Friday, March 25, 2011

It was very cloudy and damp this am. I stayed in bed and read until time for breakfast and the ride down the mountain to the clinic. There wasn’t anybody waiting, because this extra half day was not advertised. It was a special request from Betty to do some animals for PAE. She wanted her own dog and a foster dog done, but when a different vet group was here previously, and she had her own dog done, it died. Betsy was very nervous about having this dog spayed. She had a special request that I or Colleen do these dogs. We were happy to oblige. Carol and Sue did not want to do surgery today. So Colleen, Holly and I did the mornings surgeries. Volunteers caught some dogs that live at the railroad station. The owner was planning to get rid of the dogs because they keep having puppies. So we got them spayed. One was very old, missing most of her teeth and the remaining teeth were very infected. So we extracted the rest of her teeth. I am sure she was very sore waking up, but she will feel so much better. We had a few “re-do’s” to take care of, mostly oozing sites. Got those taken care of also. One dog was leaking pretty substantially, so we treated her with Vitamin K and put her on Doxycyline in case she had ehrlichiosis. We finished up early afternoon and a small group of us, with Betsy acting as interpreter, hired a car to take us to buy some of the chocolate for hot cocoa, and to go to a waterfall and to a weaver’s store. The waterfall was very pretty. It was a short hike to the viewing area. Carol, Sue and Carolyn said the trail was muddy, but worth it. We found the mud, well, at least, I found the mud! I was wearing my Teva’s and white socks… the socks will never be the same!! Ryan had never seen a waterfall. He enjoyed it also. On the walk back, we stopped at some little craft stands. I bought a little hand-knotted bracelet for a new collar for Woofie. The lady selling it posed for a picture with Woofie and one of her little sheep toys for sale. The little bracelet cost 25 cents. I feel bad because it is such a low price, but she was probably thrilled because I did not haggle! There were lots of pigs, dogs and some kittens around. The dog was nursing a litter of pups. The pigs were staked out to wallow and eat whatever they could find. The weavers shop was incredible! The quality of the work was very nice and they had so many different woven items: shirts, ponchos, jackets, wall hangings, table cloths, blankets, sashes, belts… the list could go on. We could have spent hours in there. We did manage to spend lots of money! On the return trip, the driver took us through little boroughs or villages. I wish we could have stopped and walked and taken more pictures. But it was getting late and we needed to get back. But the old buildings and the indigenous people in traditional clothes was neat to see. We returned to the clinic and picked up the rest of the group and headed back up the mountain for the last time. A small group decided to walk the last couple of miles up to the hotel. The rest of us gathered at the restaurant for our last meal there. The meal was complimentary from the hotel owner! It was my last “ensalada de palmita and aguacote”… darn! Some of us went to bed, I think a few people stayed up… we were set to leave at 1am to go to the airport. Buenas noches!