GV 2007
Global Vets 2007 Joined: April 26th 2007
Logged in: February 6th 2008
Logged in: February 6th 2008
"Student Vets Sharing a Global Vision "
Global Vets is an official program of the International Veterinary Medicine Club at the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Since 1998 this program has been offering student veterinarians a unique opportunity to investigate animal health care in developing countries.
Travel Blog Posts
Horseback Riding in the Atacama
Que tal mis amigos? Looks like Team Chile is on its last legs and heading home to Toronto/Guelph on Tuesday. We have arrived back in Santiago after a gruelling 23-hour bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama. We were sad to leave the laid-back and relaxing atmosphere (as well as the sun), but we are also happy to not have to use a bottle of moisturizer and sunscreen every day! The Atacama desert is the highest and driest desert in the entire world and our skin, throats and fingernails sure did feel it! We are now wrapping up our time in Chile by reconnecting with a few last contacts in Santiago. This will likely be our last entry until we land safely in Canada, so we thought we´d dedicate this to ¨Top Things we´ve learned about ... read more
Emma ´wrangling´ Negra, the street dog
Buenas Noches! We are finally nearing the end of our trip but we are still enjoying many adventures and are hoping to make a few more memories before we leave Chile in a week. We are happy to say that we are back in more manageable temperatures in the North of Chile. We had a fairly long trip from Punta Arenas to La Serena, which is a city about 500 Km North of Santiago. It is also the second oldest city in all of Chile, founded 200 years ago and attacked my pirates several times in its history. La Serena is blessed with sunny skies and warm temperatures the entire year, but that also means that flocks of tourists storm the city during the summer. We, on the other hand, were just thankful to be able ... read more
On The Inside Looking Out
The drive from the Jakarta International Airport to the neighbouring city of Bogor was a little like wading through soup; hot, humid and smoggy enough to completely cloak the outline of Jakarta in a dense fog. After a couple hours in gridlocked traffic, we arrived in Bogor, Western Java, at the offices of the Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies (CIVAS). The office consisted of a converted house in suburban Bogor and would serve as our home for the next two weeks. The people at CIVAS, which is the only veterinary NGO based in Indonesia, were extremely hospitable host and made us feel right at home, save the fact we had to showerusing a bucket and that we were encouraged to eat everything (including rice) with our hands. CIVAS is dedicated to improving the health and ... read more
Sea of Sheep in Tierra Del Fuego
Well, folks, we thought that Punta Arenas was the end of the world with it´s freezing temperatures, hurricane force winds and high prices on everything except alcohol (we heard... not from personal experience, of course), but we were treated to an expedition to work on a sheep farm on the island of Tierra del Fuego (The ¨Land of Fire¨) for the last few days and it made Punta Arenas look like New York City. The Magallenas region of Chilean Patagonia historically owes its prosperity to two industries; Shipping and sheep farming. The cold temperatures and high winds year round mean that not much will grow in the volcanic soil of the region except scrub and low grasses, but when sheep were brough here 150 years ago they thrived and grew thick wool that became the region´s ... read more
Emma and Rob in front of Salmones Antartica
Hello dedicated readers! Well, it looks like we've lost nearly all of our entries. Apparently we can somehow regain them if we click here and click there, but I´ll have to wait until I get home to sort that out. For now, I suppose I´ll continue on with our adventures from where we left off. We are now in Punta Arenas, at the very southern tip of South America!!! Punta Arenas is actually as far south as you can go in mainland Chile. It´s also the furthest south you can go along the mainland in the entire world! We were pleasantly surprised to find that Punta Arenas is the most European city of Chile. It´s the first city in which we've seen brick homes and we've been spoiled with hot water and heated homes! Before we ... read more
Buenos Dias! It is the last day of July and we are at approximately the half-way point of our trip. Somehow it feels like we have been here longer because we have already done so much. And yet, we still have so much of the country to visit! We have spent the last couple weeks travelling through The Lake District of Chile. When last we wrote, we were settled in the city of Valdivia, a "university town" on the coast, nestled between two rivers that lead to the Pacific Ocean. Valdivia is home to a large population of german immigrants, countless fishermen and of course the "lobos marinos" or sea lions which have found a comfortable home in the river along side the Mercado Fluvia, the central fish market. We found endless amusement in watching the ... read more
Toronto From the Air
As may be obvious from our location we have arrived back home in Canada (well Sarah and I have, Jeff is spending a few weeks in Europe). As I promised everyone has returned alive and well. After 22 fun filled hours and 4 airports (why did we have to fly to Montreal first?) we are happy to be home. My "back to reality" moment came quickly upon our return when I ordered a pint at a pub in the Montreal Airport and the bill was $9.31. Only the day before we were paying about the equivalent of $1.25 for a 500 mL bottle of Tusker Lager in Kenya. At least the beer (and coffee) is better here. Overall an excellent experience and we are all looking foreword to boring our friends and families for the next ... read more
As may be obvious from our location we have arrived back home in Canada (well Sarah and I have, Jeff is spending a few weeks in Europe). As I promised everyone has returned alive and well. After 22 fun filled hours and 4 airports (why did we have to fly to Montreal first?) we are happy to be home. My "back to reality" moment came quickly upon our return when I ordered a pint at a pub in the Montreal Airport and the bill was $9.31. Only the day before we were paying about the equivalent of $1.25 for a 500 mL bottle of Tusker Lager in Kenya. At least the beer (and coffee) is better here. Overall an excellent experience and we are all looking foreword to boring our friends and families for the next ... read more
Hola Amigos! Since our last posting we have passed the "Gateway" to the south, Temuco. We made a detour over the Andes to the small town of Lonquimay, which is apparently also the only place where you can cross the cordillera from Chile to Argentina. It was a rather long trip and at first I think we all wondered what we were doing here, but we quickly came to love the sleepy little town of 6000, nestled in a valley. We met with Dr. Angela Muñoz, who is a recent graduate of UNICIT and is posted in Lonquimay to work with small-holder goat and sheep farmers to increase productivity and promote sustainability. It´s a quiet time of year for sheep and goat farmers since most of the females are pregnant throughout the winter but we got ... read more
This may be our last blog entry from Africa. It is hard for us to believe that nine weeks is almost over (I wonder how many people put something like that in their final blog entries, my guess is a lot). Sorry for the cliche. Also for what I can only assume are rampant spelling errors as there is no spell check on this computer. For the last week we have been at Manyara Ranch which is located within Manyara National Park in Tanzania (about an hour south of Arusha). The Ranch is a cattle ranch that employes local Maasai to work with the cattle, and also works with the community on vaccination and animal management strategies, and towards a better interaction between livestock, wildlife, and people. Within the park all three of these groups ... read more
