Catching Up on Photos!

Hello again! Our team has set up a Shutterfly account, so we can share our photos with each other, and that means I can add to the blog, even though I didn't get to borrow everyone's camera chips during the trip! 

All of our patients had paper collars, labelled with their name and number, so we could keep track, for sure, of which pet was who. From start to finish, everything we did was marked on the paper. We tried to keep papers and animals together, but a couple of times we were really glad of the collars, to match everyone up:

 Waking up in World Vets clinic recovery looks something like this:

 These two girls worked all day, every day of clinics, checking patients in, making sure we have given pre-meds to everyone, and keeping track of whose turn was when. We started a silly trend of putting food and drink words on our name tags, so I feel badly that I forgot their real names. They were wonderful:

One of our patients, waiting for surgery. Just look at those eyes!

Our trip leader Suzanne loves on the hotel's resident kitty Solocito (Little Sun). He showed up shortly before the last World Vets team, who neutered him, came to San Andres, and he just never left. The hotel owners love him, and rumor among the staff is that he sleeps in the bed with them (they live just upstairs of the lobby). That's still pretty unusual for cats on the island though. He's one lucky kitty!

And on to the silly stuff! On our last day with Noel, he took us to a bunch of places around the island, including the "Cave of the Mermaid". I think the original blends in to the rocks much better than I do:

 We found a miniature stage, on which to pose for a group photo:

 Several of us took the opportunity of Caribbean warmth to break out sundresses that we really don't get to wear otherwise (most of us are from Washington, after all, and Nicole is from New York):

 This is the blowhole. I know somebody took pictures while Collette and I were getting soaked by it, but they haven't been uploaded to the Shutterfly account yet. Still pretty cool though:

 On the very last morning, Lesley, Nicole, and I checked in at the airport, and then, since security wouldn't be open for another hour, walked down to the beach (yes, it's that small of an island). While we were walking, we saw a dog - who was still wearing her paper collar from the clinics! This was Street Dog #3 - she was spayed our first day of clinics. Her surgery site was healing well, and there she was, lounging happily on her beach, where she'll never have to feed puppies again. It was incredibly heartwarming to see her, tangible evidence that we really did make a difference.

I had this idea that my blog would really share the experience, and show readers what it was really like to be there, to work the work, to see the Sea, to really be, just be there. But I can't. I can't share the way the tropical evening breeze felt at the end of a long, sweaty surgery day. I can't give you the tension of pushing in a catheter, just so, or the taste of sweet coconut meat, or the smell of the city, pulsing with a different kind of life than we have at home. I can't make you hear the scratchings and whimpers of confused street dogs as they wake up inside a building for the first times in their lives, or the beating of djembe drums and history of Creole pride in the depth of people's voices. The best I can give you is pictures and words - just a glimpse into the experience we had on San Andres. But I hope it's enough.

Panama Drama

The first flight from San Andres was pretty normal, until it suddenly became the first time I had ever heard thunder from inside an airplane, and the pilot swerved upward, gunned the engines, and swept us up and out of the storm that was covering Panama City Airport. After that, it was anything but routine! As soon as we had stabilized, there was an announcement that visibility was very low and that “the landing system for that broke during our approach.” I’m still not sure if that’s really the case or if he just didn’t want to freak people out about the thunder and lightning storm we had just evaded. Either way, we made several circles and figure eights, waiting “for conditions to improve”. Meanwhile, a mystery drop of cold water landed on my arm.

We got to see all kinds of fascinating cloud formations during our wait, and during part of the loop, while we were over water, I saw an island shaped like a turtle. We did another loop over open ocean. We chewed our gum until it lost its flavor, and then chewed it some more. I saw another plane below us fly into the clouds, as if to make a landing. There weren’t any crashes reported, but I’d bet that plane pulled up and out too, rather than landing, since just a minute later we received the announcement that our airport, Tocumen, was closed due to extreme weather, and we’d be landing at Pasadeco instead. Another mystery drop of water landed on my arm. We made another half-circle, and I saw a little isolated mountain island. The landing gear creaked down, the clouds misted around us. We passed over a strange island full of silos, and the mystery water drops continued to fall on me. Thank you, rainy Panama… A flock of white birds flew under us, just above the green treetops. Green. We were above land. …and … DOWN. The cabin broke into applause as the plane whistled to a shaky stop on the strange runway. We ended up parked near a warehouse-ish building, and the rain over my seat became hail: tiny balls of ice pinged off my clothes. The pilot announced that we’d be waiting until someone figured out what to do with a planeful of displaced travelers. After the other passengers had finished their initial rummage through stowed baggage, I pulled down my duffel bag to get out a jacket. Hail is cold!

