MARVET Mexico July 8-18 2012

Saturday, July 7^th 2012

Again, I boarded another plane to take me away to a far away country to continue my adventures in my animal world dream.  Two short plane trips had me in Cancun, Mexico. I then arranged for transportation via bus to  Playa del Carmen, a town about an hour away.  But I ran into 3 other students attending the MARVET program.
MARVET (Marine Veterinary Medicine) is an educational program offering introductory courses in marine animal medicine for veterinary students and veterinarians who would like to become more acquainted with the expanding field of marine animal health and conservation medicine. Workshops provide lecture and hands-on workshops.
The MARVET two-week program I am currently attending is in Playa del Carmen, Mexico [Yucatán Peninsula]) and is hosted Dolphin Discovery. 
I arrived at the Hotel Cielo on Sunday & we reeived a welcome dinner by the Two main organizers of the workshop: Dr. Petra & David.  The founder of MARVET was also there (Dr. Raymond Tarpley, DVM.)
The pictures below are mainly of my wanders around this torrist-y area (near the hotel) between the time of our arrival and the dinner.  -SORRY MY PICTURES ARE NOT LOADING HERE!

 We have to teach them how to spell our name correctly. This was in one of the gelato shops on 5th avenue.

 This was a family paying to get there picture taken with a lion cub.  These men had several wild cat cubs just in a corner in the streets.  A tourist trap -- please don't encourage this!!!

 Go vets!!

Sunday, July 8th, 2012
The first day was mainly lectures given by Dr. Tarpley at Dolphin Discovery.   
  
Monday, July 9th 2012 
Today we got a tour of the fish house, which is where all the feed preparation for the animals is preformed. 
We had more lecture, but I did get to swim with manatees!  The first time I've been able to do that.  In Mexico, they are allowed to train the manatees.  Dolphin Discovery does interaction programs with dolphins, manatees, sea lions, sharks, & stingy rays.  The trainers let us to a physical exam on the manatees and then we got to free swim with them feeding them lettuce. 

Tuesday, July 8th 2012
We actually helped with the morning fish preparation today.  Then we got to watch an ultrasound performed on a dolphin who is 9 months pregnant.  Dolphins usually have a 12 month gestation period.
We had more lecture.

Later in the afternoon, we watched the trainers capture one of the dolphins (Lulu), pull her out of the water, & then the Senior Veterinarian performed an endoscopy.  Lulu is a 40 year old female (so pretty old & use to this type of event).  The procedure went very smoothly & the scope looked great.