their cage and have to place the food on troughs alongside the fence. There is one named Mario that slams himself at the fence and screams at you, it is completely unnerving. It also knocks all the food off the fence.

He does this repeatedly in addition to throwing pieces of wood at the fence. Today I tried to feed him worms to get on his good side. Didn't do a bit of good. Also you can't get too close to the fence with the bucket or they will grab it and scream.



Not everyone feeds all the animals everyday, it is by the schedule which could have you feeding large or small animals, or doing the dreaded "extra work" (usually means manual labor.)

I have fed almost all of the animals that we are allowed to feed (caimans & ocelots are not on that list) and I definitely have some favorites. Some of the animals will eat out of your hands, wheres others are wanting nothing to do with you.

Feeding the large parrots is definitely one of my least favorites, the parrots land on you and you have to duck quickly to get them off while feeling their claws digging into your skin through your shirt. It is as close as I will ever be to being in the movie "The Birds."

It is interesting to watch the other volunteers with the animals, we have a wide range of ages here, and most have little to no experience. The animals can really pick up on if you are anxious, and can get quite agitated. But how can we as humans not get agitated when these scary monkeys are flinging themselves at the fence at you?

This morning we were feeding the spider monkeys and one of the volunteers was playing with it and got bit. It drew blood! Yowza.

There are these rodent/guinea pig creatures and one of them is blind, he is adorable. He is waiting by the door for food and loves bananas. He eats it like corn on the cob, it is hilarious.

Side note on food, we feed these animals a plethora of fruit and vegetables, what do we eat? Rice. Bread. Pasta.


In one of the cages is a pygmy monkey, it is as small as your palm and it's companion within the cage is a squirrel. This is the cutest squirrel ever! It climbs all over you when you are feeding and cleaning the cage, it also likes to lick volunteers, maybe for the salt on their skin?


I am gradually learning all of the animals stories here as well. The other day I had the chance to chat with the volunteer veterinarian who is here. She is Spanish and has been here around 8 months. Through hearing her side of how she feels about this place, I am getting a more balanced view of it. It is amazing how hearing someones point of view can really tilt your opinion, as unbiased as I try to be. Through having the negative volunteer, to the slightly positive vet, I am trying to see it through different angles. My ever present optimistic heart is trying!


A lot of the animals here have spent a significant amount of time in peoples homes until people realize that they are wild animals and not meant to be pets. The vet explained how frustrating it is here in Ecuador, that so many people sell these animals on the sides of streets for people to have in their homes.

In Spain there is more money to rehabilitate animals thus it is frustrating to be here and feel powerless. Through talking with her I began to see this place from a bit of a different perspective, granted I still think of it as a zoo, but they really are doing a lot of good. Could they be doing more? Of course.


What are they doing that is good? They take in animals on a daily basis, either brought in by the police or by owners who can no longer handle them. In the few days that I have been here I have seen two boas, one guinea pig like creature, and a baby owl brought in.

The first morning I was here we all got excited to go watch the boa being released into the jungle, only to realize it escaped in the night. We were also excited about the guinea pig creature who is nocturnal, until they thought it escaped. Apparently it was just in its box, lol. No escapee there.

We were able to watch the other boa being released into the wild though.

It was a great feeling. It was offered to other volunteers to hold it before being released. I passed on that.



So I have these moments of knowing they are doing good, but other moments of knowing that so many of these monkeys and cats will live their lives forever in a cage.


What can they improve upon? Enrichments. Granted I am no animal researcher but I do know that when you put animals in a cage they need things to stimulate their minds or they will go crazy, Wouldn't you? Enrichments rarely ever happen here.
What else can they improve upon? The volunteers showers hot water has been broken for months, and there is a clogged drain in one of the bathrooms. Clogged drain=2 inches of raw sewage on the floor of the bathroom. I have a feeling that if this occurred in the owners house it would have been fixed immediately.

I know some people out there are reading this and thinking "Hello you are in a very poor country." Well, when it is as simple as a clogged drain that they just don't care about, yet I am paying $150 a week and spent an hour today trying to unclog it, it is annoying. I was on "Toilet cleaning" duty today, ummm not so fun.

After toilets what sort of adventure awaited me? Hauling gravel! Yes, this is a vacation.

Yesterday we were building an enclosure for one of the animals and we received word that one of the monkeys had escaped. When an animal escapes (which happens regularly) we all have to stay where we are until the animal is found and returned. In this case it was a very aggressive monkey, they had to tranquilize it!

The weather here has been VERY warm, apparently unseasonably warm when you talk to the locals. Sweat is pouring by 9 a.m. and you have to wear rubber boots due to all of the mud/poop.

Last night a bunch of us went into town for dinner, I had fantastic vegetarian pizza.

Pizza and rice punctuate my meals here. It was a great little restaurant, owned by an Italian man, Ecuadorian woman, and their kids. Wood fired oven and all.


Prior to dinner we did a bit of grocery shopping, how suprised was I to find oranges from California??????

Following dinner we headed out to the local bar aptly named "Volcano." I had fantastic margaritas and watched the locals shakin' their groove thang. One local woman who enjoys a lot of libations tried to get a group of us up and dancing, but we were glued to our seats. (:

I am really enjoying the dogs here, of which there are 5. Personal favorite is of course the golden, Benji.

He is a lover! I tried to get him to sleep in my room last night but one of my roommates let him out. Tonight he is all mine!





This evening when I was using the wifi the volunteer coordinator (that owns the english sheepdog) was petting the dalmatian (aptly named Dalma) and came across a critter. Right before our eyes she squeezed larvae out of its skin. It was completely disgusting and fascinating. Let's call is disgascinating. There is a fly here that when it bites you, it leaves its larvae under your skin. Gross.
Apparently it isn't canine biased either. Note to self, no friend of fly am I. I thought about taking a picture, but it made me want to vomit.


Our resident monkey of our cabin, Simona is a troublemaker.

But damn the girl is cute. Except when she poops and pees everywhere. We are supposed to be ignoring her, but look at that face! She does have a penchant for causing trouble in el bano, apparently she dragged one of the volunteers clothes into the shower.


We have to try real hard to keep her out of our rooms, but she is ever present on the porch, sometimes joined by her buddy, Thing.