First stop Jacj Cuisi

The team of summer volunteers working in Bolivia have finally emerged from the wilderness - here's what they got up to for the first three weeks:

We got thrown ´head first´ into the deep end at Jacj Cuisi; no electric, no running water, interesting toilet, and the much loved "shack". "The shack" as referred to, was to be our home for the following 3 weeks, in which many a memory was shared. The shack however was not just our home, oh no, it was also home to huge spiders, a family of bats (that particularly enjoyed playing "who can crap on your head") and Gordon (the resident cockroach). Then it was time to find out where shower time took place. This is not the well loved warm shower we were all accustomed to, rather a freezing cold stream 100 metres away from the shack.
Our long days of hard work involved carrying bags of rocks and sand or rolls of wire up a 20 minute trek into the jungle. This required sheer determination and a lot of motivation from Pete to get us up that hill. Unfortunately whilst working our toned little buts off at Jacj Cusis on Simba's cage, the weather in South America took a turn for the worst (making global news) and consequently resulting in team moral to take a hit. Heavy rain and freezing cold weather which none of us were well equipped for led to a wave of depression hovering over camp and construction falling behind. Due to this hit, the 5 days of carrying materials up the hill developed into 8, but as the sun came out, the end of the rainbow was closer and work on site could begin.

Work now consisted of digging trenches, edging trenches to perfection, pulling fence and ratcheting tight usually resulting in the snagmeister coming into play, and to finish, cementing Bolivian styly. 6ft plus giants are in high demand on construction - "Hell to the yeah." Only giants are capable of achieving the "snagmeister" status, as a snagfeast can be defeated by height more so than sticks or life threatening balancing acts on ladders. This opened a whole new bag of problems with the old wire wounds to the arm, cement burn to the hands, general aches and pains, the odd bruise and everyone being totally knackered.

After a couple of "all nighters" having been completed stitching the fences together, the cage was finally finished. With a group of slightly broken Questies the pot of gold was reached and elation hit home. The finishing touch being one final cement mix into which we all placed our hands to create our plack of hand prints to remain forever there as the builders of said cage. Jacj Cuisi was a beautiful place to be and the trips up were always made more enjoyable if you got to spot a quick glance at the beautiful puma, Lishou. Sure to put a smile on any ones face.

Fancy volunteering on this project next year? Click here to find out more.