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Archive for December, 2009

La Casa Fitzcarraldo

La Casa Fitzcarraldo is an oasis in a bustling, dusty city.

Beyond the wooden gates and away from the traffic of Iquitos, I spent the afternoon at the poolside lounge alternating between the swinging hammocks and shady treehouses. I swam in the cool, beautifully tiled pool and floated under water fountains while surrounded by tropical flora and fauna.

If it looks like it should be a scene from a movie, it’s because it is.

Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo was filmed here between 1977 and 1982. The movie is about would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (called Fitzcarraldo by the natvive Peruvians) and his dream to finance and build an opera house in the Amazon so that the Caruso and Pucinni could be heard in the jungle. The movie was inspired by the real life Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald.

P.S. The poolside lounge offered tropical cocktails and a full menu, but I had my first good cup of coffee in Peru at La Casa! It was a glorious, richly french pressed cup of delicious that tasted even better after weeks of instant coffee.

Sterilizations in Secada Vignetta

On Monday, the Amazon CARES volunteers set up a sterilization clinic in the Secada Vignetta neighborhood in the municipality of San Juan Bautista. Unlike our week long sterilization campaign, this was a one day clinic because December 8 is a feriado or federal holiday in Peru. Because businesses would be closed Tuesday to celebrate the Dia de la Inmaculada Concepcion) it didn’t make sense to setup a full clinic for a single day.

We arrived at the site and began setting up the operating tables before realizing the local government has organized our spay and neuter clinic in a church!  In fact, we sterilized animals in a church a day before the Imaculate Conception. Despite the unusual environs (an altar here, a pew there) the team sterilized 16 animals and treated 3 dozen more.

Because of the holiday, we had Tuesday to relax and unwind. Some of the team took a jungle tour, while others spent the day relaxing on Monkey Island. In the afternoon, we all met up to relax poolside at La Casa Fitzcarraldo, a gorgeous resort in the heart of Iquitos. I will write more about Monkey Island and La Casa Fitzcarraldo later this week, as each deserves a post.

Today, we returned to Plaza Roja for a second week of sterilizations in San Juan. We had a small turnout, but our team of 5 veterinarians and 3 nurses sterilized 8 dogs and 2 cats before lunch so we were able to visit the Plaza’s artisan market before heading back to the clinic.

Visiting the Manatee Rescue Center

On Sunday afternoon, we visited the Amazonian Manatee Rescue Center (ACOBIA) in Quistococha, Peru. The Center is housed at the Institute de Investigations de la Amazonia Peruana (or in English, The Peruvian Amazon Research Institute) and works with local organizations on educational programs regarding the conservation of the Amazonian Manatee.

The Amazonian Manatee is found in the fresh waters of the Amazon River and its tributaries. Years of both commercial hunting (now outlawed) and by the indigenous people of the Amazon (still common) made the manatees increasingly rare. In an effort to preserve the species, manatees are now legally protected.

At the Center, local biologists work in partnership with the Dallas World Aquarium to rescue and rehabilitate adult manatees and care for baby manatees who have been orphaned, injured or abandoned.

The adult manatees live in a man-made lake designed specifically for the Center. The adults come up for air about every 5 minutes, but we could only see the ripples in the water from their snouts as they came up for air.  While we watched for air bubbles, our guide taught us about the manatees and their plight before entering the enclosed tank area to see the babies.

Baby manatees remain close to their mothers for up to 2 years and are dependent on their mothers for nutrition and to learn about feeding and resting areas, travel routes, and warm water refuges. Because of the long period of time baby manatees spend with their mothers, the orphans need extra care.

The Center has created a special formula to provide the orphaned babies the nutrition they need. I was lucky enough to bottle feed to the four babies in rehabilitation. Manatees are nearly blind and the babies would clumsily swim up to the bottles to feed.  Later they curiously came above water to snack on the lettuce leaves while I pet their tough, slippery skin and rubbed their little snouts.

The Amazonian Manatee Rescue Center does not have a website, but for more information you can visit the Dallas World Zoo.

Puppy of the Week, Round 1

This week, the volunteers working with AmazonCARES treated over 400 dogs and cats at the mobile clinic at San Juan Bautista. While the veterinary teams completed 96 sterilizations, an esteemed panel of judges* examined all of the puppies entering and exiting the clinic.

The panel’s criteria was broken down into three main categories; cuteness, snugglability, and new puppy smell.  Points were added for good behavior (such as sitting patiently for photos and getting their vaccinations). The competition was stiff, but the above pup, Santa, has been chosen as the inaugural Puppy of the Week.

