After a ‘sobering week,’ team visits Amazon orphanage.

By Rich Crook, Best Friends Rapid Response Manager
Photo by Molly Wald

The Best Friends team in Peru took a 45-minute boat ride on the Amazon River last week to visit an orphanage for special needs exotic animals. It was interesting to interact with them on their home turf and in the wild.

Our host, Molly Mednikow, founder and director of AmazonCARES in Iquitos, took us to the orphanage, where most of the animals are there by choice and can leave anytime they wish.

Pictured Amazon River flat boats During the trip we saw small Tiki-style villas, houses built on logs tied together floating on the river, bananas hanging off porches, parents bathing their kids while doing laundry in the river, and entire families making their way up and down the river in very narrow, long wooden boats that sit almost at water level.

We docked the boat and walked 20 minutes to the orphanage, passing through the village of Padre Cocha. Along the way we saw hand-made pottery being hardened in the sun, freshly woven palm squares drying on the grass and a couple of watermelon stands.

Other members of the team were photographer Molly Wald and Aldo Wilson, a licensed vet in Peru who now works at Best Friends. He visited the orphanage a few years ago when he lived here.

Pictured Red Uacary Upon arrival, we were greeted by several varieties of monkeys, one of whom was a world-class pickpocket. The staff warned us about him. It was amazing how easily he could unzip a camera bag or swipe your water bottle and have it open and drinking from it before you even knew it was gone.

“Despite my preconceived and utterly illogical dislike of monkeys, I was thrilled to go to the animal orphanage,” Molly says. “It was a great diversion from the sobering week before, when we spent our time in the hardest-hit areas of the country.”

The pickpocket even managed to get her camera, open the memory-card slot and was about to pull it out when she caught him in the act and summoned Aldo and me to intercede.

“I can't say that I was overly fond of the little guy,” she said. “Still, I have to admit that seeing these beautiful, soulful monkeys in person changed my opinion about them. Secretly now, I kind of like monkeys. But don't tell anyone.”

We spent a couple hours with the monkeys and sloth before we made our way down to visit the Macaws and butterflies.

One of our last stops was Lolita, a tapir about the size of a hog. The people who killed her mother tried to raise her. To keep her from escaping, they tied her with nylon fishing line, which cut into her feet and legs. They eventually brought her to the orphanage

We found Lolita to be very polite and she certainly had no issues with us giving her a snack. At one point the little pickpocket monkey, which had decided to follow us, hopped up on Lolita’s back and tried to scam food as we would feed it to her. Lolita would tolerate it for a couple minutes then throw him off.

“It was nice to go back after three years and see that not much has changed,” Aldo says. “The animals I met in my first visit have grown, and I barely remember their names – except Pedro Bello, the jaguar.

“When I first met him I got the chance to be close enough to touch him. Although he was just few months old, he was big enough to intimidate. This time he looked much bigger and I didn’t think he would remember me. I decided to say hello again, but from a safe distance.

“Working with animals, I pay attention to their eyes, their expressions. Much of the time, I remember sad eyes, almost crying. But not in Pedro Bello’s eyes. He is still the same kitty that I met, just 100 pounds heavier.”

To read more about the orphanage, go to http://www.amazonanimalorphanage.org/.

For more on Molly Mednikow and her shelter, go to http://www.amazoncares.upcsites.org/Home.html.