We waited. We shifted in our seats, we joked about how much we love international travel. I finally thought to get out my computer, and it was just barely booted up when the pilot announced that our original airport was open again, and we’d be flying back there in just a few minutes. I shut down the computer and got out a fresh piece of gum.  Four men in bright see-me gear watched from the tarmac as we waited. I waved at them, but they either missed or ignored it. One of them walked away, and then we taxied back to the runway.

Lift-off! Immediately after take-off, we passed two lonesome skyscrapers – close enough to see each other, but too far to be neighbors. We flew toward a rainbow that reflected in the sea. The rainbow fled, and we chased it toward Panama City, on the other side of the grand canal, until it spread out, out, and down to bathe that piece of the Pacific in a prism of color. We approached Tocumen through wisps of cloud, chewing our gum concertedly, with more than a few people gripping their armrests. My personal hail turned back into rain as we passed over the waves, and above land. After a joke of a smaller canal, we passed over a solo porta potty in a field of mud. Closer. I could see the landing field. Closer. …and …DOWN!

We raced from the plane to our connecting flights. I think most of us made it, since everything at Tocumen had been delayed during the shutdown. The gate for our Houston leg of the trip was surrounded by security, and Lesley and I raced to get to the end of a very long line. When we saw that it was another bag search, we took turns moving our bags along and going to the restroom. When my turn came, the security checker grabbed my empty water bottle. I pointed out that it was empty. She said “No” and threw it in the trash. Next, she scrutinized the SteriPen I had borrowed to sanitize water on the trip. She obviously didn’t know what it was. I tried, in my limited Spanish, to explain that this little electronic thing made water clean, probably a little overly intensely, as I desperately wanted to return it to its owner, but she looked at me like I was a crazy person, and set the pen aside. After she had gone through the rest of my bags (including stinky beach clothes – so there!) she picked up the pen again. She looked at it, glanced down the row of checkers to her supervisor, who was busy with another passenger, looked at the line of people still to come, and stuffed the pen back into my bag quickly, as if to rush so she wouldn’t change her mind. Whew! Then it was another wait, inside the silly security around the gate, leaving a hundred or so delayed passengers with no access to water or food. I pointed out that a little snack and coffee cart on the side of the security barricade would make a killing. Finally, I thought to get out my computer. As soon as it was booted up, gate staff began calling us to board. I’m beginning to sense a trend here.  After some silliness with my boarding pass missing a “group number” even though it had the flight number and seat number, I was finally able to board, stow my bag, relax, and make a new friend, since my seat-mate turned out to be pretty awesome. There was some pretty severe turbulence along the way, so much that I wasn’t the only one on the plane to raise my arms up and whoop like we were on an amusement park ride. I hope that helped some people be less nervous about the bumps. At one point, I made another barf bag puppet, as is traditional on long flights. As we crossed over onto land above Texas, I responded to a dare by shouting “Murica!” And we landed in Houston.

