Costa Rica

 

[ENGLISH FOLLOWS]
Fa uns dies un noi anglès que no conec em va començar a seguir a l'Instagram. Vaig mirar quines fotos tenia i veig una foto d'un mono caputxí que havia tirat al Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center (CRARC) on havia fet un voluntariat. Ja fa temps que tenia al cap fer un voluntariat amb animals, així que vaig mirar la web del centre de rescat i tenia molt bona pinta. No m'ho vaig pensar dos cops i els hi vaig enviar un mail explicant que estavem viatjant, en uns dies arribariem a Costa Rica i si seria possible fer un voluntariat allà. No teniem experiència però si motivació, i ens van acceptar!

Arribat el moment creuem la frontera de Nicaragua a Costa Rica i anem cap al CRARC. Aquest es troba a un entorn selvàtic a dues hores de la capital, San José. El CRARC rescata animals que han sofert algún problema físic o psicològic, els cuida i rehabilita, i si és possible, els allibera. Aquí arriben monos que sigut mascotes, o treballat en circs, perezosos que tenen discapacitats, mussols que s'han fet mal o que s'han quedat orfes, lloros, pavos reals, porc espins, kinkajus (ossos de la mel), opòssums (zarigüella), etc. Cada animal se'l bateja al arribar al centre i té la seva història personal. L'intenció sempre és reintroduir-los al seu hàbitat natural però a vegades han estat massa en contacte amb humans o tenen algun problema i no es poden reintroduÏr, llavors s'opta per dona'ls-hi la millor qualitat de vida possible. Com el tití, que se't tira a sobre perquè el raspallis amb un raspall de dents, o els kinkajus, que cada nit quan els anava a veure (durant el dia dormen) es posàven cap per avall i amb la panxa cap a fora perque els gratèssis.

Al centre erem uns 20 voluntaris, de totes les edats, i amb tansols una setmana que hi hem estat hem fet molta amistat. Jo, desde el primer moment, m'he adaptat molt bé a l'entorn. Les tasques principalment eren netejar els espais dels diferents animals, donar-los branques fresques i menjar, cuidar-los, fer-los jugar, etc. Em va fascinar l'hospital d'animals on hi han alguns que requereixen especial atenció, com un opòssum bebé que estava a la incubadora, una mofeta, dos esquirols bebes, un ocell orfe, un mussol petit i tres perezosos amb problemes psicològics. Així que em vaig apuntar per fer torns extra a l'hospital i donar llet als animals bebes amb una xeringa.

El primer dia em diuen que ha vingut un taxista i ha deixat un sac amb un mussol ferit que s'havia trobat, doncs jo còrrer a buscar el veterinari del centre. Un cop a l'hospital em diu que em posi guants i mascareta, i l'ajudi a aguantar el mussol per curar-li l'ala. Estava molt mal ferit i ja em va dir el veterinari que potser no sobrevivia, i la segona nit es va morir, una pena. Un altre dia van portar al centre un cèrvol petit amb la pota trencada, una boa constrictor de 2metres i un lloro. Cada dia passava alguna cosa.

L'animal estrella del centre són els perezosos, n'hi ha uns 25, i la veritat és que és un animal fascinant. El nom no li vé de casualitat doncs són extremadament lents, mesuren cada moviment que fan i la major part del dia se'l passen dormint a dalt de l'arbre. Nomès baixen de l'arbre un cop per setmana a cagar, així que mai m'haguès imaginat que m'alegrès tant al veure caca d'un animal. Pots tenir molt contacte amb alguns animals però amb altres has d'evitar tocar-los per si es poden reintroduïr. Quan estava a la gàbia dels monos udoladors, em saltaven a sobre per jugar, m'agafaven dels cabells o em treien la llengua per lligar amb mi. Els esquirols també sempre se'm pujaven a sobre i després tenia problemes per sortir perquè me'ls treia de sobre i em tornaven a pujar. A més de la fauna del centre hi han espècies extres, com les 3 taràntules que he vist durant la setmana, una d'elles sempre estava al mateix forat així que podies anar-la a veure a la nit.

Una nit mentres jugàvem al llop (un joc d'acusacions), van venir a cridar-me dues franceses voluntàries que tenien problemes per alimentar l'Artuito, un mussol petitó, perquè volava tota l'estona i els hi feia por que s'escapés. Em van avisar a mi perquè no parlàven gaire anglès i jo els hi parlava en francès. L'Artuito és un dels meus preferits, així que entro ràpidament a la gàbia perquè no s'escapi i em va volar a l'ombro, encara no m'ho havia fet mai. Així que va ser fàcil donar-li els trossos de pollastre que s'havia de menjar.

Aquí realment hi ha moltíssima feina a fer ja que només porten 8 mesos en aquesta ubicació. La fundadora em va explicar que abans el centre de rescat estava a la costa carib, on també rescataven tortugues i protegien la platja on ponien els ous, fins que els va arribar un comunicat que havien que marxar d'alla en una setmana. Una empresa holandesa conjuntament amb el govern de Costa Rica construiria un port allà. Si continuaven protegint l'espècie podrien declarar la zona protegida i així evitar la contrucció del port, però van matar a un dels encarregats del centre, així que van decidir marxar. Van haver de traslladar tots els animals en molt poc temps a una nova ubicació, així que encara hi han moltes coses a fer.

