Volunteering at Mashaquipe (Madidi National Park) – Part 1

So once I realised I wouldn´t be leaving South America until the end of January 2012 I decided to spend an extra month in Bolivia and contacted Mashaquipe to see if I could go back there as a volunteer for a month.  I knew I didn´t want to work with animals (there are several animal sanctuaries in Bolivia where you can work with pumas and other animals) nor did I think I was up to working with orphans or street children (there are also many opportunities to do this in Bolivia).  I couldn´t imagine a place more different from my life in London and I also wanted to better understand the Bolivian culture in this part of the country after spending most of my time in the Andes regions of Peru and Bolivia.  Fortunately they said yes so I decided to take the bus back to La Paz and then a flight to Rurre (I still didn´t fancy the long and dangerous bus ride…).

A street in Rurrenabaque

I had a couple of days in Rurre to organise things and this turned out to be a great couple of days.  When I arrived in Rurre Los Tucanes said they didn´t have any rooms available (they always seemed to say this to solo travellers arriving before the last plane) but that there was a girl who wanted to share a room, which was even better (cheaper and some company).  Theres from Switzerland (doing her masters geography thesis in a village called Palmar) couldn´t have been a better room-mate!  I had a fun couple of days and nights hanging out with her and three volunteers from Madidi Travel (another jungle tour agency in Rurre) – eating good food, going to the outdoor cinema (to watch a terrible film) and drinking cocktails and playing table football in Moskkito Bar.  As they were soon to be leaving Madidi Travel they tried to talk me into volunteering there but I was more keen to spend time volunteering in the jungle itself rather than in Rurre.

I also fitted in getting my washing done (as I would be hand washing my clothes for the next month), sending last emails and Facebook updates as I would not have email or phone access, and buying bug spray and batteries.

I also got my hair cut.  I`d joked with my hairdresser in London before I left that I wanted it cut short so that I wouldn`t need to go to the hairdressers in Bolivia.  Well at least it was an interesting experience that didn`t cost me a lot of money.  For 1.50 pounds I had my hair cut with what I can only describe as the type of scissors they give to kids in school for cutting paper.  Big blunt chops of hair were removed and at least only where I`d asked her to cut it.  To be fair, she cut exactly what I asked and even trimmed up my hairline with a razor for me.  There was no wash or blow dry to go with the cut.  It looked ok and at least it would stay short enough for the next month not to annoy me in the heat.

So the day I was supposed to go to the Mashaquipe lodge the boat went in the morning rather than in the afternoon, so I tried again the next day and had more luck.  I took the boat up the river with some fun and enthusiastic Canadian guys and their guide, Nicolas.

Gina and Elly with some of their amazing food!

On arrival it wasn´t entirely clear what my tasks or schedule would be during my stay but I was quickly pointed in the direction of Maribel (Mari) who was in charge of cleaning, making beds and general administration of the lodge, and she introduced me to the two cooks, Elly and Gina.  As I am terrible with names I had to write down everyone´s names as I met them, otherwise I would forget!

Over the next few days I started to get into the rhythm of the lodge and get to know the people working there.  Going to bed early (about 9.30pm) and getting up early (about 6am) seemed to be the pattern and afternoon siestas were encouraged when it wasn´t so busy.  In fact, I was so not used to the slower pace that they had to tell me to go and relax.  Seems my London work ethic was still with me after all.  I had to explain that I wasn´t used to taking rests during the day and that in the UK, in offices at least, people tend to work long days and even take lunch at their desks.  This was met with a certain amount of disbelief and on a few occasions Elly would tell this to other people as they joked about me working too hard!

 

 

My effort at setting the table for breakfast

My main tasks consisted of washing up after breakfast, lunch and dinner, helping clean the cabins and toilets, making beds, raking leaves, helping wash the sheets, cleaning the dining room and setting the table, making juice and refrescos (soft drinks, like squash), teaching English to anyone that was vaguely interested, and resting in hammocks.  Given how much I enjoy my job at the V&A (and how unique it is) I´d often wondered what it might be like to do a more ‘regular’ job.  I´m sure the relaxed jungle setting with no stress and lovely people helped but it did make me realise that I could do all sorts of different work if I put my mind to it.

My washing up station (and English lesson board)

Norm, me, Lauren

Unfortunately, I started the day after a French girl left as a volunteer but was soon joined by a lovely Canadian couple called Norm and Lauren.  I think Norm might have been one of only a few male volunteers they´ve had at Mashaquipe.  This also highlighted the more traditional roles that are kept in Bolivian (and more generally, South American) society.  I was allocated to help in the kitchen (I`d obviously dazzled them with my washing up skills) and Lauren was allocated to help Mari with making beds, cleaning and raking.  Meanwhile Norm was allocated to help John with boat stuff and Inato with cutting stuff with machetes (mainly tidying the grounds or clearing new areas for future construction).

