With Millie, days 2, 3 & 4
I´m back... amazingly. These last 3 days have been TOUGH. Boy... first of all, when I last logged off I was going to call my driver to ask him to pick me up again and lo and behold, the internet cafe did not have a telephone for me to call him. Eeek. I found a customer who had a mobile phone, who was willing to let me use it, I called the driver, twice... no reply. HUM. So I was like ´¿que puedo hacer?´(´what can I do´). There was NO way I could have walked back, it was way too far and half of the journey was in total darkness with no street lights. So: el chico del internet cafe told me ´No worries. My friend next door is a taxi driver, he´ll take you back for 20BS´(that´s very cheap). But then I didn´t know the guy, he could have been after my handbag, or my body... but he did have an official taxi car so I had to trust him. In fact, he was very nice, but this is just the kind of situation when my mother would have completely flipped... I just prayed hard.
I got back to my hotel that is starting to feel like ´home, sweet home´and slept like a log. All the exercise had worn me out. I even asked for a small heater to be put in my room to help my clothes dry faster because otherwise, with all the humidity in the air, clothes take up to 3 days to dry, which is no good (did you also know that in La Paz, because of the altitude, water takes twice as long to boil ?!). Yep. Aren´t I a mine field of useful information ?!
On the second day I spent with Millie, she took us down some really difficult treks. I seriously questioned my sanity for allowing this cute kitty´s health to supercede mine. My thighs were killing me... it was equally tough to go up as it was to go down (extra pressures on the knees). By noon I thought to myself ´10 days of this will be MORE than enough.... I have no idea how people can do this for 5 months´... It wasn´t exactly ´torture´ but it wasn´t exactly pleasant either. Some volunteers are like gazelles, and even Vanessa is up and down treks in record time but she is 20 years younger AND she has longer legs which can make a big difference when you have to climb above tree trunks that have fallen down in the path, or go up a massively high step. But then Millie is such a cute kitty, we were like parents cooeing over their child ´oh, isn´t she just beautiful?´.... On day 2 she even sat on my lap for 20 minutes. The trick is to not show her our hands... if she does, the temptation to suck the thumb is too strong and she can turn agressive if you try to then weane her off it. Her health is such that she really cannot settle on your lap for too long, ideally, she has to keep moving... But considering how badly all my muscles ached, I was personally grateful for a lazy cat. She can still go from passive to agressive but because I´ve been brought up with cats all my life, it doesn´t really bother me. I just watch the very end of her tail and when it starts to move.... I get ´ready for it´.
At other times, she´s the one who´s really thoughtful and will turn round and come closer to me as if to say ´come on, old lady, keep up, are we going too fast for you !?´... When she´s the one who wants to lie down for a while we then tempt her by squatting down. If she sees a lap, she´ll go for it. And as she gets up to move closer, we get up too and then can keep her moving... hopefully.
The 2nd day was quite tough because the treks were still quite slippery. I slipped a few times and once one leg went ahead whilst the 2nd leg stayed stuck behind and I did think ´oh shoot, I will tear a ligament any time soon´... The more I asked around, the more I found out that many people had broken legs and all, some strain ankles on the first day... and others just get badly injured working with the animals. Not so much the cats though, but more the monkeys who have such vicious teeth.
I did a few fun videos but not that many photos with me actually. I took a lot more with Vanessa as she´s been working with her for 2 months but had no record of it. I figured I could take more with me once she´s more at ease with me...
In some ways I couldn´t wait for the day to be over because I just wanted my legs to walk on a flat surface for a change. But it takes 25 mins to walk back down to the entrance and with every step (probably the equivalent of 25 flights of stairs) I was like ´ouch, ouch, ouch´.... Vanessa, who is super fit compared to me, will run back and forth in 40 mins or so. On day 2 she´d lost Millie´s vitamin C container (it fell out of her pocket) so she had to go back to get some more. I then realised that it wouldn´t be possible for me to do this job all alone because I could not do that for a start... I would not have the energy. Also, I had NO idea how Vanessa has got such a good sense of direction but I am utterly lost as we are not even walking on the trails... we are going all over, in no specific order... only Millie´s order... and even on trails I have no idea where I am, so, off trail, forget it... there would have to be a search party every night !
