It is Wednesday 9th April. I get out of bed at 6:55am and head straight to the coatis for breakfast. I’d like to clarify that I am giving the coatis breakfast and that they are not my breakfast. Beepers is having his own special meal today. That’s nice for Beepers. I then get myself ready for the day and head over to the Comedor to assist with human breakfast. Mario and Abbie tell me off for arriving late. I am, in fact, an entire minute early. The rest of the team arrive and we sit down and listen to annuncios. Today is Victoria’s birthday and we decide to each sing happy birthday simultaneously in our respective first languages. It’s chaos. A new English man, Matt, is introduced and I decide to say hello so that he doesn’t fall under the impression that literally everyone here is French like I did. We discuss the ups and downs of life in the jungle and I let him know that we have experienced no rain at all since the start of April. About four minutes later, it begins to drizzle and I take myself to the baños for a sad poo.

With the gentle precipitation subsiding, Aeddie and I head over to Gaia. Today, she is very hyperactive. It is probably for the best that we are not walking her this morning. Instead, we complete many laps together, with her chasing after her vine ball. The sun then begins to shine and she calms down. We use the opportunity to continue clearing her fencing, removing weeds from the bottom and vines that have climbed their way up.

As we are walking back to camp, I get a message from Cleo requesting that I meet her in the Fumador. Am I in trouble? I make my way over, bearing the gift of a small Coca Cola from the Candy Shop. It turns out that she just wants to check whether or not Aeddie and I will be okay to walk alone with Gaia tomorrow. With total confidence in my new partner, I say yes. We then get chatting about Gaia and her history and, in particular, her legendary first walk that lasted roughly 19 hours. It turns out that my good pal Karen, my guiding light from my first jungle experience, was there with Cleo. Now I feel even more of a responsibility for this special feline.

I head back to the Comedor craving something sweet. I use my oats, Dulce de leche (South Americans use caramelised milk like jam) and chocolate chips to fashion a ball of calorific goodness. Alex, as usual, is disturbed by my sugar intake. This is rich coming from an American. Bex, Crystal and Raul are with us and we get chatting about Poohsticks, my dear canal boat, waiting for me back home. Raul finds this all very exciting and I believe that I may have tempted him to do the same one day. I am not sure what the canal scene is like in Mexico, however, nor if Crystal, his partner, would wish to join him in this style of living.

Today, Luca and I head over to Kusiy alone. Marine has finally been switched to a different animal, having spent about two months with the same cat. The sun is shining and Luca is feeling a lot better than yesterday. We arrive to find a very chilled out Kusiy and complete a total of six laps with him. During this time, he potters between the perimeter and inside of his enclosure, enjoying the shade when he needs to. Luca and I look over in fascination as he uses his pool for the first time in weeks. He dips his front paws in, then his belly, carefully avoiding lowering his head below the water line. I assume that he is trying to cool down, but with Kusiy being Kusiy, he might just be goofing around.

We stroll back through the jungle enjoying our surroundings in peaceful silence. I break this silence with an almighty sneeze. It turns out that Elyse is walking in the opposite direction towards us and announces that I gave her the fright of her life. Oops. We arrive back at camp and Luca takes the meat bucket for washing, as I take the compost bin to the compost hole. I am disappointed to return to discover a massive shower queue, but take joy in watching the lot of us performing the “mosquito dance”, repeatedly slapping various parts of our body as the little monsters take advantage of our semi-nude state.

With today being Wednesday, tonight is restaurant night. I manage to squeeze into the first taxi and we all head over to Don Victor’s establishment. He has set up a long table with chairs outside and presents us with an appetiser of croutons. In reality, he clearly had stale bread that needed eating and fashioned it into a salty, oily canapé. We are not complaining, given that they are rather delicious, though there is an underlying fear that at least one of us will crack a tooth on these. The second taxi arrives and we all tuck into a delicious meal. Elyse has sneaked in the park’s guitar and hands it to Don Victor on the sly. The evening ends with him serenading Victoria – the birthday gift she didn’t know that she needed. None of us knew that Don Victor has such a beautiful voice.

It is Thursday 10th April. For whatever reason, I did not sleep last night. Perhaps it was the wine. My body has a unique ability to radiate away hangovers before they hit me, by reaching a super thermal temperature in my slumber, but this mechanism is somewhat thrown into disarray when the ambient temperature exceeds that of my body. I’ve always hated the second law of thermodynamics.

I get up and eat my porridge, before walking to Gaia’s enclosure with Aeddie. Gaia is being her usual flighty self and has a burning desire to run, rather than head out on a walk. With no interest in allowing her to get stressed, we succumb to her desires after a short wait, completing a few laps with her, before successfully getting her clipped onto the ropes. We begin the walk and find Gaia getting worked up in the same spot as last time. I think Val’s hypothesis that another cat has been here and left behind their scent is looking likely. I am on front rope today and as Gaia begins to stroll again, I turn to walk forwards and briefly feel a puma at the bottom of my welly boots. Another excellent block by Aeddie. It turns out that Gaia wanted to leave this area in a hurry. Once we have cleared this patch, Gaia returns to her usual self and enjoys the rest of her meander through the jungle.