 

The boys (Reynaldo, Norm, John)

Night of the Museums in Sucre

I was lucky enough to be in Sucre on the Night of the Museums.  This seemed to follow the format of the Nuit Blanche in Paris, Lange Naacht der Museen in Berlin or Museums at Night in the UK where basically museums in a particular city (or country) are open all night with many special events for visitors.  You can find out more about the history of the Long Night of Museums here.

So the museums in Sucre were supposed to be free and open from 6pm until 1am or 6am with various special events.  This being South America, the opening times and event times were a bit haphazard but a group of us from the hostel went to a few places anyway, and enjoyed a break from the crowds (and built up our queuing strength) by going to eat pizza half way through.

Sucre has some great museums and I´d already visited most of the ones I wanted to visit so the Night of the Museums was a chance to visit some of the ones I might not have visited seeing as they were all free for the night.

We´d obviously underestimated how popular the Night of the Museums would be!  Being a museum nerd, I always assume that most people are not interested in visiting museums but I guess the lure of free entry is a big incentive.  All of the museums had massive queues outside to get in and the plaza was full of people milling about.  There was a great atmosphere in town.

Mini Eiffel Tower in Sucre

First stop was the Casa de la Libertad where the declaration of independence of Bolivia was signed on 6th August 1825.  The queue was too big though so we decided to come back later and headed for the park with its famous mini Eiffel Tower.  There was supposed to be a light and music show but I guess we were too early.  It´s amazing to realise that someone in Sucre commissioned this mini Eiffel Tower in 1906 from Gustaf Eiffel himself.  Even the materials were sent from Europe.  I guess there was money because at that time Potosi (near to Sucre) was bigger and richer than Paris thanks to the amount of silver being mined from the Cerro Rico (the rich hill). 

Interior of the Palace of Justice (probably the fanciest building I visited in Bolivia)

 The tower is kind of cute, and you can climb up it, so we gave it a quick glance before heading through the park to the Palace of Supreme Justice.  I got the impression that this place might not usually be open to the public as we had to go through a metal detector and join a guided tour.  In each room a local history student (or two) told us about the room and let us ask questions.  They gave us so much info I forgot most of it (despite translating for the non-spanish speakers).  We saw the room where the supreme court meets, the actual court room, another room for social events (called the room of mirrors because it was covered with mirrors and decorated in an 18th century french style) and the national judicial library.  It was all quite grand and impressive.

We saw there was still a long queue for the Casa de la Libertad so headed over to the military museum.  This was packed with people moving round in a conveyor belt style pas the exhibits (a form of crowd control imposed in all of the museums this night) we filed disinterestedly past various guns, military equipment and uniforms, 3D map models and model ships (yes, Bolivia still has a navy even though it doesn´t have any sea of its own, no thanks to Chile).  We stopped to read some news articles about Che Guevara that were sort of falling off the wall (display standards weren´t very high here) before heading off to get some pizza.

The big wooden Simon Bolivar head at Casa de la Libertad

Finally we joined the queue for Cas de la Libertad.  We wanted to stop and read the short texts about the displays as this is one of the most important museums in Sucre.  Unfortunately, the security staff (actual police or military guard) had obviously been briefed to keep everyone moving in a line past the exhibits and we were told to get a move on several times.  Highlight was the large carved head of Simon Bolivar that everyone stopped to get their photo taken with.

People filing past Simon Bolivar´s head

Local Kjarkas band

In the courtyard of the Casa de la Libertad was a dancing display and live music.  We managed to catch a young group of kids playing tradition Bolivian music.  I thought this type of music was called Kjarkas but it seems that this is the name of the most famous traditional band in Bolivia rather than the type of music.  The kids played great and their lead guitarist and singer was a real showman, and only 10 years old!  We stayed for their whole set and afterwards asked if they had a CD for sale.  Unfortunately, they were due to record their first (live) CD in two weeks, after we had all left Sucre.  I managed to film one of their songs though, which is a nice memory.

 

As our final stop we felt obliged to visit the cathedral, even though it had the longest queue all night.  We queued up and eventually got entry to the museum of the cathedral attached to the cathedral.  I´d already decided that I´d had my fill of religious art so walked round quite quickly, only stopping to admire some fine silverwork and gems of some of the chalices on display.

The other museums I can recommend in Sucre are:

– MUSEF (Ethnographic Museum).  I also went to this museum in La Paz, where they also had the (same) impressive display of festival and ritual masks from all over Bolivia.

– ASUR (Textile Museum, though it´s now actually only a shop selling very high quality textiles on a fair trade basis).