That night I went back to my hotel aching all over and headed straight for the pool to try and soothe my muscles... The water was a touch cool but ok still. The scenery was great, jungle all around... I loved it. But 30mins was enough. I then went for a semi hot shower (could not get it to be really hot) and afterwards covered myself with white flower oil that soothes the muscles. Just to climb the one step to my bathroom, which is about 15cm high, I was in agony. I thought to myself ´oh my, how on earth will I manage tomorrow?´.
The 3rd day was equally bad in a different way. I still ached, but Millie went in places where I would just never go on my own... almost jumping off cliffs... ok, not mega high cliffs, but say 2.5m high, and Vanessa would just ´bum it all the way down´and grin and bear it and I was standing on the edge thinking ´I just cannot do this... if I can, I cannot get back up´.... So I told her ´Look, I just cannot jump, it looks too scary to me´.... She was ´fine, don´t worry, go back to the trail and I´ll find you. I know where you are, I´ll try and get Millie to walk back your way at some point´ And we had to do this a few times because it just got more and more hairy.
Vanessa is fantastic for Millie, but she totally spoils her. It has improved her health greatly as by encouraging her natural behaviour (ocelots prefer to walk off trails, unlike pumas) it has made her walk more. Before, with volunteers, who, like me, were not really keen on ´roughing it´(or ´risking their lives´more likely) she soon got bored and prefered to just settle on their laps and suck their thumbs all day, which was the worst thing for her health... she´s then get more kidney stones, pass blood, and be in agony. She also ended up with two absesses and the vets were not sure how to help as they only had gas to put animals to sleep, no proper injections, due to lack of money. One day the pain got too much and she just chewed her own skin to drain them. So one of our jobs is to squirt some (purple) liquid anti biotics on her wounds to help it heal. So that every time I take photos of her, I have to go for the non purple side ideally ! :)
The thing that´s impressive with Millie is that she is house trained. She has a bowl for her food, her bowl for her water and a large bowl for her faeces and she always uses it. I think that cats like to be clean. She always licks herself and smells lovely. Talking of food though, we, thankfully, did not have to feed her a live chicken after all. The fate of the chicken was still sealed though. It had stayed for 5 days with the boa and the boa had not wanted to eat it, so before we got to take it up to Millie, he was first offered to the puma next door who killed him in 20 seconds flat. Phew.
And while on the food subject, our cook, who is wonderful and so hard working is only paid 50 dollars a month and works from 7am till 6pm most days. In fact, ´every day´would be a more accurate statement because she has only taken 1 day off in one YEAR. And here is me, little me, who was complaining about having NO time in London... what do I know !??? I have no idea how this poor woman can get on with her own household chores, bringing up her daughter, etc. And she´s always smiling. Most of us Westerners would be on anti depressant with such a gruesome regime but she looks contented. Or maybe she´s just a good actress!?
When we got back to Millie´s cage that day we found that a bunch of monkeys had managed to get in and stolen her meat. We had put a lockpad on the door, of course, but they are so smart, they can use any trick to get in if they really want to. So, Vanessa had to jog all the way down again, and all the way back up again so that Millie could have her dinner before we put her away for the night. I then realised that at 43, it was time I retired from all my mad adventures... It is time to hang my hat and admit that I am too old for these crazy things after all. I also realise that as we get older, we do get more scared about getting injured. I´m sure that at 23, I too would have bummed down the landslide and thought ´what the heck if I get my hands pierced on some tree spikes´... but at 43 you think ´shoooot, that would really hurt if I didn´t have my gloves for protection, and I do need my hands to type up my blog and do a lot of things´... It is a fact of life that perspectives do change as we get older I guess. I always think that my mother over does it and over worries it, but who knows, maybe when I get to be 73, maybe I too will fret as much ?! Perish the thought.
