April 7th, 2008
so i will be leaving for madidi this wednesday, taking a 16 hour bus trip from la paz to rurrenabaque. i will do one month of volunteer work (translating for tourists and doing environmental work - reforestation, reintroduction of fish in lakes, figuring out what to do with a lake that has become eutrophic, monitoring the number of macrofauna that i see in my hiking trips through the forest, and perhaps dealing with the occasional illegal loggers…)
it’s going to be really fun, and i think at the end of one month i will be tempted to extend the work for another month…. but my visa expires on the 12th of may (and i have my tickets to return on that day). i could get a visa extension, but it’s a hassle to go through that process… i will see. there is also the risk that the longer that i stay, the more likely i will get some tropical disease. i talked to an ex-volunteer today (who just arrived from the ohio last night, and who will now be working for at least 2 years a madidi b/c she loved it so much) about her experiences, and she did say that she got dengue fever… she said that it took her about a month to fully recuperate from the fever, but actually it was not so bad. whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… hummm.
i will be working with some other volunteers along with rosa maria ruiz…. the woman who made it all happen…. she worked incessantly to establish the national park. she is an amazing woman with an amazing history. there is a national geographic article (march 2000 issue) on the whole story. you can see some pictures here: (rosa maria is in the 6th picture)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0003/madidi/gallery01.html
and here is some more info on her and on the forest:
http://proxied.changemakers.net/studio/99february/ruiz/rosa1.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madidi
until soon,
cheers!
-andrea
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