Last time I flew through Houston, I was held up in customs because apparently I’ve lost some weight in my face since my passport photo was taken. That connection was horrible, since I had way too short of a layover anyway, and I couldn’t go to the bathroom while I was in the little questioning room behind the customs desks. So I had ended up sprinting through the airport while doing a potty dance… This time, I was prepared, with 3 different photo IDs, all from different weight stages and with different expressions. The customs worker glanced at my passport, said, “you lose some weight?” I told her I had. She said, “Lookin’ good, girl!” and waved me through. If you have it, you don’t need it, right? Lesley just barely made it to her connecting flight, but most of the other passengers got free hotel stays, since they’d have to wait until morning to fly out. I had an overnight layover scheduled, so I didn’t get a free hotel. Darn it! So I tried to auto check-in for my morning flight. The machines said I was too early to check in, so I asked an employee. She told me it’d be “just a minute” and wandered away. I started making phone calls. Taryn, a friend from a previous World Vets trip to Romania, was flying in to Houston the same night, and driving home from there. We decided to meet up and go out to the Waffle House before sharing a motel for the night. By the way, I learned that I LOVE Waffle House! We found a very cheap hotel only a few minutes away, and it turned out to be pretty classy for the price: a nice brick building, and our room had a fridge, microwave, and cute little sofa in it. The part I was the most excited about was the king size bed. And Taryn’s little dog that she’d smuggled in. He was quite the cuddler, and we were all asleep within minutes. I had set two alarms, just in case I fell asleep again after the first one (I do that, especially when I only have a few hours to sleep). Not today though. The alarm went off and I remembered that I was mere steps away from a hot shower. Twenty minutes of utter bliss ensued. I don’t think I ended up smelling much better, because I had to put back on the same dirty clothes, but oh, it was lovely. The hotel even had little complimentary toothbrushes, which was awesome, since I’d left my grubby old one in San Andres (in the garbage. I planned it that way). So after a quick re-pack, Taryn took me back to the airport, where I tried to check in again. The machine still said it was too early – just two hours and three minutes before takeoff. I tried again. I called an attendant to help me. I gave her my passport, my itinerary, my confirmation number, and my driver’s license, just in case. She clicked away on her keyboard for a minute, said oooh, in that tone that just makes me freak out and wonder what on earth could be wrong. She said “your flight is booked for tomorrow.” Full stop. I told her no, I pointed to the printed itinerary, with the confirmation number that said it was today. I told her I have to get to work, and to a friend’s house to pet-sit, and that I had a three hour ride home that I would miss if I was a day late. I nearly had a panic attack. She clicked away and magically found me a seat on an already full flight for this morning. The one my itinerary said I should be on. So I got to check in and run to my gate, which happened to be at the opposite end of the airport. I’ll admit, I speed-walked part of the way, instead of a full run. Security searched my bag again, because the three times it had already been searched and tagged weren’t good enough. I went through the human body scanner, and got pulled aside for a pat-down, since I have extra zippers on my pants pockets. Then I ran some more. Just before my gate, the Starbucks logo shone out like the lighted sign that it was. I stopped. Hell with making the flight, I’m exhausted. I’m thirsty. I’m working on a headache, and I’m just not going to last all the way back to Seattle without some sort of sustenance, plus I’ve been drinking instant Nescafe all week. I racewalked with my coffee, down the moving walkway, which was longer than it looked, and took me past my gate. I racewalked back, and finally reunited with Stacy, Sandy, and Dee, who had been on a later flight from San Andres. They’d been lounging about the airport for a while, and were ready to get going. So I pulled out my computer, and the curse held. As soon as I had it set up, they called us to board the plane. I ended up gate-checking my duffel bag, which is awesome because that’s the only way to check a bag for free, and the plane took off without further incident. 

Managed to get a few photos online after all! This is our group of us at the Lagoon with the friendly dogs. The tan one at the front wanted to play! The others just wanted to cuddle or get petted:

 See, I said the caimans came pretty close!

 And just because this is a better picture than I took yesterday of the SCUBA divers and their guide:

Goodnight world!

Pre-Packing Adventures

Sorry in advance, but I haven't downloaded any photos for this post. We're all packing and laughing together on our last night in San Andres. Today's adventures were wonderful though, and I'll post photos later, probably after we get home.
Our friend Noel, who has been with us from the first day of clinics, spent one last day with us, showing us a few more things around the island. We left our hotel about 10am: first stop - "the Blowhole". There is a cave in part of the island rock, and at one point, just a few yards in from the ocean, there is a hole (about a foot across) that goes straight down into the cave. Every time a wave rolls into the cave, water pressure sends a foamy spout out through the hole and straight into the air. Collette and I stood right next to the hole and got soaked, but the joke was on everyone else, because it started to rain shortly after that. At the blowhole, we made friends with a girl named Isabella, who was visiting the island from Colombia. She was very excited to learn about World Vets, and seemed more impressed that there were assistants with the doctors, than that the doctors were there at all. Score one for the assistants!
After the blowhole, Noel took us to "the Lagoon" - a mangrove swamp where a group of caimans live. The caimans are not native to the island. The story is that a man was travelling with a pair of them, and managed to get them to the island, but they were confiscated and he wasn't allowed to take them on the airplane to leave. After the man left, officials weren't sure what to do with the caimans, and didn't want the responsibility of taking care of them, so they left them in the swamp, not realizing that they would reproduce fairly rapidly. Since the whole island of San Andres is a wildlife protected zone, it is now illegal to hunt or harass the caimans. Some visitors feed them bread, and we meant to, but we forgot the bread. I threw a leaf to one of them, but he didn't want it. Another caiman saw that and snapped up a different leaf instead. The biggest ones were 3-4 feet long, and they came up to within a few feet of where we were - kind of like ducks at a lake looking for a handout. We saw some parrots at the lagoon too, and made friends with a group of local dogs. Then we headed off to West View - what the locals call a natural swimming pool. Noel's extended family owns what turns out to be a sort of water park. They've installed ladders and a waterslide onto the side of a rock face that goes down to the sea. At this point, the water is about 20 feet deep where it meets the rock face, and because of the park's location, between two points of the island, the waves are less forceful, so it's fairly safe to dive, swim, and snorkel in the area. Several of us did all three! The snorkeling was great - there were lots of fish, swimming at several different depths, and Sandy and I saw a coral "castle" that looked like it came out of a Little Mermaid cartoon. Sandy swam even farther, and re-visited the Poseidon statue she'd seen during SCUBA. I didn't plan well when going down the waterslide though - the slide ends about a dozen feet above the water, and people go sailing off the end of the slide and splash into the waves. I still had my snorkel mask on, and it came off when I plunged into the water. The lifeguard on duty dove down and found it for me at the bottom of the water, before I had a chance to ask. He also found a man's wedding ring that had come off while swimming. I felt pretty safe swimming there after that, I mean, if he's observant enough to find a ring on a coral reef 20 feet below the surface, he's probably not going to let anyone get hurt!
Across the street from the swimming pool is a restaurant, also owned by Noel's family. They fed us some lovely breadfruit, and most of the crew had either conch or shrimp. The sauces for both tasted fantastic, as did the Coca Fresa (coconut punch) that we tried too. By the time we finished eating, we were all exhausted and headed back to the hotel. On the way, Noel stopped to pick up a little red crab he saw on the side of the road. We worried that he would get pinched, and then we worried that our toes would get pinched, when he put the crab in the back of the truck, where we were riding! The crab got so angry that he blew bubbles at us, so Noel put him back on the ground, where he scuttled into a crab hole. After that it was farewell to Noel, and hello to packing and getting organized, and taking a break to share a lime pie that we had picked up along the way.
That brings us to now, where my bags are packed, except for the wet swimwear and sandals that will (hopefully) be dry enough to pack by morning. Wish me luck!

