Merazonia

I suppose I should begin this with an apology to any and all that may have been concerned due to my lack of updates for two or three weeks. I do have a valid excuse.

After leaving Ferrenafe, and those incredible people I was blessed to have been able to get to know and to work with, I caught a bus up to Guayaquil Ecuador, where I spent my first day hiking around a portion of the city searching out the LDS temple with only the vision of having seen it from the airplane as my map. As often happens with me, I managed to hike almost directly to it, only to find out it was closed due to the day being a Monday.
Oops. It’s hard to remember what day of the week it is. I guess I’m just lucky enough to still be able to recognize when it’s day or night. I then sought out a hostel.

After several hours of hiking I finally found one in the evening. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but it was apparently in a shady portion of the city. I only know this because I left that evening to find a supermarket, which happened to be only a couple of blocks away. About a half a block away from my hostel I saw two groups of youth and suddenly the group closest to me started screaming, “Run!” to each other. No sooner had they bolted, almost immediately about one to three feet behind my head, a boulder a little bigger than a softball smashed into the van window I had just barely passed, shattering it with ease and sending shards spraying onto my back and down my shirt. It had, apparently been hurled by the group that was further away from me. Just one second earlier and I may not have been able to be writing this or anything else, ever again. Shortly after the smash, a couple of cops came running down the street and everyone was scattering. In spite of being startled, I did not feel threatened and continued my casual pace around the corner and left it all for others to deal with. No harm done. Upon walking up to the store, the first thing I saw was a transvestite chased down and tackled by security as he was accused of shoplifting. I walked past and entered the store. I will admit that after I was done shopping, I walked a little more briskly back to the hostel.

The next day I made my way back to the temple and after serving there, I got into a conversation with a lovely missionary couple, Brother and Sister Christiansen, whom I think were excited to have someone to speak to in English. Funny thing is that I had entered there with the question on my mind as to whether or not I should head up to this animal refuge/rehab location over in the Amazon. As I was chatting with them, another gentleman who used to be a tour guide came and began talking with me and he then gave me all of the info I needed to know on how to get to the pueblo where I needed to go and when to catch the bus and what hostel to stay in. To me, it was a clear answer that I should head out there.

The bus I caught, took me to a very touristy location called Banos de Aguas Santos.

I arrived at night so could not see my surroundings, but knew there were mountains in every direction due to the floating lights, or else I had a mass UFO sighting. It is a small pueblo with a very peaceful feel to it. As I walked the cobblestone streets I felt very relaxed. Whether false or not I did have a very real sense of security. In the morning I had breakfast on the roof where I was presented with the spectacular scene of a volcano on one side and waterfalls on other sides and low clouds covering the mountaintops. Green in all directions. It was breathtaking. The village is old-fashioned, but well kept and clean. It is apparently a hub for those that have an adventurous side. Anything from river rafting, to relaxing in the hot pots. My purpose, though some may think otherwise, is not to be entirely on vacation. So I boarded the next bus that would take me to an even tinier town just exiting the mountains called Mera. I found myself asking the people how to get to Merazonia, which is the name of the rescue/rehab facility. It seemed most did not know of it and I began to wonder, but then I found someone who guided me to a taxi service called Transmera where I boarded a pickup and we took a dirt road straight into the jungle and on the mountain side. After five mins of driving, we came to a decent sized river with a bridge. The driver said, “Here it is. Just cross that bridge.” So I paid him and thanked him and found myself alone in the Amazon.

I crossed the bridge and found two paths, one to the left and one to the right. I guessed right by choosing left and hiked for a ways when I came to a hexagonally shaped two story cabin.

For some reason I had several different fairy tales going through my head about cabins in the woods. In spite of those anticipations I called out “hello” and was greeted by the barking of three dogs. Luckily there was a fence. I thought for sure the nonstop barking would get the attention of someone, but after ten mins of waiting I concluded I was wrong.

At this point my doubts about going there in the first place started to build on themselves and I turned around and crossed the bridge with the intent of giving up on the whole idea. However, God has a way of taking control when we’ve done our part because as I reached the other side, Frank, the manager of the place just happened to be walking back from catching fish for the otter. He had a stunned look on his face.

It turns out my email had been placed in a strange folder and he had just barely found it and had no clue when it had been written or even by whom. Nonetheless, he was grateful I was there since they had just lost a few volunteers that couldn’t hack the “roughing it” lifestyle. Well, after all the confusion had settled, I met the current crew whom I will not really introduce you to in any detail, but merely tell you that each one of them are incredible persons with hearts as big as the oceans and a love and passion for life that is second to none. They are all true examples of selfless love and in the two weeks I was with them I learned tons about myself. They helped me to become aware of how I would like to improve and become more like them in so many ways. I will mention names, but without permission I will be discrete in any other info I release.

From England there was Marcus and Jenni who are volunteer coordinators, Colette who is one of the short-term volunteers, and Luisa who helps manage and takes care of the veterinary needs of the animals. Frank is from Holland and as I mentioned manages the place. Dee is from Ireland and is likewise one of the volunteer coordinators, Freddy from Germany and Manu from France are both short-term volunteers, Tanja from Switzerland, and Anthony and Tif from Louisiana are likewise short-term volunteers as was I. It was truly a pleasure getting to know and working with them.

