"Pups on the go" -photo collection!

Here's a small collection of photos taken on our 8 month long cruise down the California coast, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua! It was a wonderful time for both us and our pups! Thank you Maria Järvinen for taking some of these lovely photos!

Adaptation

Last summer when we were planning our cruise one of the planning points was to figure out what to do with Gin. Until last summer Gin had spent most of her life living on the boat but for some reason had never liked the boat very much. She got random nervous attacks, sometimes triggered by gun shots but most of the time we couldn’t figure out what was wrong or why she did it. Maybe she heard something, maybe not. When we went sailing, she would be panting somewhere along the side or try to hide under the sailbags in the front. She wasn’t very responsive. Obviously this was not a dog to take on a year-long sailing expedition. Vanilla was coming with us, I couldn’t bear the thought of being away from her and she seemed to have adjusted to the boat fairly well considering her non-boating background. So we went on and asked a few trusted friends and family members if they could look after Gin in the coming year. Cody’s sister Carrie was willing to help us out. We had planned on building Gin a dog house on Carries yard (all her dogs live outdoors) and bying a whole bunch of dogfood and leaving her to enjoy the company of several herding dogs that Carrie and Levi have on their ranch. However, just in case anything would go wrong, I went on and prepared all the dog paperwork, vaccines and Gin’s microshipping for identification purposes if we needed to bring her along.

Fall came and we were almost ready to set sail. We did a couple weekend trips with the boat to find out if everything was working correctly and happily found out that not only did the boat work well but Gin wasn’t freaking out. She seemed more relaxed than normal and came to be petted (which is rare, she’s one of those loner type dogs). I remember saying to Cody that I’m going to miss Gin and Cody was silent for a while and said he would miss her too. We looked at each other and we both knew that Gin was coming with us too. The idea of our pampered ”little mutt” being tied up on a chain outdoors through the cold Wallowa winter (and having lived in California with no bits of winterfur growing on her) seemed crazy. Not that she wouldn’t survive but would she be as happy? We were her family afterall.

We were happy with the decision. The very first day of sailing we said several times to each other how nice it was to have the whole family on-board. What was amazing though, was how fast Gin started to change. It was something neither one of us expected so at first we thought she was just experiencing better days mixed in with the normal ones. How wrong we were! She started by getting excited about the sea lions. Every time she heard them bark on one of those buoys she would run to the front of the boat and bark back. Soon after that she saw some dolphins jumping out of the water at a distance and barked at them. She figured pretty quickly that they were not sea lions and settled down. After a week of sailing (which in Gin’s mind had to be a bunch of very boring days with nothing happening) she started getting excited about the dolphins as well. Then about any form of sea life or non-life, including huge cargo ships and tankers. Now she would go in the front of the boat after eating her own meal and begging our breakfast and stay there all day long. Most of the time she was sleeping but occasionally she would wake up and stare out at the horizon. We were so pleased! I couldn’t have hoped for anything better. She wasn’t nervous anymore and seemed to even enjoy bits and pieces of the sailing days. We had obviously worried in vain. 

But little did we know what lay ahead. After a couple of months of sailing Gin had transformed into a sharp dolphin watcher! She would lie on the front deck and endlessly scan the horizon. Now she would hardly sleep during the day: she had a mission. We had learned to grab our camera’s the minute she started whining, it meant something was coming. And something always did. Dolphins, whales, huge fish jumping out of the water. . . You name it! She was the best possible dolphin alarm system and fish finder. Not only once did we get a fish after Gin started keeping her noise. We were often trolling a fishing line in the water but started paying much more attention to it when the dog showed signs of excitement! Once in a while it paid off and we all got to enjoy some fresh made sushi! Gin would take a special interest in the fishing business and carefully watched every hand movement that Cody did fileeing the fish. Afterwards she would be more than happy to lick the blood off the deck if we weren’t fast enough with our cleaning!

It seemed that Gin had undertaken a full transformation from a land lover to a salty sea dog. She now liked the boating more than all the rest of the crew put together. And that’s not very little considering Cody’s passion, my enthusiasm and Vanilla’s relaxed and happy “pat me all day long and I’ll give you kisses”-zone. I thought everything was good and well and our world now had order. Everyone knew what to do and had their place. But I was in for a surprise. It didn’t end there.