But Minnie was much more used to me already by day 3... and she & I had had quite a few friendly ´head butts´. If you have a cat or have watched documentaries on lions in Africa you will soon work out that cats like to greet each other with rubbing their heads against one another. I did a lot of that with Millie. When I could see she was in a dozy mode and not going to turn agressive, I´d give her my nose so that she could rub hers against it, and then my forehead so she could rub hers on mine too. It was sooo sweet. She loved it. I did too ! :) It really helped us bond further.
We got back to the base and one of the other volunteers had just had to get an anti asthamine jab after being stung in the face by a wasp, whilst cleaning the bird cage. It was right next to her eye and it looked rather sore. I tell you, disasters happen every day here and I guess I would enjoy this holiday a lot more if I knew for sure that I will get back to England in ONE piece with everything in working order. Yesterday another girl was sick as she had some parasites and kept needing the toilets (not great when facilities are so basic). Thankfully, because Vanessa and I walk so hard and sweat so much we actually do not need the toilets all day... but still.
I also don´t like the walk back because capucchin monkeys are always watching what we are doing and are known to jump on bags and unzip them. In fact, they are really determined creatures and they will get what they want, whether you try to stop them or not. They stole a girl´s camera last week, and if you try to stop them, they will bite your fingers off. They can be very agressive so you either use a padlock on your bag or watch them rip them apart from a distance. Hum.
I got back to my hotel and was shattered again. I had a quick look at some of the photos that we had taken earlier that day and I look like I´m on LSD. I had slept 10 H the night before and I still had big bags under my eyes... and Vanessa looks so fresh compared to me. Just as I said: Sylvie is getting past her peak to play the adventurer that she thinks she still is, but is not really.
I´m back... amazingly. These last 3 days have been TOUGH. Boy... first of all, when I last logged off I was going to call my driver to ask him to pick me up again and lo and behold, the internet cafe did not have a telephone for me to call him. Eeek. I found a customer who had a mobile phone, who was willing to let me use it, I called the driver, twice... no reply. HUM. So I was like ´¿que puedo hacer?´(´what can I do´). There was NO way I could have walked back, it was way too far and half of the journey was in total darkness with no street lights. So: el chico del internet cafe told me ´No worries. My friend next door is a taxi driver, he´ll take you back for 20BS´(that´s very cheap). But then I didn´t know the guy, he could have been after my handbag, or my body... but he did have an official taxi car so I had to trust him. In fact, he was very nice, but this is just the kind of situation when my mother would have completely flipped... I just prayed hard.
I got back to my hotel that is starting to feel like ´home, sweet home´and slept like a log. All the exercise had worn me out. I even asked for a small heater to be put in my room to help my clothes dry faster because otherwise, with all the humidity in the air, clothes take up to 3 days to dry, which is no good (did you also know that in La Paz, because of the altitude, water takes twice as long to boil ?!). Yep. Aren´t I a mine field of useful information ?!
On the second day I spent with Millie, she took us down some really difficult treks. I seriously questioned my sanity for allowing this cute kitty´s health to supercede mine. My thighs were killing me... it was equally tough to go up as it was to go down (extra pressures on the knees). By noon I thought to myself ´10 days of this will be MORE than enough.... I have no idea how people can do this for 5 months´... It wasn´t exactly ´torture´ but it wasn´t exactly pleasant either. Some volunteers are like gazelles, and even Vanessa is up and down treks in record time but she is 20 years younger AND she has longer legs which can make a big difference when you have to climb above tree trunks that have fallen down in the path, or go up a massively high step. But then Millie is such a cute kitty, we were like parents cooeing over their child ´oh, isn´t she just beautiful?´.... On day 2 she even sat on my lap for 20 minutes. The trick is to not show her our hands... if she does, the temptation to suck the thumb is too strong and she can turn agressive if you try to then weane her off it. Her health is such that she really cannot settle on your lap for too long, ideally, she has to keep moving... But considering how badly all my muscles ached, I was personally grateful for a lazy cat. She can still go from passive to agressive but because I´ve been brought up with cats all my life, it doesn´t really bother me. I just watch the very end of her tail and when it starts to move.... I get ´ready for it´.
