It is Sunday 30th March. Sunday is the start of our working week. Today, we set off at 6:30am instead of 7am. Jenn, one of the cat coordinators and park administrator, joins us to check how things are going. Having endured a stormy weekend, we have allowed the extra half an hour so that we can check the trails before walking Gaia. This turns out to be a very good idea as we discover several fallen tree branches along the path – all easily chopped away with a machete, but not ideal when you have a sassy puma with you. Jenn and Adi walk ahead as I tail behind hacking away at the blockages. Despite Jenn’s warnings of which trees have fire ants, I still manage to get bitten twice. Fire ant stings are nasty, but luckily fade after just a few minutes.

We arrive back at the enclosure to find Gaia waiting for us in the management cage. We clip her on quickly and start the walk. I lead with Jenn at the front, whilst Adi takes back rope. It is nice chatting with Jenn. It turns out that, after many years, her time here is coming to an end soon, with her and Felipe’s departure date being just a few days after mine. She will be a tough act to follow. I also learn during our walk that two new volunteers are arriving today. Furthermore, they’re British. As much as I enjoy meeting people from all around the world, it is nice to have at least one other British person to share one’s time with – someone who will understand a Johnny English or Hot Fuzz reference.

After only an hour, we arrive back at the enclosure and Jenn jokes that nothing ever goes wrong on training walks. Ideally, this is when you want problems to arise, so you can learn how to deal with them from someone who really knows what they’re doing. Nevertheless, Jenn provides useful feedback before heading back to camp at 9am. This leaves Adi and I with a nice couple of hours to enjoy Gaia’s company. We walk several laps with her, with Gaia chasing her ball. Adi then sets off to do more trail clearing, leaving me in the company of my favourite puma. With Gaia out of energy, I use this time to do some gardening, stripping the fencing of vines and weeds to increase its longevity. Meanwhile, Gaia sits nearby, slowly following me around and resting, relaxing in the company.

Adi returns and we make our way back to camp, narrowly avoiding a violent downpour. With no intention of getting soaking wet, I choose to shelter in our dorm until lunch, still in my sweaty morning clothes. My afternoon clothes have remained soaking wet and I am in no rush to get into them. Luckily, the rain stops shortly before the afternoon shift and my wet, but clean, Kusiy clothes dry off quickly in the sunshine. Marine and I walk to his enclosure, with the water in the swamps reaching our waists today. We arrive to discover a jaguar full of energy, eager to do a lot of running. I follow him around several laps of the enclosure, splashing and slipping through the muddy trail that surrounds it. Kusiy always makes a point of choosing to run when my terrain is at its most perilous. I do not approve of this cheating.

Marine and I walk back and I find myself waiting before I can complete my evening task of carrying the camp’s food waste to the compost hole. This is, depending on the weight of the bin on the day, usually a two person job, and my partner is nowhere to be seen. I consequently have a later shower, which boasts the advantage of no queue, but does unfortunately mean washing in the dark, making the daily tick search a little challenging. A light at the end of the tunnel, however, is that, as promised by Jenn, I enter the Comedor in the evening to find two new British pals waiting, Abbie and Bex – two Northern lasses with a superb sense of humour and a shared love of climbing. The squad forms quickly. We share some laughs as I learn about their travels over the past few months, and I give them advice for their time in the jungle. There is a lot to take in on arrival and it can be nice to have some additional guidance.

It is now Monday. I do not dislike Mondays in the same way that I do Sundays now. That being said, I know where I stand with Sundays. Sundays are always Gaia walking days. On Mondays, I can land myself with any manner of camp tasks. Today, I am abruptly woken to discover that I am on team coatis. I missed this on the job boards last night. I only saw breakfast com. I join Mario and the team to feed four fairly adorable creatures, just a few minutes out of camp. This task does not require three people. It really only requires one person. Perhaps most sad, on top of the early start, is that it means putting my welly boots on at 7am instead of 9am and spending an additional two hours of the day with wet feet.

We finish up and I head straight to the Comedor to help prepare the breakfast bits – roughly 10 litres of coffee and boiled eggs for those who have ordered them. The great egg debate continues and I convince Marion to allow myself to take my own eggs out early, as well as those of my fellow British comrades. She allows this, but unfortunately, a soft boil is still not achieved. I will never eat a decent egg here.

Today is a special day for Gaia because we are treating her to some new hay. Adi and I rip apart some old mattresses that are kept in a pile behind the Comedor and fill a sack ready to take to Gaia. It turns out that Gaia really likes new hay. She has a total of four platforms in her enclosure – two inside and one in either management cage. This is because Gaia’s enclosure used to be the home of two sisters, Wara and Yassi, who were at the park last time I was here. Gaia tends to spend more time under her platforms than on top of them, but today, with the excitement of new hay, she is having a great time rolling around on the decking, exploring the new scent. Adi and I then load up the sack with the old hay and take it back to camp to be burned. I return to my favourite spot – the toilet roll burning zone. With the rain over the past few days, very little effort has been made to actually set fire to things. I thus find myself watching over a burning pile of all sorts, waiting for the flames to dissipate before heading in for lunch.

Today is lunch in Spanish. This is bad news for Abbie and Bex, who, having arrived less than 24 hours ago, are still making friends. With only the option to communicate in Spanish, very little conversation is made and we mostly find ourselves speaking with each other, in a judgement free zone. When 1pm strikes, marking the end of lunch, both are back to their chatty selves.

As always, 2pm comes too soon, and Marine and I set off to see Kusiy, both still quite tired from the morning. I take a machete with me in order to clear the trail we take to see our jaguar pal, following a few vines and branches having fallen, obstructing our path. We arrive to meet a very tired and antisocial Kusiy, so leave him to rest whilst we fix his platform and perform some additional termite checking. The mosquitos are rife today, and Marine and I find ourselves swarmed by them. To our luck, clouds appear overhead and the incoming rainfall deters the pesky creatures. What’s more, is that the change in weather provides Kusiy with the bounce he needs to do some running.

Following an energetic afternoon, we walk back in the rain and through the swamps. As I am reaching the end of the last swamp, the almighty one, I hear a large splash behind me and turn to discover that Marine has stacked it and fallen flat on her face. She is even more wet than before. I take the meat bucket off her hands and offer to wash it and fill in Kusiy’s post-session files so that she can head straight for the showers. The rain is heavy enough that, later on, as I wait for my turn to wash, I can take a pre-shower rinse before heading in. Today is the last day of March – the official end of wet season, and with the rain continuing well into the night, this sinply feels impossible.