A couple of days ago we were anchored at a beautiful picturesque cove of Coyote Island in Bahia Concepcion and were walking along the beach in the shallow water. The water was absolutely clear. Cody had found a couple round sting-rays and I was trying to get to him to take a look. I knew Vanilla was behind me on the beach chewing on a big fish bone and Gin was ahead of me, standing in a pool of water between two big rocks. As I was approaching him I saw one of the sting rays swim towards me and quickly dodge as it saw me standing in the water. It was wonderful! How odd looking creatures, flat and round and wobbly on the side and when it moves the edges of its body flicker and flap in the water. At the same time they move so gracefully and fast and the minute they stop they become hard to spot. What a crazy camouflage! As I lifted my eyes up I saw Gin attacking into the water and pulling her head out with a small fish between her teeth and before I even realized what’s happening the fish had already disappeared down her throat! Goodness! I wasn’t quite sure what to think but Gin seemed to be so pleased with herself that I couldn’t be mad. And why would I? Couldn’t hurt anybody if she ate a couple little fresh fish in addition to her fairly fishy diet already (I had switched from cooking most of their meals from ground beef to fish.)! 

The next day came and we let the dogs on the beach by themselves for a little while before joining them, and while drinking our morning coffee, we watched Gin swimming laps close to the beach constantly looking at the water and trying to bite into it. She was hunting again. I couldn’t help but smile. Our lovely domesticated house dog had turned into a wild fish hunting beast! Is this what adaptation means? At least this is what I would like to think it means. Given the chance it seems that dogs like humans can adapt to almost any conditions they find themselves in. I already knew that they could do a lot based on what Vanilla went through a couple years ago and this year but I have to say that I cannot help but be surprised and mesmerized by the change that Gin has undertaken. I can’t even remember the last time she had a nervous attach, was it back in Benicia? Possibly. For me the worry of Gin being sad and depressed this whole year is long gone but replaced by another, smaller worry. Maybe she will get sick from one of the fish she catches? Maybe she’ll jump off the dinghy in the middle of the ride if she sees something in the water?  She has definitely started to ride even more in the front with her head as close to the water as possible tail wagging the whole time! But whatever these worries may be I’m perfectly happy to have these instead of the original and I feel lucky to have witnessed unbelievable adaptation in process!

Leap of Faith

For the first time in my life I did something I never thought I would. I left the two most important things in my life at the hands of a stranger. A stranger that doesn't even speak the same language. I don't know how I was able to do it, but what I do know is that I was trying to think about the dogs and what would be best for them.

So what happened was that we were not able to sail our boat Endymion all the way to Costa Rica. We were simply trying to do it during the wrong season weatherwise. However, my parents had planned a trip to Costa Rica to meet us at the end of February and couldn't change their schedule anymore. It was too late. So we had to get to Costa Rica somehow to meet them. My plan was simple: take a bus and take the dogs with us like that time we traveled around Nicaragua. Later on, however, I realized that this trip was going to be different. It would include a nice hotel, nice dinners and tons of things mainly set around my parents schedule and needs. It would be hard to figure it all out with dogs to consider at all times. Then I started really thinking about the dogs. Would they really enjoy being dragged around in buses and taxis from one country to the next, one hotel to the other, only to be left alone while we go ziplining or whatever else there might be for us to do? They would much rather stay on the boat which has been their home for already several years, be in a location they were familiar with and play on the beach everyday chasing tiny hermet crabs and playing with coconut shells (which by the way are Vanilla's new favorite toy!). 

At this point I was pretty much terrified. But nevertheless went on to find the Harbor Master of Puesta del Sol the next morning. I told him about our situation and he immediately said he knows a person who would love to take care of our dogs. It was someone who he knew very well and said to be honest and trustforthy. Sounded pretty good I thought. He wouldn't recommend anyone who wouldn't do the job, right?

The next day I met Ana. We didn't share a common language but with the little Spanish I knew I tried to explain to her all the details about my dogs. She was patient, caring and truthfully, a real sweetheart. I feel like we fully understood eachother, even when we didn't know exactly what the other one was talking about. But with her help I found all the right words and saw her handling my dogs as if they were her own. I was convinced she would make a good dog sitter. And just as a sidenote she was willing to do the job for 5 dollars a day!

Today I am in Costa Rica, enjoying the time with my family. Yet I am filled with anxiety. This was releaved for a little while when I got my first email from Dorian, our Harbor Master, this morning (after sending about 3 emails to him during a 7 day period) that my puppies were doing good. Not only were they playing on the beach for hours with Ana and her 7 year old daughter, but also spending time on the deck of the boat doing their guarding duties and making sure not a single little bird or form of wildlife got on our boat or even nearby. I'm sure the noise Vanilla is keeping is driving everyone nuts. Ofcourse Gin had also done her usual "i'm running after a hermet crab" disappearance and they had tried to catch her for almost an hour! This didn't worry me though, she would never go far.

I have to say I felt tons better after this piece of knowledge but only a half a day later I'm again faced with anxiety. I can't help but wonder. I just hope I will find them in one piece and unharmed when I return. On the other hand, I'm really proud of myself for being able to do this. I was able to give my trust to a stranger in a foreign country, where I basically know no one, and was unable to fully communicate and let them care for the most precious things I have. My dogs. It truly was a leap of faith. 

We conquered the volcano!