A new batch of puppies will be added to pool of competitors each week as they visit the Amazon CARES mobile clinics. Every Saturday, a new Puppy of the Week will be chosen. After four weeks, the winning puppies will compete in a head to head final battle of cuteness to determine who will be crowded Puppy of the Trip.

Below are a few of the other competitors.
More photos can be seen on my flickr site [tag: puppy_patients]

*The ‘esteemed panel of of judges’ is actually just me, but I know a thing or two about cute puppies so I am more than qualified to judge a competition of cuteness. Especially since this is my blog and I make the rules.

World Woof Tour visits Iquitos

This week, Joanne Lefson and Oscar of the World Woof Tour visited Iquitos and Amazon CARES as part of their worldwide tour. Oscar is a mutt with mission and the World Woof Tour is making stops in 32 countries on 5 continents at more than 60 animal welfare organizations.

Joanne and Oscar visited Amazon CARES at the jungle shelter in Cabo Lopez where Oscar meet a few of the dogs up for adoption, did a few interviews, and posed for pictures with volunteers. Oscar is a mutt with a mission.

Oscar was adopted from a Cape Town shelter in 2004, just a day away from being euthanized. According to Joanne, after being adopted Oscar decided they had to do something to help. “Oscar made a promise to all the dogs that he’d left behind that he would go everywhere he could go in the whole woofing world to tell everyone just how wonderful and great the dogs in shelters are.”

Since then, the pair has have traveled the globe raising awareness of the 475 million(!) dogs living in shelters and promoting the adoption of lovable pups from Cabrera to Kathmandu.

Here are Oscar’s K9 Reasons to adopt a shelter dog:

• K1. It’s EXCITING! A shelter is like a box of chocolates. You simply don’t know what you are going to find, but there’s always something very sweet inside.
• K2. Shelters have VARIETY! You’ll find big dogs, small dogs, round dogs, funny dogs, yuppie puppies and grand dogs- and don’t forget that 30% of shelter dogs are purebred!
• K3. Pound Hounds are HOT Dogs! Pavement specials and Heinz 57’s make up the largest class of canine classifications in the whole woof world. You are gaurenteed to find this most popular breed at a shelter near YOU!
• K4. Pound Hounds have HUGE Heart! A shelter dog that’s been down in the dumps will always appreciate and love you more than anything you’ve ever experienced before!
• K5. You SAVE a LIFE! It is estimated that less than 25% of shelter dogs ever get that second chance. The rest don’t.
• K6. Under-dogs make you FEEL like a Top Dog! Research proves that dogs fight depression and loneliness – it’s wagging therapy on four legs!
• K7. Shelters ROCK! Shelters lend a supportive paw and will help you select the pooch that’s perfect for you!
• K8. Shelter dogs are CHEAPER! You’ll spend a lot more buying a dog from a breeder or a pet shop, and why support a breeder when there are already too many dogs at shelters dying for a home?
• K9. Do it for ME! I was a pound hound. Without someone adopting me, where do you think I would be?

For more information on the World Woof Tour, see www.worldwooftour.com

Sterilization in San Juan Bautista

This week, Amazon CARES is holding a spay and neuter clinic at Accion y Desarrollo Regional in the municipal district of San Juan Bautista [Español]. Accion y Desarrollo Regional is a building run by the municipal government with the goal of community outreach and betterment.

On Monday, the 5 veterinarians and 3 veterinary nurses sterilized 8 dogs and 1 cat and treated more than a dozen others animals in need of deworming, vaccinations and general consults. Not bad for a first day, with 8 people from 5 different countries working in conditions they are not used to, with people they had just met, and across 3 languages.

On Tuesday, with first day jitters out of the way, the team sterilized 15 dogs and 2 cats and treated more than 30 other animals for various ailments that did not require surgery (e.g, parasites).

While the veterinarians and veterinary nurses were hard at work, I helped setup operating tables, registered and interviewed people about their animals (age, weight, problems, etc…), translated between veterinarians, held animals as they received shots, snuggled a few puppies until they lost consciousness from the anesthesia, watched over post-op animals as they awoke, and explained to the people waiting for their pets how best to care for their animals as they recover from surgery. I also took photos and interviewed a local bureaucrat about working at Accion y Desarrollo Regional and with Amazon CARES.

It’s going to be a very busy few weeks!