Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Lion
Escaped from Galapagos
Working hard!
Ocelot
Bear
Okay, no tigers but I am now living with lions and bears. I have travelled north from the Amazon and am now in the Andes, a very steep climb from a small town called Tambillo. A town that no bus driver seemed to want to take me to, but perhaps that was because I couldn´t pronounce it properly. It is a very different set up at the rescue centre here, compared to the rehabilitation centre in the Amazon, with a lot of the animals having been confiscated from circus´s and people´s houses so a lot of the animals have a very slim chance of being released - the lions obviously are not native to Ecuador and although the bears are there is currently no where to release them. A lot of the other animals are either too tame, injured, or in the case of most of the birds, talk too much. Pictures to follow I promise. It is again quite physical work and as i am at 3000m the altitude makes things just that little bit tougher, but things are taken at a steady pace so it is not too bad. I have already built a new house for the ocelot and had great fun using the circular saw - beware, women and power tools! I have to say though that the machete is even more fun and if I was heading back to the UK I would definitely have one in my pack - oh the joy of slicing a cucumber mid air with a machete. We work a longer morning here and then have a 3 hour afternoon break, hence I have time to travel down into Tambillo and update my blog - the journey however is a back breaking ride in the back of a pick up truck - the local taxi, so I will not make the journey too often.