Week #3: Every day at the Jaguar Rescue Center is a new adventure

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3.9.

There was another round of bittersweet news in the center today: the opossum that I found died during the night. I didn’t get details on its actual cause of death, but like I said before, it was in pretty bad shape when I first came across it. Not all rescue developments have been negative; excitingly, the team rescued a raccoon and currently has a coyote in the clinic! I went in to see the coyote with Nicole, who led me around the corner of the clinic’s main room to see a large enclosure housing the coyote. He is a juvenile, still quite small, and acts mostly skiddish but also a bit curious. He approached the wall of his enclosure and peered out at me with startling yellow eyes.

Another adorable critter that I got to spend a bit of time with today is our baby keel-billed toucan, Morgana, who is housed in a large enclosure together with six sloths. She is still too young to fly properly, so she mostly hops around on the ground and chatters to herself. I was assigned to fill each of the center’s sloth enclosures with fresh hibiscus leaves, and while doing so, the little one nibbled on one of my rain boots, quietly squawking all the while. She is completely adorable and melts my heart.

The workday came to a close on an exhausting note. I finished my last task a bit early, and after asking how else I could help, was directed to help Diego, the center’s main landscaper and groundskeeper. Diego is a young, sturdy guy who constantly does the most brutal-looking tasks, often hauling things from here to there or working while stationed on rooftops. Today, the main “Help Diego” task was to aid in shoveling back the center’s massive compost pile (otherwise known as The Bonfire) off of one of the main walking paths. As I’ve learned through others, this task needs to be carried out every few weeks, as certain volunteers and/or staff members cannot manage to dump their compost into the correct location -- away from the path. No one really knows who the culprits are here, but nevertheless, The Bonfire continues to find its way onto the path. A group of four of us shoveled heaps of leaves and other debris until we couldn’t shovel any more. Drenched in sweat, I dragged myself back to the hostel for a body-and-soul-renewing shower.

As of last night, I have a new roommate! Laura is a recent wildlife education graduate from Nova Scotia. She’s very cool and easy to talk with, as the best kind of Canadians are. Meeting her was funny, because she arrived at the hostel around 7 p.m., when I was deep in the middle of reading GoT. I didn’t say much for the first hour or so that she was in the room and later realized that I may have come across as a painfully antisocial person. Oops :-). The two of us gotten to talking a few times since then, though, so I think I’ve now managed to salvage my social skills in her eyes.

4.9.

It’s Tuesday, which is the closest equivalent of a Friday around here. People are gearing up for Tasty Tuesday this evening, and I have tomorrow off! Today was also the first workday of the newest group of JRC volunteers. There are 11 (!) in the latest group, which means that the center grounds are now pretty crowded with people. Now that this is my third week of work, I’m considered to be somewhat of a veteran (the turnover is quite fast, so statuses advance quickly). The new volunteers generally get assigned to things like laundry and dish duty, while the more experienced volunteers can enjoy spending more time with the animals. I had a very easy day today, watching over two baby howler monkeys and a trio of 4-5 month old sloths. Cuteness overload.

While supervising the sloths, a few tours came through and stood around the sloths’ little playground while they listened to the tour guides talk about the animals. The guides provide a lot of interesting information about sloths, including facts about their lives in the wild and how our rehabilitation process at the center works. The team has many specific practices in place in order to keep things running smoothly and efficiently. For example, in our clinic, team members paint the toenails of some of our sloths in order to keep track of their individual needs related to diet, medications and so on. The painted nails are often a topic of discussion during tours, and tour guides will almost always make a point of explaining why the sloths’ nails are bright blue, green or pink. During today’s first tour, the members of the group surrounded the sloth playground and began checking them out and taking photos. Then, suddenly and before the tour guide could begin her presentation, one visitor leans in and loudly comments, “I didn’t know that sloths had such colorful nails!”. He said this thinking that sloths are literally born with rainbow-colored nails. Luckily, the guide politely explained that their nails are actually painted, and for a reason. People never cease to amaze me. :-)

5.9.

Day off. There isn’t too much to write about this day since it has been extremely low key, but as Laura said to me today, “sometimes hibernation is necessary”. After a morning spent running errands and and prepping meals for the coming days, I enjoyed a nice nap and a walk on the beach at dusk. The highlight of my evening has been watching Spirited Away, which is amazing regardless of the many times that I’ve seen it. I’ve actually been feeling a bit lonely and out of sorts today, so I’ve found real comfort in watching a film so close to my heart.

6.9.

