I blew Lucia's mind awhile ago when I took her out of our neighborhood for the first time.  The destination- Parque La Carolina. Up until then Lucia was only exposed to the normal stream of neighbors, dogs, and traffic.   We hopped in the truck and drove a few miles to this large central park.  Since the park lies in the city center.

Parque La Carolina offers many activities for all ages, such as football, basketball, tennis, biking, paddle boats, Ecuavolley (similar to volleyball), just to name a few. The park is over 160 acres and surrounded by high rises and these main thoroughfares, Río Amazonas, de los Shyris, Naciones Unidas, Eloy Alfaro, and de la República.  It use to be an airport until the city grew around it and they decided to move the airport farther away.

Among the most popular attractions in the park, is the Jardín Botánico with native habitats covering páramo (high-altitude Andean grasslands), cloud forest, wetlands and other areas, plus an orquideario (orchid greenhouse), ethnobotanical garden (exploring the plants used by indigenous groups) and Amazonian greenhouse.  Since I was with Lucia, we didn't have a chance to explore them.  But I'll check them out next time and post an update.

All in all, Lucia gave it her paw of approval, so I'm sure we'll be back.

photo courtesy of http://fstails.blogspot.com

Even though I'm domestically assigned, I'm always on the lookout for Foreign Service pet travel stories.  Here's a great write up from DP's Blog about the current issues he and his wife faced with planning the transport of their dogs.

Taking a break from my ex-smoker journal to comment on a "This American Life" episode that ran recently.  It's called Animal Sacrifice and you can find it here.

Although, I suspected it, I was still surprised when I learned how far we went with using donated dogs during wartime.  I would never have let anyone donate my dog and hope I would have gone instead.

While their use as guard and detection animals makes sense, I can't fathom killing one species to fight a war against another.