At other times, she´s the one who´s really thoughtful and will turn round and come closer to me as if to say ´come on, old lady, keep up, are we going too fast for you !?´... When she´s the one who wants to lie down for a while we then tempt her by squatting down. If she sees a lap, she´ll go for it. And as she gets up to move closer, we get up too and then can keep her moving... hopefully.
The 2nd day was quite tough because the treks were still quite slippery. I slipped a few times and once one leg went ahead whilst the 2nd leg stayed stuck behind and I did think ´oh shoot, I will tear a ligament any time soon´... The more I asked around, the more I found out that many people had broken legs and all, some strain ankles on the first day... and others just get badly injured working with the animals. Not so much the cats though, but more the monkeys who have such vicious teeth.
I did a few fun videos but not that many photos with me actually. I took a lot more with Vanessa as she´s been working with her for 2 months but had no record of it. I figured I could take more with me once she´s more at ease with me...
In some ways I couldn´t wait for the day to be over because I just wanted my legs to walk on a flat surface for a change. But it takes 25 mins to walk back down to the entrance and with every step (probably the equivalent of 25 flights of stairs) I was like ´ouch, ouch, ouch´.... Vanessa, who is super fit compared to me, will run back and forth in 40 mins or so. On day 2 she´d lost Millie´s vitamin C container (it fell out of her pocket) so she had to go back to get some more. I then realised that it wouldn´t be possible for me to do this job all alone because I could not do that for a start... I would not have the energy. Also, I had NO idea how Vanessa has got such a good sense of direction but I am utterly lost as we are not even walking on the trails... we are going all over, in no specific order... only Millie´s order... and even on trails I have no idea where I am, so, off trail, forget it... there would have to be a search party every night !
That night I went back to my hotel aching all over and headed straight for the pool to try and soothe my muscles... The water was a touch cool but ok still. The scenery was great, jungle all around... I loved it. But 30mins was enough. I then went for a semi hot shower (could not get it to be really hot) and afterwards covered myself with white flower oil that soothes the muscles. Just to climb the one step to my bathroom, which is about 15cm high, I was in agony. I thought to myself ´oh my, how on earth will I manage tomorrow?´.
The 3rd day was equally bad in a different way. I still ached, but Millie went in places where I would just never go on my own... almost jumping off cliffs... ok, not mega high cliffs, but say 2.5m high, and Vanessa would just ´bum it all the way down´and grin and bear it and I was standing on the edge thinking ´I just cannot do this... if I can, I cannot get back up´.... So I told her ´Look, I just cannot jump, it looks too scary to me´.... She was ´fine, don´t worry, go back to the trail and I´ll find you. I know where you are, I´ll try and get Millie to walk back your way at some point´ And we had to do this a few times because it just got more and more hairy.