I was totally ready to come back to work today after having next to no human interaction yesterday. Things got off to a lively start from the first moment that I walked into the center -- I saw Nicole retrieving Biscottina, who was climbing down from a tree after spending the entire night up in the treetops! This is a big deal for a baby anteater who could have escaped into the wild if she so pleased. Apparently, Biscottina had spent all of yesterday climbing in the center’s trees, as she usually does during the morning hours. This time, though, she simply didn’t come down and was still doing her thing when Elena left the center around 6 p.m. The night groundskeeper kept an eye on her during the night, but she remained too high up for anyone to really do anything about the situation. With this in mind, her return after her overnight adventure was a happy ending to a weird string of events.

There were a series of rescues throughout the workday, so the vet team was busy running around and taking care of business. The craziness didn’t stop there, though. Back at the hostel, I heard some commotion outside while hanging out in my room. People were shouting and a dog was barking. It turns out that an iguana who had wandered into the middle of the hostel’s garden area was attacked by one of the local street dogs, who had also somehow found its way into the hostel. The dog seemed to materialize out of thin air; he ran directly up to the iguana and got his mouth around the back of its neck. Luckily, others saw this happening and instantly started making noise in an attempt to break up the fight. The dog quickly ran off and the iguana darted several meters up a tall tree nearby; we saw no visible signs of injury on the iguana. After some time spent contacting the center and having Fernando come take the reptile into the clinic, he was able to retrieve it from the tree. I’m fairly certain that the iguana remains in the clinic, but I’ve yet to hear any further news about its state. Fingers crossed for this guy.

7.9.

What a cool day at work I’ve had! I got the opportunity to hang out with our newest baby raccoon, Perla. I’ve seen others walking around with him (yup, him -- it’s a male but was first thought to be female when rescued), but I haven’t had the chance to care for him until today. After the first shift of the morning spent sweeping and scrubbing the center’s office and surrounding areas, Elena asked me if there was anything that I’d be interested in doing. Perla immediately came to mind, and Elena was nice enough to grant my wish.

What funny creatures raccoons are! Even babies are extremely curious and intelligent. For nearly three hours, Perla crawled all over me, nested in my hair and slept in the crook of my neck. He loves to be scratched underneath the chin, rocked back and forth and sang to. While he napped, I stroked his little raccoon hands. You’ve never felt anything softer than a baby raccoon’s paw pads. Seriously.

In addition to spending amazing, one-on-one time with Perla, it was also incredible to hang out in the clinic this morning. The JRC clinic is a place that most volunteers only catch glimpses of; for example, when we gather supplies to collect leaves for the monkeys and sloths. I hadn’t been able to see too much of what goes on in the clinic until today, and it was a very eye-opening experience. Firstly, there were a handful of interesting rescues in the clinic that I had been previously unaware of. I saw a juvenile porcupine (apparently his name is Spikey -- eee!), a black hawk-eagle and a common black hawk in the back of the nursery. Next, I was lucky enough to witness the first part of a surgery being carried out. An ocelot with a broken leg was recently brought into the clinic, and I knew that the surgery was scheduled for today. Fernando and Encar were only doing prep work, such as shaving the cat’s leg, in the common room of the clinic. The actual procedure was carried out in an adjacent, air-conditioned room. Nonetheless, being in such close proximity to this magnificent feline was enough to put me into a trance.

I enjoyed what has come to be the standard after-work evening at the beach. While sitting in the black sand, I chatted with one of the girls about traveling to the Galapagos Islands. She told me of her and her boyfriend’s travels there: the places in which they stayed, the animals they saw and the general costs of the trip. The Galapagos Islands have always been high on my travel wish list, but I’ve always been deterred by the idea that it seemed extremely expensive to travel there. After hearing about this trip, though, the islands seem like much more of a feasible destination than I had previously thought. I’ll definitely be looking be looking into them, as well as Ecuador, when I have the chance.

Changing gears: Over the past couple of days, I’ve been putting together a mental list of things that I miss and am extremely looking forward to at home. Being in paradise has so many amazing aspects to it, but there are undeniably things that I am really longing for. Here are the things that currently come to mind:

• Fully-dried clothes and bedsheets. The Caribbean humidity is killer, and the feeling of showering and then climbing into a slightly damp bed is a very icky thing.
• Cooking (and cleaning) in my own kitchen. The dishes situation has gotten a little bit out of the control during the past week or so. From what I can tell, it seems that there are a couple select people who stopped cleaning up after themselves and inspired others to do the same. I may have to crack the whip on these kids soon -- let’s see!
• Quality hot sauce. Secret Aardvark and Sriracha, life is not the same without you.
• Hair that isn’t constantly damp and 100% frizz.
• Working out at the gym. Les Mills BodyCombat, GRIT and BodyPump, I cannot wait to get to know you again.