Ha estat una experiència meravellosa i estic molt orgullós d'haver-la viscut durant el viatge. La nit abans de marxar, vam sortir de festa amb la majoria de voluntaris i va ser molt divertit. Després d'haver dormit menys de dues hores, ens vam despertar per esmorzar i marxar, però ens estava esperant un regal de comiat, la gata del centre havia parit 5 gatets aquella nit! Tothom estava esperant aquest moment desde feia setmanes.

Costa Rica és força car i és un dels països que es poden fer com un viatge independent en uns anys, així que decidim continuar cap a Panamà a veure quines sorpreses ens esperen.

[ENGLISH]
Some days ago, a british guy that I don't know started following me on Instagram. I looked to his photos and I saw a photo of a capuchin monkey that he took in Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center (CRARC) where he did a volunteering. I had in mind for a long time doing a volunteering with animals, so I looked into the website of the rescue center and it seemed really nice. Therefore, I didn't think twice about it and I sent them an email explaining that we are travelling, in some days we would be in Costa Rica and if it would we possible doing a volunteering there. We didn't have experience with animals but we had motivation, so they accepted us!

We crossed the border from Nicaragua to Costa Rica and we headed to CRARC, which is located in a jungle environment two hours away from the capital, San José. CRARC rescues animals that have suffered any kind of physical or psychological problem, they take care of them, rehabilitate them and, if it's possible, release them. The kind of animals that arrive there are monkeys that have been pets, that have worked in circus, sloths that have disabilities, injured owls or that are orphans, abandoned parrots, turkeys, porc epines, kingkajus, opossums, etc. Each animal receives a name when arriving to the center and all of them have a personal story. The goal is always releasing them to their natural environment, but sometimes they've been too much in contact with humans or they have a severe problem which avoids releasing them, then the approach is giving them the best possible quality of life. Like the marmoset, which jumps on you to get brushed with a teeth brush, or the kingkajus, that every night when I was going to see them (during the day they sleep) they were coming next to me, staying upside down, with the belly outside for you to scratch them.

In the center we were around 20 volunteers from all ages and in only one week that we've been there, we've got along so well. From the beginning, I've adapted myself so well to the environment. The tasks were mainly cleaning the spaces for the different animals, giving them fresh branches and food, take care of them, play with them, etc. I was so fascinated with the animals hospital where some of them require special attention, like a baby opossum that was in the incubator, a skunk, two baby squirels, an orphan bird, a small owl and three sloths with psychological problems. So I signed up for doing extra shifts in the hospital and give milk to the baby animals with a syringe.
 
The first day, they told me that a taxi driver came and left a bag with an injured owl that he found, then I had to run to find the vet of the center. Once in the animal hospital, he told me to wear gloves and mask, and I should help him hold the owl to heal his wing. He was really bad injured and the vet told me that maybe it wouldn't survive. The second night it died, really sad. Another day they brought a smal deer with the broken leg, a two meters boa constrictor and a parrot. Everyday was happening something.

The animal star of the center are the sloths, there's like 25 of them, and it's really a fascinating animal. The spanish name "perezoso" (lazy) is not a coincidence because they are extremely slow, they measure every movement they do and most of the day they sleep on top of the trees. They only go down the tree once a week to poo, so I wouldn't imagine myself being happy for seeing animal shit. You can have a lot of contact with some animals, but you have to avoid touching others that might be releasable. When I was in the howler monkeys cage, they were jumping on me to play, pull my hair or show me their tongue. The squirels also always were jumping on me and afterwards I was having problems to go out of the cage because I was putting them away and they were jumping on me again. Besides the animals from the center, there were extra species, like the three tarantulas I saw during the week, one of them was always in the same hole and you could go and see it at night.

One night while we were playing the werewolf (a discussion game), two french volunteers called me because they were having problems to feed Artuito, a small owl, because it was flying all the time and they were afraid it would escape. They called me because they don't speak so well english and I was speaking french with them. Artuito is one of my favourites, so I quickly entered to the cage in order that it wouldn't escape and it flew onto my shoulder, it was the first time doing that. So it was easy giving it the pieces of chicken it had to eat.

There's a lot of work to do because they've only been in this location for 8 months. The founder explained me that before the rescue center was in the caribean coast, where they were also rescuing turtles and they were protecting the beach where they were putting the eggs, until a communicate arrive that they had to leave in one week. A dutch enterprise together with the government of Costa Rica would build a harbour there. If they would continue protecting the turtles, they could declare it protected area and avoid the construction of the harbour, but someone killed one of the responsibles of the center, so they decided leaving the place. They had to move all the animals to a new location in a really short time, so there's still plenty of things to do.

It has been a wonderful experience and I'm so glad having done it now. The night before leaving we partied with most of the volunteers. After less than two hours of sleep, we woke up to have breakfast and leave, but a farewell present was waiting for us, the cat of the center had given birth to 5 kittens that night! Everybody was waiting for it for some weeks.

Costa Rica is really expensive and is one of the countries that I think I can do independently in some years, so we decided to continue to Panama. Let's see which surprises are waiting for us.