Vanessa is fantastic for Millie, but she totally spoils her. It has improved her health greatly as by encouraging her natural behaviour (ocelots prefer to walk off trails, unlike pumas) it has made her walk more. Before, with volunteers, who, like me, were not really keen on ´roughing it´(or ´risking their lives´more likely) she soon got bored and prefered to just settle on their laps and suck their thumbs all day, which was the worst thing for her health... she´s then get more kidney stones, pass blood, and be in agony. She also ended up with two absesses and the vets were not sure how to help as they only had gas to put animals to sleep, no proper injections, due to lack of money. One day the pain got too much and she just chewed her own skin to drain them. So one of our jobs is to squirt some (purple) liquid anti biotics on her wounds to help it heal. So that every time I take photos of her, I have to go for the non purple side ideally ! :)
The thing that´s impressive with Millie is that she is house trained. She has a bowl for her food, her bowl for her water and a large bowl for her faeces and she always uses it. I think that cats like to be clean. She always licks herself and smells lovely. Talking of food though, we, thankfully, did not have to feed her a live chicken after all. The fate of the chicken was still sealed though. It had stayed for 5 days with the boa and the boa had not wanted to eat it, so before we got to take it up to Millie, he was first offered to the puma next door who killed him in 20 seconds flat. Phew.
And while on the food subject, our cook, who is wonderful and so hard working is only paid 50 dollars a month and works from 7am till 6pm most days. In fact, ´every day´would be a more accurate statement because she has only taken 1 day off in one YEAR. And here is me, little me, who was complaining about having NO time in London... what do I know !??? I have no idea how this poor woman can get on with her own household chores, bringing up her daughter, etc. And she´s always smiling. Most of us Westerners would be on anti depressant with such a gruesome regime but she looks contented. Or maybe she´s just a good actress!?
When we got back to Millie´s cage that day we found that a bunch of monkeys had managed to get in and stolen her meat. We had put a lockpad on the door, of course, but they are so smart, they can use any trick to get in if they really want to. So, Vanessa had to jog all the way down again, and all the way back up again so that Millie could have her dinner before we put her away for the night. I then realised that at 43, it was time I retired from all my mad adventures... It is time to hang my hat and admit that I am too old for these crazy things after all. I also realise that as we get older, we do get more scared about getting injured. I´m sure that at 23, I too would have bummed down the landslide and thought ´what the heck if I get my hands pierced on some tree spikes´... but at 43 you think ´shoooot, that would really hurt if I didn´t have my gloves for protection, and I do need my hands to type up my blog and do a lot of things´... It is a fact of life that perspectives do change as we get older I guess. I always think that my mother over does it and over worries it, but who knows, maybe when I get to be 73, maybe I too will fret as much ?! Perish the thought.
But Minnie was much more used to me already by day 3... and she & I had had quite a few friendly ´head butts´. If you have a cat or have watched documentaries on lions in Africa you will soon work out that cats like to greet each other with rubbing their heads against one another. I did a lot of that with Millie. When I could see she was in a dozy mode and not going to turn agressive, I´d give her my nose so that she could rub hers against it, and then my forehead so she could rub hers on mine too. It was sooo sweet. She loved it. I did too ! :) It really helped us bond further.
We got back to the base and one of the other volunteers had just had to get an anti asthamine jab after being stung in the face by a wasp, whilst cleaning the bird cage. It was right next to her eye and it looked rather sore. I tell you, disasters happen every day here and I guess I would enjoy this holiday a lot more if I knew for sure that I will get back to England in ONE piece with everything in working order. Yesterday another girl was sick as she had some parasites and kept needing the toilets (not great when facilities are so basic). Thankfully, because Vanessa and I walk so hard and sweat so much we actually do not need the toilets all day... but still.
I also don´t like the walk back because capucchin monkeys are always watching what we are doing and are known to jump on bags and unzip them. In fact, they are really determined creatures and they will get what they want, whether you try to stop them or not. They stole a girl´s camera last week, and if you try to stop them, they will bite your fingers off. They can be very agressive so you either use a padlock on your bag or watch them rip them apart from a distance. Hum.
I got back to my hotel and was shattered again. I had a quick look at some of the photos that we had taken earlier that day and I look like I´m on LSD. I had slept 10 H the night before and I still had big bags under my eyes... and Vanessa looks so fresh compared to me. Just as I said: Sylvie is getting past her peak to play the adventurer that she thinks she still is, but is not really.
posted by Sylvie at 9:58 PM
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