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Santa Martha Animal Rescue
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After a few days in the fun but smoggy city of Quito, we decided to join a group from our hostal (two Australians, two Germans, and a Brit) for a visit to the Santa Martha Animal Rescue Center, located about an hour out of Quito. It was started by an Ecuadorian guy and is kept running by volunteers from all over the world. They rescue animals from private homes, restaurants, circuses, etc. - at the very least, the owners don´t have proper permits to have the animals, but they are often mistreated, too. After recuperating at the center we visited, most animals will be transported to a larger reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We saw a couple kinds of monkeys, lots of parrots and macaws, snakes, spectacled bears (native to Ecuador) and lots of big cats. The center had recently taken in two male lions and three female lions that had been taken from circuses. One of them was pretty angry and had to be caged by himself while waiting to be castrated (so he could go hang out with the lady lions again without threat of baby lions). Jeff had a great time getting as close as possible to the angry lion as it threw itself against the cage wall trying to show him who´s in charge. Another highlight was seeing up close and petting (sort of) a jaguar. We also saw a very old (probably around 100 years) Galapagos tortoise that had been taken from a home that used it for target practice. Luckily its thick shell stopped the bullets... Our visit ended with a nice walk down a steep cobble-stone road past cows, chickens, dogs, fields, etc. Pretty Andean farm country... We have lots of photos of the center, as you can see...
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