Coral in the Caribbean

Fish are only a part of the life under the sea.  The coral is the home for the fish.  The coral is very varied and amazing.  Here is a brain coral and more chimney coral.  Little fish swim in and out of the chimney.

A small landscape view.

Amazing colors!

Brain coral.  I am sure you can see why!  Does this mean this coral is extremely smart?  I would say so since it is smart enough to live in the beautiful Caribbean Sea!

 

Our fearless leader, Manuel of Landivers.  He and his assistant, Andres, carried all of our equipment, put it all together, helped us in and out of the water, rinse us after diving... Great dive experience!!!  When you come to San Andres, be sure to look him up!

Woofie's Fish Guide

Leslie, aka Jacques, took amazing pictures of fish.  She has a nice little camera in a special underwater case.  So she has good equipment.  But it is the photographer behind the camera that makes it all work!

Here is one of the "living rocks"!  Out in the middle of the white sand is a small coral base with an amazing number of tiny fish swimming around. 

Leslie has a cool app on her phone that shows the fish, the name and lots of info about each fish.  I don't have the app or the phone, so I will name the fish for you: "Woofie's Guide to Fish in the Caribbean".

This handsome fellow is Umberto.

This is Andres (like the island!) and friends

Tomas

The Cheer Leading Squad under a shelf of a cave

Little Yellow Guys around amazing coral

Roberto

Franco

Andrea

Mercedes

Richardson and Sheila

Lindsey

 

Another diving day!

Hola!!  Today Mama, Sandy and Leslie were joined by Nichole on another diving adventure.  I stayed with the vehicle to keep it safe while they perused the depths, and not so deep, wonders of the Caribbean! 

The first dive started along a reef then on to a wreck!  All of these photos are compliments of Leslie (just call her Jacques!) and they are fabulous!  She took a few hundred photos during the dives, so I could enjoy the sites (this little Woofie does NOT swim or dive!) AND all of you can enjoy the special sites, too!  Naturally I can only post a few of the wonderful pics, but Leslie and Mom have many more, if you are interested.

The wreck was a military (?) ship that went down about 20 years ago.  It is amazing how the coral and ocean life is using it as a foundation for an entire little ecosystem. 

This little school of fish look like they are enjoying looking at the strange "fish" blowing bubbles in there home... just like any other curious creature!

Lion Fish.  These are very beautiful, very poisonous and very invasive.  The government actually has permits to kill these because they are killing the native sea life.

The divers went through short caves and under reef shelves to get a different perspective.

The jury is out on whether this is a sea snake (there are not supposed to be any in the Caribbean) or a snake eel.  It moves on the ocean bottom just like a snake!

 

a Trumpet fish

Chimney coral

Sandy, Nichole and Stacy.  Leslie, of course, behind the camera!

Stacy

Sandy

Nichole

Trunk fish.

More wonderful fish pictures in a later post!