ARCAS
October 7th, 2007
Even though we managed to make it to the Mexican border and back, GreenGo was in no shape for further long time excursions. Even as we drove back, the little red light of the generator kept coming on, and, though I personally could not understand what the whole big fuss is about, the look on Shurik’s face meant this carriage ain’t going nowhere until it is properly (painfully and extensively) fixed.
This, yet another, turn for the worse also meant saying goodbye to the guys. Sad, but true, they could not afford wasting any more time watching Shurik’s bottom half sticking out of the engine compartment, and we had to part ways. We totally understood. I would have dumped us even sooner. Saying goodbye, though, broke my heart a little.
And so, what now? Shurik still wanted to “dig around” a bit in GreenGo, so we couldn’t go far. I tried to find myself a couch and some bonbons, but instead we found an ad on a bulletin board in Los Amigos hostel that spoke about volunteering in ARCAS – an animal rescue center only a short boat ride away where the Guatemalan government sends all animals it tears out of the greedy claws of poachers to be patched up, rehabilitated, and, hopefully, released back into the wild.
Baby spider-monkey catching the rainbow on Shurik’s Pink Floyd T-shirt
Coming to ARCAS we didn’t really know what to expect. We’ve never volunteered before on this trip, and my only experience with anything that had bigger teeth than mine was owning a Poodle when I was a little girl. I also was in brief possession of a Guinea-pig, but that friendship ended when the bastard bit me during our elusive escape from prison. (Some girls play “House”, but my best friend at the time in Kiev was the daughter of a police man, so we played “The Big House”.) In any circumstance, this was new territory for us; we knew we absolutely loved taking pictures of wildlife, but what would they have us do here? Shovel shit? Reset bones? No for the bone resetting, probably, they have people here who do that on a more professional level, but does that mean all we would be left with is shoveling shit?
Our questions were answered soon enough. A couple other volunteers, Peter – a British vet, and Audrey – a French cutie, showed us around ARCAS, which seemed to be on an island and, though not too deeply set in the jungle, there was an absolute feeling that you were entirely cut off from the outside world. The atmosphere was very free and unburdening: Peter explained that every single day there are three or four shifts (depending on the animal you are assigned to), and your main assignments, which are mostly done in the Quarantine area, will include feeding and cleaning after the animals, some of which will most likely (and hopefully) to be released back into the wild, unless they have an incurable condition that might affect others, or some debilitating disability. I wanted to ask what such a disability would be, but then noticed a cage where one of the spider-monkeys was missing his tail and an arm.
It was one of those decisions we didn’t really have to deliberate over. We just looked at each other, and asked Peter: “So it’s ok if we start tomorrow?” By that time Peter has already mentioned to us that there was a dirt road leading to this place as well, so GreenGo was no longer a question, and next morning we showed up for work.
To be continued… after all, we did spent two weeks there.
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