For any of you who might be looking for an opportunity to work with wild animals, this is the opportunity of a lifetime to work with an organization that does what it’s supposed to according to its title.

Any facility that claims the title of refuge/rehab center should do just that, unfortunately all too many of them enjoy the money too much and design their centers as tourist attractions to bring in money, which is okay if they still do what they are supposed to, but unfortunately many will hang onto many of their big attractions with no real intent of releasing them back into the wild. This is a real problem throughout the world. Especially since most of these centers don’t have the facilities to make the enclosures spacious and beneficial to the animal’s health and comfort as you might find in a zoo. Rehab center enclosures are often somewhat smaller for better access and observation in order to prepare for release, which is the ultimate desire. I will tell you now Merazonia does exactly what it is supposed to and you will not see tourists. In fact they try to keep a minimal human contact for those animals nearing release.

So if you are wanting someplace where you can handle the animals all the time, look elsewhere. The work days are just that, work. We do the first rounds of cleaning cages and feeding at 7:30a.m., then we do chores to keep the place in healthy conditions for the people living there. For whatever hours we have left when we are done with that until 2p.m. we do projects which for me mostly consisted of building up several enclosures and making them safe for the animals and then we also built a new otter enclosure. At 3p.m. we do rounds again and are usually done by around 5 or 5:30p.m. This happens six days a week and on Sundays it’s the same minus the project hours. There is no electricity nor plumbing for toilets. So if you have a problem with that or with strange potentially dangerous insects and animals then go work at a zoo.

My experience was incredible. I came to truly love all of the animals, even when they didn’t seem to love me. Funny thing is that previous to going there, I had told myself I would never want to work with monkeys or birds and yet those are the primary animals you will find at this and other refuges. It was perfect because you never grow more, than when you have to deal with things you may not like. Who knows, your opinion may even change, as mine did. Not to mention even though I have never changed a diaper in my life, I’m pretty confident I’ve cleaned up more than enough excrements to consider myself ready for the mess. My heart goes out to all the CNAs and orderlies out there.

I got to work with capuchins, tamarins, woolly monkeys, and a howler. The birds consisted of orange wings, black headed parrots, blue headed parrots, parakeets, blue and gold macaws, and the green ones as well. Other animals consisted of a baby coati, an otter, kinkajous, a guatin, and there is a puma as well, but he is strictly only dealt with by a couple of people, so I never saw him. Almost all are native to the area and I even saw a troop of tamarins a couple of times as they tried to steal food. Other wild animals seen there consisted of a south American coral snake (yes it is potentially deadly), an equis which is another deadly viper, three other unidentified snakes, a 2 to 3 foot long bluish earthworm, and two of the others saw a jaguarundi, which is a wild cat. In addition to all of that, I saw at the very least, 2 new species of insects and spiders each day. All shapes, sizes, and colors including some that seem to be a chimera of creatures. I often wondered how often I walked right past creatures both deadly and nonlethal alike, without even knowing it.

The rainforest is an amazing place and I never tired of just sitting and staring into it. It’s much like staring into the eyes of one you love, the beauty is mesmerizing and I’d find myself lost in it with no desires to be found. The rain was frequent and as long as you are indoors it was soothing and relaxing, but it does have its drawbacks since it makes it 100% humidity and it is impossible to keep things dry. I washed my clothes on a Tues and by the following Sunday they were still not dry. Rubber boots are worn everywhere and even still I often found myself sinking thigh deep into mud thus eliminating the usefulness of the boots. Quicksand is a very real thing though I never saw any deep enough to swallow me. Sometimes the rain is hard enough that it doesn’t matter what rain gear you have, you will get wet.

One of the greatest accomplishments made during my time there was the completion of a new otter enclosure funded by the university in Quito. Sunday they brought the tv crew out there and filmed us moving Adam the otter to his new place. I wish you could have seen how happy he was. Adam is my favorite.


Otters are like the perfect mix of a dog, a cat, and a fish. So, it appears I will be on Ecuadoran television.

I left on Sunday evening and two days later, I find myself in Peru again. I am in the city of Trujillo for a couple of nights before I head down to Lima. I miss the jungle already. The only thing I do love about the desert here though is the sunsets, which is something you miss out on in the rainforest. I miss the peace. I miss how relaxed I always felt. Give me the dangers of the jungle and I will sleep more peacefully than ever.

I have never slept so well as I did the past two weeks, and my bed wasn’t even that comfortable. Some may be disturbed by the sounds in the rainforest at night, but to me they were a lullaby.

On a different note, I would say that I miss home, but I’m not sure where that is. I do miss my country and the luxuries that come from staying in one place.

While I was in Ferrenafe, I was flipping through the channels and saw a familiar dance performance and realized it was BYUTV and the piece was one my friend Lori performed in. Feelings certainly stirred inside me and I missed those I love. Then, two days ago in Ecuador while waiting for my bus I was watching tv in a little shop and the lady was watching some movie that was clearly made by locals in UT since it was cheaply made and was all in Provo and finished with a temple marriage… Seeing those mountains didn’t help either.

Well, my next target is Bolivia with a few stops along the way. I hope to be there by the latest, the last week of this month, but we’ll see.