Week of May 3rd

This week I wanted to give you some idea of where we are working and living. The name of the city is Valdivia, and we live about 15 minutes from the city, in a small village called Niebla, right on the coast (http://encarta.msn.com/map_701517329/valdivia.html ). There are a lot of resident dogs here that are either loosely "owned", or just live in the streets near our house, and live off whatever they find, including garbage. They occupy a territory, and are just always there. Here are a few pictures of the dogs in our neighbourhood.

Our area is called the Rivers Region. The landscape is beautiful, and the culture is a real cross between modern and very traditional, people with higher incomes, and those with very few resources. There are lots of wildlife in the area. Here are a few pictures from the area to give you a general sense of where we are working:

1. Our own dogs enjoying the beach
2. University Austral de Chile marine research centre
3. Hiking to the beach
4. The beach near our place
5. Horse and delivery cart in town
6. Produce market
7. Selling grains at the local market
8. Pelicans
9. Sea lions- right on the sidewalk in town!

Lastly for this week, we had a meeting on Wednesday evening with a student group called Policlinico Movil. They gave us a presentation on what they have been doing, and we were so impressed! For ten years now, this group has been operating in conjunction with private veterinarians in town, bringing valuable mobile veterinary services and education to rural communities around Valdivia. We are looking forward to working together with this creative and vibrant group!