As Aeddie and I are walking back, we stop to observe a very confidence group of monkeys swinging in the trees around us. They are aware of our presence and keep a close eye on us, but come closer than they perhaps ought to, whilst on a quest for their beloved cocoa. Following this brief interval, we continue our walk to camp and join everyone for lunch. Today is lunch in Spanish again. No one may speak in another language, lest they wish to wash other people’s dishes. Quite typically, I find myself sat in a group of four native English speakers – myself, Abbie, Bex and now Matt. We play by the rules and communicate en espanol and I understand more Spanish than I have done in any other conversation to date. It helps when those you’re chatting with communicate slowly, given that they’re translating in their head at the time as well.

The afternoon arrives and Luca and I begin our trek to Kusiy. As we enter the big swamp, I lose my balance due to the uneven terrain beneath the surface and save myself from falling right into the water by catching myself on a large tree. Unfortunately, this is a kapok tree, known for its surface of densely packed spikes. I let out a shriek and Luca checks to see if I am alright. Blood pours down my hand and she asks if I would like to turn back. Undefeated, I remove my bandana and wrap it around my hand to close the wound, all the while, still trudging through the swamp – though being more careful of my balance. We arrive on the other side and perform the usual draining of the wellies routine. I then remove the bandana from my hand for a closer look and am pleased to see that the bleeding has stopped. The greatest disappointment in this situation is that despite the banquet of blood running down my arm, the mosquitos are still attempting to make their own extractions from my uncovered face. Rude.

Kusiy is slow today. The sun has come out and he is feeling lethargic. We alternate between walking laps with him and working as a team to clear the fire break during his periods of rest. Despite his slower pace, we still complete a decent distance with him and use the final period of the session to work on some new enrichment. We then bid him farewell and return home. I reach the showers right after Mario and to my shock, find myself waiting for more than two minutes. Usually, he is one of the faster ones. I then hear his voice call out that there is no water. The water comes from a tower by the showers and is fed by gravity. At regular intervals throughout the day, an electric pump needs to be turned on in order to fill the tower. We never know when this is going to occur. For Mario today, it has not occurred at an ideal time. I head over to the pump and switch it on, allowing him to finish. He has a presentation to prepare this evening. Tomorrow is his last working day and it has become customary to share one’s time here with the group before setting off on the next adventure.

It is Friday 11th April. Today, I am performing a new morning task – watering the plants. This is all part of a reforestation project by Elyse and French Marine, who are away next week renewing their visas. I know a thing or two about gardening myself, but feel that my skills are somewhat wasted providing sustenance to these saplings with a former coke bottle in place of a watering can. I then head into the Comador for my second job of the morning – breakfast again. Today, I join Alex and Mario making French toast. Alex usually starts with the animals at 6am, so has not had to do this before. Mario, being a pizza chef at home, naturally takes charge. Breakfast is usually just two pieces of bread and margarine, but for 5 Bolivianos extra, we can request that our bread is turned into French toast instead on Fridays. Today, it would appear that nearly everyone has done this, leaving myself, Alex and Mario somewhat overwhelmed.

Aeddie is ill today, so I proceed to Gaia alone. We don’t see the cats on Saturdays, so on Fridays, we deliver extra water. This means, as I am walking by myself, that my backpack is rather heavy today. Gaia has something of a weekly routine. She starts on Sundays full of energy and grows calmer as the week goes on. Today, she is quite happy chilling in the sunshine. I attempt a couple of laps and she mostly stays in the shade of her enclosure. I then decide to use my time to clean her enrichment cage and make some new toys for her. Gaia sits at the sliding door, watching in fascination and enjoying the company.

As I return to camp, I then get started on the next part of the Friday routine – clothes washing. This is done by hand at a sink outside the dorms. I get the majority of the washing done now, scrubbing away at the mud, rinsing several times and then wringing things out with all my strength so that they stand a chance at drying before the next downpour. I arrive at lunch a little late to discover that there is very little food left. I check who is remaining before taking what is left. I wouldn’t want someone after me to go completely hungry. After the meal, Abbie then presents me with a gift. With Kusiy staying inside his enclosure permanently, I worry about the lack of scents he has to explore. For Gaia, this is, in many ways, the most exciting part of her walk, and I don’t want Kusiy to be deprived of such joys. With Jenn’s approval a couple of days ago, I had requested that Abbie and Bex put aside any enrichment leftover from the coatis for Kusiy, so that I can introduce it to his enclosure. They went the extra mile and fashioned it into a ball for him to play with.

Luca and I begin our final stroll through the swamp this week, all the way carrying the Beepers ball. We then place it down ahead of arriving at the enclosure and say hello to our jaguar pal. Considering the intense heat today, Kusiy is full of energy and joins us on several laps. When he takes a moment to rest in the shade of his management cage, we take the opportunity to place the ball inside his enclosure at the perimeter. As we are walking the next lap, he pauses and spends some time enjoying the new smell, rubbing his face against the ball, switching from cheek to cheek. 

Luca, being in no rush home and in the mood for a gentle amble, encourages me to go ahead of her on the way back to camp. I relieve her of the empty meat bucket and set myself the challenge of seeing how quickly I can make it back. The average duration has been about 35 minutes. This afternoon, I did it in 20. I pass some of the construction team on the way through the swamp. “Eres muy rapido” says Candi as I splash past him. I then make it back in time for an early shower and end the working week by washing my Kusiy clothes, with the hope that they will dry before work again on Sunday.