Traveling with dogs has been easier than I originally thought. However, there are certain downsides to keeping them with you as well. For me one of the biggest worries, excluding all sailing related, has been leaving the boat and traveling more like “the normal tourist”. As long as we stay on the boat, having dogs has generally been more fun than not. But after a few months of mostly solid sailing and very little time exploring outside the immediate coastline, you start to get what I would call “cabin fever.” It’s odd because living in the countryside in Finland and literally not seeing anyone for long periods of time fits that frame a lot better. But this feels more feverish somehow. You are trapped in the boat. Leaving it means either being worried about the boat or worried what to do with the dogs and the problem grows in scale the longer you’re cruising. Unlike in Finland, you do see plenty of people around, and you don’t really have a lack of things to do. To the contrary, the boat seems to be a work camp. No matter how much you do, there’s always more. Nevertheless the feeling of not being able to leave or just purely being too lazy to leave because it’s hard makes you have the sensation of cabin fever. You feel if you don’t get off you will eventually go crazy. My first symptoms usually are restlessness and a kind of unsatisfied feeling even after getting all the tasks done on my list. It’s like something is missing and you don’t quite know what.

In Nicaragua we decided to attack that feeling and take a short trip off the boat with the dogs, even if we had to camp outside the whole time. There was a bus from Puesta del Sol to Chinandega which Cody and I had ridden not too many days back. The bus gets totally packed and we heard things like, “You have to tie the dogs on the roof” where all the other animals like chickens and pigs went or, “You need to carry the dogs on your shoulders”. I can see myself carrying Vanilla but carrying poor Gin who weighs close to 70 pounds seemed more or less impossible for a full hour and a half it takes to get to Chinandega. Hence we arranged a taxi ride. And luckily in Nicaragua taxes are still very cheap. Only 25 dollars for a 45 minute ride! Once in Chinandega we had to find the car rental. It was a very small little vehicle but more than adequate for us, the dogs and two backpacks. I’m sure I wouldn’t have agreed to this solution had I been the driver but since I have endless trust on Cody’s driving skills I didn’t even worry about this. The car also gave us freedom of where to go and we were able to make better time. Not to mention the first air conditioned space we’ve been in months! Goodness, I wish air conditioning wasn’t so expensive or such an energy hog.

We hit the road around noon and survived the craziest driving of our whole trip. Chinandega is busy and there are tuktuks and bikers and horses and carts everywhere, not to mention people crossing the roads where ever they feel like or taxi drivers that obviously are exempt of all regulations. The dogs were watching all this as intently as me and Cody. They obviously wanted to see what was to become of us. By the evening, after driving about 5 hours, we reached our first destination; Granada. All four of us were pretty exhausted after some of the trickiest driving we had ever done. It wasn’t really unsafe, you don’t even drive more than 60km/h on most roads, but you had to be so aware of your surroundings at all times, dodging slower traffic and other cars passing and animals crossing the roads. It was fascinating to watch though!

In Granada my greatest fear about traveling with dogs became reality. We went from one hotel to another and were unable to find a place that would allow pets. We even suggested leaving them in the car but that was not good enough. Not that I would’ve been happy to do that, I really wasn’t, but it seemed like our last option since camping was pretty much impossible in this city. Finally we got lucky though, and got a room in the cutest little hotel, but even after paying 15 extra dollars for the dogs the guy leading us to our room said he’s going to loose his job if our dogs bark at night! Well luckily they didn’t make a sound that night. Good job! That evening before crashing we went out to town and got the best meal so far on this trip. The restaurant had fabulous food and wine! Doggies were tied next to our table and watched the street that had one live performance after another. Obviously we had come to a tourist town.

The next day we encountered another problem with our pups. We took them to the central park which was next to a beautiful old church and of course they desired to do their business there. We picked it up like any good citizen and got yelled at by a lady and finally a cop who said we can’t put dog poop in the garbage can or even let our dogs poop. Very interesting, since I was watching a stray do it’s business right next to our dogs. But at least we got a good laugh out of it. Of all the places we’ve traveled outside the U.S this was the most difficult place to deal with dogs so far. I still have to recommend Granada as a cultural destination!

The next day we headed out and drove to San Jorge to catch a ferry to Ometepe Island. It is a volcanic island with two huge volcanoes located in the middle of lake Nicaragua which is the biggest lake in all of Central America. We had to wait 5 hours for our ferry ride so we ended up taking the dogs down to the beach and got more than a few locals interested in our dog training. I suppose not many Nicaraguans are familiar with the obedience training of us Westerners since Vanilla’s heeling made even the icecream man stop an applaude.

