Umm, I don't know quite how to say this, but... you have a Puma on your arm

Dessi and I seperated from the Germans after Lago Titicaca to lay plans for getting into the jungle once we got back to La Paz again. Basically, back when we were all in Wild Rover in La Paz the first time, we were having a conversation about what we were going to do after Lake Titicaca and I really had no idea. Then, almost divinely, an American named Rob came up to us out of nowhere and asked if we wanted to work at a Puma reserve in the middle of the Amazon. Naturally, we said yes. Dessi and I decided to go by ourselves after a quick trip to Tiwanaku (pre-Incan ruins near La Paz)

We had two options to get to the Amazonian town of Rurrenabaque (the closest town to the Reserve). We could either fly there, which is a 45 minute trip, or bus there, which is anywhere from 14 hours to 3 days of being cramped sweating and stewing in your own juices in the rainy season. After alot of hard thinking, because both choices had their pros and cons....we decided to take the plane. Now setting foot on a Bolivian plane is horrifying enough, especially when you see an Israeli ahead of you boarding with an unsheathed Machete in the water bottle pocket of his backpack, however, landing on a dirt air strip cut out of the jungle is another thing. Luckily, nothing happened. (However we did hear that the same plane we took (TAM only owns 2) landed later that week IN Rurre WITHOUT wheels. I know because a friend of a friend at the reserve was on that no-wheel plane and saw it as he walked off it. No one was hurt somehow and no one seemed to ask questions about why the wheels didn't come down. An electrical failure? My personal theory is that the pilot just forgot to do it.) After getting a bus to take us to the middle of nowhere, we arrived at Jacj Cuisi and waited around for people to show up.

This reserve is part of an organization that runs two other animal reserves, some which have jaguars and monkeys. Jacj Cuisi is the most undeveloped (no electricity or running water) and is in constant need of people to "walk" with its 4 pumas. I was immediately assigned to Simba. Besides being annoyed by the entire concept of naming a Bolivian puma after a cartoon African Lion from a Disney movie, I was pumped when people told me I was "totally" going to get jumped the first day by Simba....and this definitely came to fruition. A Puma is basically the same as an American Mountain Lion, in fact they're technically the same species, just a different sub species. Simba is about the size of like a big golden retriever but pure muscle. When you get jumped by a Puma acclimated to humans it essentially means him lunging at you and clamping down on your leg and arms like it was a rubber toy. Luckily the teeth aren't as sharp as you'd think, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Imagine taking two dull butter knives and pinching them on either sides into your thigh as hard as you can, then multiply that by a hundred and you have a Puma "playing" with you. Of course, after a few days of testing me, Simba and I got to be great friends and I learned that when he bites you, you go down with him and just take the pain like a man, which is something I'm still learning to do in general so it was a good challenge. Eventually the bruises turned into some kind of weird muscle callous and it wasn't as bad anymore. Atleast it took my mind off the pain in my rib from the Death Road.

Days with Simba basically consisted of me and another volunteer Lior, an Israeli who was AWOL from the army, getting him out of his enclosure and literally walking him on a leash thru trails in the Amazon, taking breaks while he napped and playing with him when he wanted to, (which was often). After awhile, I decided to see how "unpredictable" Simba was as compared to his file that I read. Wrestling was the first experiment. I have to admit that it sometimes ended with a puma on my back biting directly into my head and neck BUT I got to the point where I could get Simba to clean my head like a baby kitten and spoon with him in my lap. Hey, they don't call me the Cat Whisperer for nothing...Ok, I think maybe later I'll edit out the "spooning" part from this blog entry. It sounds weird. Anyway, It was a wild time and I have photographic evidence and newly forming scars on my legs and arms to back me up. Besides this, everyone else that lived in the reserve were fun and completely unique people. Nights consisted of dinners eaten and prepared by candlelight, whiskey and lots of drunken guitar playing. We even wrote a song and put it on youtube. I see it going viral within two weeks-3 years. "Jacq Cuisi Rain song", look it up.

I initially planned on staying for 2 weeks but the Germans showed up and I wanted to train Simba how to play Basketball so I stayed longer. It's by far one of the best things I've done in S.A and recommend it to anyone. If you're in Bolivia, check out this site:

http://www.intiwarayassi.org

I got back to La Paz today and am deciding if I'm going to stay in Bolivia longer to do the salt flats of Uyuni or just got straight back towards Peru as I make my way up to Colombia.