When I found myself without my fallback job for summer 2019, I took advantage of my one-way ticket purchase to South America. A Chilean friend told me about an organization in Bolivia called CIWY – Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi – that cares for wildlife rescued from the black market. Jaguars, pumas, ocelots, howler monkeys, night monkeys, parrots, etc.

Living in the jungle sounded like a completely different adventure from all my other experiences, so off I went. I lived at Ambue Ari from early May to early July 2019 – fortunately in the time of transition from wet to dry season.