I’ve noticed that the relationship with dogs here in Nicaragua is very different from our Western ways. Here everyone has dogs, they are all running free but they are not necessarily pets, they are guard dogs. Their place is outside in the front and I haven’t seen as much as a little pat from the owners to their dogs. And the rule of thumb? Don’t go close to even your neighbors dogs, since they might bite. I highly doubt that most of them would since all the ones we’ve encountered for one reason or another have been really friendly. Nevertheless the Nicaraguans here have endless respect for dogs and will keep their distance.

On the Island we were lucky. We found a perfect little Eco-lodge who’s owner Carlos really liked dogs. We were there for three nights at an incredibly fair of 8 dollars a night! And I guarantee that you couldn’t find a nicer spot with better view! The family restaurant there had wonderful breakfast and dinner. The place was called El Encanto. The next day we tagged along on a hike to the top of volcano Maderas. We had a guide and our group consisted of our little family and a family from Quebec, Canada. It didn’t take long to leave behind half of the group but the rest of us worked our way up the muddy and slippery trails on the steep volcano. Once in the cloud forest everyone got wet and through the mud we saw little rivers of water flowing down. The dogs were in heaven! After Vanilla had twice pulled me into the mud I took her leash off and she was set. She ran up and down the slopes of our 8 km trail. She also swam in the caldera lake on top of Maderas and played with a stick all the way down. While my legs were trembling and my whole body was aching after 16 km and 10 hours of hiking up and down around 1500 meters she still looked energetic. Beats me.


We spent a couple more days on the Island exploring it and were finally ready to get back to the boat. The trip out to see the country had been worth it. It was refreshing and interesting but at the same time my appreciation for the boat grew larger. Driving cars, trying to be on time everywhere, the ferry, the car rental, the store, or simply not being able to get out of the tourist zone as easily, created a certain kind of stress that is not present when you go around on the boat, where you are your own master. It’s a good feeling. And it makes traveling with dogs a pleasure instead of a drag even though I am quite proud of our achievement this past week. Whoever said traveling with dogs is impossible probably didn’t know what they were talking about. Most of the time it just requires a little more patience and creativity!

Vanilla to the rescue!

Here's a piece of footage of one motivated little BC at work!! Haha, I think she would do anything for a ball! Or let me correct myself, I know she would do anything for a ball! Go Vanilla!

The Dog Paradise

We have now officially found the dog paradise! It's called Yelapa, and it is situated at the South end of Banderas Bay near Puerto Vallarta. Everyone living there has a dog, most likely more than one since I'm almost sure there was more dogs than people in the area. And every dog seems to also have an owner, at first I was pretty certain most of the dogs there would have been more or less stray. But to my surprise they were all in almost perfect condition, extremely friendly and loved. The second thing we found out as soon as we landed our dinghy on the beach, was that no dog was on a leash, in fact, it seemed to cause way less problems to just let ours run around than try to keep them on a leash while all these other dogs were going about their business.

And not just that, but the beach I'm talking about was not just a scroungy, rocky, desolate place but a white, sandy, beautiful beach full of restaurants and people, even some tourist tanning themselves on the beach chairs. In this place the dogs, the Mexicans, the tourist, all seemed to coexist in perfect harmony. There were no roads, in fact, everyone either walked, rode a horse, or if you were really well off, you might have a four-wheeler to get around. To leave the town you had to take a panga or some other type of boat. This not only made it safe for us and our dogs but also made it feel like we just went back in time. The pace of life was all of a sudden much slower and the things that seemed to matter didn't matter. What a wonderful feeling.

Our furry friends were not only allowed to run free on the beach but they were welcomed to hang out with us while we ate in a restaurant, of course surrounded by all the other dogs, including the cutest puppy I've seen literally in years. I cannot believe I did not get a good picture of him. I would have given quite a few items in exchange for this little fellow who followed Vanilla like a shark and Vanilla tried her best to ignore the little creature.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good our dogs behaved. I was expecting way more hazzle considering our dog's energy levels and the amount of things that were going on around them. A few incidences occurred when a couple males tried more or less kindly to persuade Vanilla in some mating games and Vanilla had trouble sending her message of "not interested". Or the time when Gin dug a hole the size of her or when Vanilla decided to dig a whole underneath the umbrella of the table that collapsed. Hole digging aside, they mostly hung out like all the other Mexican dogs going for a little swim now and then.  Vanilla even learned how to jump over the breaking waves and continue on to the deeper waters. Smart little fluffy I say.

Five days in Yelapa was way less than I would have spent there but I'm so happy I got to experience my dog paradise.

Customs and more

Mexico has been cooler, easier and way less scary than I thought. The dogs have loved it and the dog- regulations are almost non-existent. How wonderful and convenient! First, at customs, we only needed to check a box for our temporary import permit (TIP) that we were transporting live animals . . . And that was it! No one asked any details about the type of animals or their paperwork. And I had sweated to get it all together. Oh well, better safe than sorry. And in case anyone asks or the Mexican Navy boards our boat we'll have all the paperwork necessary.

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.