8.9.

Syarda’s last night in Costa Rica came and went. She and I went out to dinner before going to trivia night at Tasty’s, and what do you know, our team came in 2nd place! Anyway, Syarda’s leaving is fairly sad for everybody here. Syarda is nearing the end of a six-month trip throughout central and south America, and before she returns to Amsterdam, she wanted to spend a bit more time on the road. She flew to Medellin early this morning and plans to spend at least the next week exploring Colombia. The two of us agreed that we will make an effort to meet up either with Amsterdam or Prague, and I already look forward to whenever that may be.

Although I had a very relaxing day at work today (sloths, sloths and more sloths), Encar shared a couple pieces of very surprising and heavy news with us in the morning. Firstly, the ocelot that was operated on has ripped out the stitches in its leg, so the vet team now needs to evaluate how to proceed. Encar mentioned that operating on wildlife can be especially difficult, since unlike domesticated animals, they can’t really wear “cones of shame” to keep them from further damaging themselves after surgical procedures. Secondly (and most sadly), the beautiful hawk-eagle that I had been admiring in the clinic passed away yesterday afternoon, just hours after I had last seen him. He had stopped eating and apparently passed away from exhaustion -- I need to get more details on the specific cause of death. My heart sank upon hearing this news. It’s a stark reminder of the fragility of life.

Tonight was karaoke night at -- you guessed it -- Tasty’s. I had really been gearing up to give a solid performance as a follow-up to last week, but upon arriving to the bar with a group of people from the hostel, we were surprised to find a fairly small audience present. The evening turned out to be pretty lowkey in the end, but I did manage to squeeze into a group performance of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” before heading back home.

As of tonight, another friend’s time in Costa Rica has come to a close. Ditte is a spunky Danish girl who I’ve been getting to know at the center over the past few weeks. Although there is a five-year age gap between us, she is a clever soul who reminds me a lot of another friend of mine from Portland. She understandably felt very torn about leaving the JRC, mostly because of a few people that she had grown close to during her time working at the center. Ditte left on a high note, staying at Tasty’s until nearly 2 a.m. before her ride picked her up directly from the bar to take her to San Jose (don’t forget -- it’s a five-hour-long journey). That’s what I call going out in style!

There was one really great moment at the bar that stood out to me this evening. The owner of Tasty’s had the idea to take a group picture of all the JRC volunteers present, and since Encar and many members of the clinical team were also there, we ended up cramming a huge group of people onto the bar’s “stage”. After squatting for the pictures just long enough that my thighs began to ache, we finally got the shot. Just then, “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 came on and people started going for it on the dance floor. It was one of those situations in which I felt a string of positive tidbits from the past weeks coming together in a really nice way. Camaraderie was high, there were smiles all around and everyone seemed genuinely happy to share in the moment. A memory for the books, no doubt.

9.9.

Today is my last day at the center before leaving for La Ceiba tomorrow! I’ll be at the JRC’s release site, about 3 km away from the center, for the next several days. I will have no phone service or internet connection while there, but that isn’t much of a concern. I’m going to La Ceiba with a great group: Jakub and Kirsty (the couple living in Edinburgh), Amandine from Belgium, and Maria, Joana, Ivet, the three girls from Spain staying at the hostel.

I’m really looking forward to a change in scenery, but it will be a bit strange being disconnected from the majority of animals and people at the center. It’s likely that I’ll be returning to the center on Thursday afternoon to finish out my final week in Costa Rica working at the JRC. Fortunately, La Ceiba is still close enough to come into town during the evenings, so we won’t be completely cut off from civilization. :-)

I have some packing and organizing to take care of in preparation for La Ceiba. Then, in the afternoon, the girls and I will take a visit to The Ara Project in Manzanillo. The Ara Project is another local organization dedicated to saving the two native species of macaws in Costa Rica. We actually just had a very adorable Green Macaw transferred to The Ara Project from the JRC, which was a difficult goodbye for many members of JRC staff who had formed a close bond with the young bird. It’s possible that we will see him while visiting this afternoon, although he may still be separated from the other birds, as he has only been there for a few days now.

Let’s see what else today will bring. All in all, I’m looking forward to soaking things in before this week’s upcoming jungle retreat.