In the end I suppose we got 8 different vaccines (including rabies), heart worm preventative, tick and flea control, got nice new tags on the collars and off we went. The veterinary health certificate should be good for another 5 months (6 months in total) and hopefully we won't need to visit vets or anything between changing countries. I need to double-check that information though. Also, before entering Costa Rica, we need to inform the port 48 hours in advance about having dogs. We'll see how that goes, but so far it seems that everyone is really relaxed about the dog issue. It's so much easier to travel by boat than flying. And so much less stress too.
When we first got to Ensenada, we couldn't check-in for 2 days since the customs office was closed and I wondered if we can get off the boat with dogs and all, but they said straight away that it's not a problem and so we went for a nice long bike-ride around town. After we left Ensenada we basically entered a wilderness area that rivals the Sierra's. It's vast, there is no one there, mountain range after another, beautiful bay after another and just pure silence and peace. I wrote more about our experience on my "human" blog so I'll keep it short here.
While going down the Baja we never used a lease and hardly a command to control the dogs since there was absolutely no one around and not really even wild animals to disturb. In Santa Maria Vanilla found some seabirds on the beach and we also found ourselves surrounded by three dogs instead of two. Some fisherman's dog (or possibly a stray dog) had found us playing at the beach. He was hardly more than 8-9 months old and extremely playful, which we discovered after my initial shock of Gin running towards a fairly large unknown dog in Mexico. I was worried about it being aggressive or maybe carrying some disease or fleas.. who knows. But since there was no way to prevent the interaction we just went with it and let Gin and Vanilla play with him. He had good coat and seemed to be in good health so my worries were soon gone. He stuck with us for almost our whole walk before disappearing into the mangroves. What an odd experience. I wish I had gotten a photo of it, but of course I didn't have the camera with me that time.
What blew me away about Mexico was when we arrived in Cabo San Lucas and anchored right next to the huge beach with all the resorts and dogs were allowed both on the beach and in all the restaurants which were all along the beach. And this was a huge tourist center! Really made me think about all the rules in the U.S. preventing me from taking my dogs on the trails of some state parks, beaches etc. Here everyone seems to just love dogs and welcome them with open arms!
I'll put a couple photos here from Oceanside and Baja for you to check out. Also if you are interested in reading our other blogs or watching the short videos we've made about our trip you can find them here:
www.autonomyproductions.com/thing-of-beauty/
I'll also have this link on the sidebar of my doggie blog.
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