La Senda Verde, Bolivia: volunteering at an animal refuge in 2009

At the bottom of Bolivia's Death Road is a place I did not expect to stay in for long. La Senda Verde is an animal refuge in the Yungas valleys near Coroico. In July 2009, after cycling down the road, I stayed on as a volunteer. My diary entry is dated 3 July 2009.

What follows describes the refuge as I saw it then. It is historical. The sanctuary has grown and changed in the years since, and the way visitors interact with animals has rightly changed too. If you want to visit or volunteer now, go to the refuge's own current information.

What La Senda Verde was in 2009

As it was explained to me at the time, the site began in 2001 as a place for educational visits, with local schools coming to learn about nature. Because it sat at the natural stopping point for the Death Road bike tours, tourists started stopping to see the monkeys and macaws, and a partnership with a bike company grew. Volunteers came, and the volunteer programme grew organically from there: feeding and cleaning the animals, and showing visitors around.

The animals it took in had been ill, mistreated or kept illegally as pets, often a combination of all three. That is the part that has stayed with me most.

The animals

Spider monkeys

The spider monkeys had, in my words, "some big personalities". They liked to take you by the hand and lead you around. One of them, curled up on me, did try to move off before relieving himself. He was only half successful.

Capuchins

The capuchins were the clever ones. Baby capuchins would go through your pockets while hanging upside down by their tails; out went your camera and anything else you had left in there. One adult capuchin spent a great deal of his time undoing and redoing my shirt buttons and shoelaces. Another had been badly mistreated by a former owner and was wary of some handlers as a result. It was a vivid lesson in how lasting the damage of keeping wild animals as pets can be.

The spectacled bear

The refuge also had a spectacled bear, the Andean bear, which I described as "a lot scarier in real life" than Paddington. He spent much of his time cracking open monkey nuts with very large claws.

Macaws and parrots

And the birds. A pair guarding an egg would flutter across the floor at your feet, comically menacing and genuinely capable of doing damage with those beaks.

What volunteering looked like for me

I helped with the animals, gave a tour of the sanctuary to visitors, read a lot (I finished Life of Pi in under three days), tried to improve my Spanish and ate a great deal of spaghetti bolognese. It was also, two months into the trip, the first time I was properly travelling alone. "And I'm loving it!" was how that entry ended.

Reading this in 2026

Some of what I described would not be appropriate today. Close, hands-on contact between visitors and rescued wild animals is now widely discouraged by welfare organisations, because it stresses animals and makes rehabilitation harder. I have kept the memories because they are true, and because they show why places like this matter. If you want to support or visit a sanctuary now:

• Choose one that prioritises welfare and rehabilitation over visitor interaction.
• Do not expect to hold or handle animals.
• Check its current volunteering requirements and conduct rules directly.
• Never buy wild animals or animal products sold as souvenirs.

More from Bolivia

From La Senda Verde I went on to Coroico and back to La Paz, then Sucre, Potosí and the salt flats near Uyuni. See the full route on adventure travel, and the story of training for my first marathon along the way in training while backpacking.

Questions readers ask

Where is La Senda Verde?

In the Yungas valleys of Bolivia near Coroico, at the bottom of the old North Yungas road, known as the Death Road.

When did you volunteer there?

In July 2009. My diary entry is dated 3 July 2009.

Can you still volunteer at La Senda Verde?

Check the refuge's current official information. My account is historical and arrangements will have changed.

Sources and notes

• My 2009 South America route
• Original 2009 diary: La Senda Verde pt 1, 3 July 2009
• Original 2009 diary: one week of volunteering from 3 July 2009

Photographs are my own from July 2009. History of the refuge is as it was explained to me at the time and may be incomplete.

Written in October 2026 from my own contemporaneous records.