We are SO happy! Not sure whether that is because we're living separately again or because we both love what we're doing ... only joking! We really are living in different places though - when we arrived at the animal park it was gringo, english-speaking heaven so Philippa decided to go and work at the Foundation for poor children down the road and Conrad stayed with the monkeys - no comment!!

Conrad is 'muy contenta' with the monkeys .. he is working in the Monkey Mirador and his favourite monkey is Riky, his new best buddy! Conrad lives at the park and is really enjoying what he is doing.... I've asked him for more comments which I can write about the park but he says he doesn't have any except to say that he loves it there!

Philippa is working at the 'Creciendo Juntos' (lit: growing together - right mum?) Foundation which gives free medical and dental care to the local jungle communities and every day takes care of over 100 children between the ages of 2 and 6 so they aren't left at home alone whilst their parents go out to work. The kids are great, sometimes they drive you crazy but then they smile and look at you with big brown 'puppy dog' eyes and all is forgiven. When I saw the 'houses' some of them live in - often no more than a few sheets of corrugated iron - I realised all over again how lucky we are in the UK and how much we often take for granted. At the moment, Philippa is the only volunteer and all the permanent staff are Bolivian so her Spanish is improving rapidly ... wahoo!

We have managed to meet about once a week so far - usually on a Saturday night for dinner ... Conrad talks about the monkeys and Philippa talks about the kids! Sometimes, they don't sound that different....

Not going to try and upload photos here as it would actually take about five years but we just wanted to let y'all know what we're doing ... we may well be here for sometime, it's awesome and living in the jungle is fantastic!

Lots of love and hugs,
Conrad & Philippa
xxxxxx