Day 14: An Important Meeting Before Our Final Destination

Courtney and I stayed at a hotel across the street from the Lima airport for two reasons. The first was that our flight from Lima to Cancun was at 8:45AM, but we planned it this way for the second reason: We’ve both been volunteering with New York Bully Crew (@newyorkbullycrew on Instagram) for the past few months — a 501c3 nonprofit dog rescue on Long Island that specializes in pit bulls. We reached out to them initially because we both care very much about dogs (Courtney’s family has a pit bull mix who was a rescue, and also a golden lab) and we wanted to use our skill set to help drive awareness, donations and adoptions for this organization that does so many great things for dogs in need.

Initially, we connected with Carla who runs their digital media channels and works for NYBC full time — a 24-7, 365 days a year job protecting and helping these wonderful dogs that have previously been neglected or abused. Carla, along with the rest of the team based out of their Long Island headquarters, are nothing less than amazing.

NYBC has a volunteer presence in Peru which is led by an inspiring woman named Karina. She is a one-person show, with the exception of a few others that volunteer to help the many neglected dogs that roam the streets. When we realized we’d be in Peru as a stop in the Discovery Tour, we knew we wanted to make the attempt to meet with Karina and help share her incredible cultural mission with you all. It was clear that stray dogs were consistently present throughout our entire journey to and from Aguas Calientes and back to Lima.

 Karina and I were texting on WhatsApp for a few days prior, and had finally figured out that we would have just enough time for a 45 minute breakfast at the Lima airport before handing to head to our gate. Karina lives about eight hours away from Lima, and happened to be in town picking up cancer medicine to treat some of the dogs. Courtney and I got to the airport departure gate and waited for a few minutes until Karina arrived. We were greeted with a warm hug and a smile, and when we started making conversation, we realized that Karina exclusively spoke Spanish. This is kind of an amazing part of the Discovery Tour, because thank to some of the technology we traveled with, we were able to have a full conversation over breakfast using Google Translate as our interpreter.

As we sat down, Karina explained to us just how dire many of the dog rescue cases are in Peru, which is what compelled her to start doing something about it. She is a nurse by profession, but was not certified to give cancer treatments which was typically required for many of the dogs she encountered. Karina actually had to teach herself how to give cancer treatments and is not regularly performing these treatments for the 60+ dogs at her shelter, and in total has treated hundreds of dogs in need. The photos she showed us of the dogs were both heartbreaking and gruesome — but necessary to see the impact the diseases had on the dogs physically.

Many of the dogs become ill because of lack of spay and neuter resources, and one sick dog reproducing with another which passes the disease along. A lot of the stray dogs also end up eating garbage to prevent starvation, which fills their stomachs with things that obviously should not be digested — plastic, metal, rope, etc.

It was a sad reality to hear, but it’s special people like Karina and the New York Bully Crew team that are making an impact in the world. It only takes one person to start at movement. Karina’s goal is to open a series of spay and neuter clinics in Peru that will make it much more efficient to help make sure these dogs are getting the care they need. Courtney and I are excited to continue to support New York Bully Crew in their mission, and are looking forward to returning to Peru in the near future to see Karina’s dog shelter in-person.

I asked Karina one final question — how can we help support her mission right now? Her response was, in summary, “spread the word and donate whatever you can, whether it is your valuable time or funds.”

We ended our breakfast similar to how our encounter began, except now we had a flight to catch to Mexico for our final Wonder. We said our goodbyes to Karina, made our way to our gate and boarded the plane.

It was a bumpy 5-hour flight, but we finally landed at around 2:00PM. It was such a great feeling. We weren’t there yet, but thinking about actually making it to our 7th Wonder in two weeks was very exciting. We checked into our resort located in Cancun and it was an early night — another quick dinner and early bed. Sleep has been our most consistent challenge and we definitely needed to attempt to get some rest. At 6:00AM the next day, we would be on our way to explore the Mayan city of Chichen Itzá and completing our adventure.