Sacha Yacu

Sacha Yacu is a wild animal rescue center located in a small Amazonian community close to Puyo. I am helping out here as a volunteer for a while. It belongs to an Ecuadorian/Quichean family. The reserve is located uphill from the main road, which makes it quite isolated. In the place we are living in, there are right now not so many animals, because most of them have already been moved to a new location that is about 2km from here. I try to keep my yoga habit going, therefore I get up 6am every morning. Work does not start before 8. We usually drive down to the other reserve in the morning, and I enjoy a fresh breeze in the back of the pick up truck. We then feed all the animals, meaning lots of fruit and veggies have to be prepared and cut. The cages of the animals are spread throughout the jungle, so the animals do not get stressed about each other. There is a whole heap of parrots, turtles, peccaries and of course monkeys. They also have a gorgeous Margay, Coatis, Kinkajous and a Tayra. Most animals have a history of being held in captivity as pets or in the circus, many of them have been abused and are therefor traumatized. Therefor, you always have to be cautious when entering a cage to clean it or give them food. I had some great moments with parrots sitting all over me trying to snap food out of the bucket I carried. Today, one of the capuchin monkeys came up to me, lied down on my lap and enjoyed being “fleed” by me. He didn`t move an inch when I scratched him and obviously enjoyed that closeness a lot. So did I! I could have stayed in the cage with him quite a while longer.

Besides taking care of the animals, we also contribute to the communities by teaching in the local schools twice a week. This morning we taught the kids about tectonic plate movements and played some games with them outside. Obviously, with my poor Spanish I could not contribute a lot, but tomorrow we will teach them English and I hopefully can share a bit more.