Last week I was finally able to run. I ran on the beach one day, but it was an experience that I did not enjoy a lot. The inclination did not let me keep up with the pace, plus I felt one side of my body working harder than the other one. So, for the following days I decided to take it to the treadmill. I do not like running on the treadmill, but having to choose between this and the beach, I chose the former. I ran for one hour every single day. I know this is different, and not as good as the regular running training, but at least I did something to keep up with my cardio work. I came back from my trip on Sunday. Yesterday I ran 12k with my dog and tomorrow, Wednesday, I will re-join my group again. I can’t wait to see my running bodies to tell them all the stories and experiences from my trip while we run. We have material for a while. My animal lover note: One of my biggest fears every time I go out of the country is facing the animal abuse that is seen more palpable in other places. Although Canada is far from being perfect regarding animal protection (there are lots of fur factories, they kill baby seals once a year, hunting is popular and accepted, etc.), it is way more advanced than other countries, at least regarding certain aspects. Stray dogs are rarely seen, and if you spot one, you just call the local shelter and they will take good care of it. I knew that during my trip to Colombia I was going to face two harsh realities, especially when visiting Cartagena. One was seeing stray dogs, and the other one was to see the horse-drawn carriages. As I feared, I saw several stray dogs wandering around. It is very overwhelming knowing that you can’t do anything about it. When I lived in Colombia I took them home and fostered them until I found them a family; but being a tourist I can’t do anything beyond looking at their eyes. It was also very sad to see the so popular horse-drawn carriages. These carriages take tourists around the old city. These horses work for several hours a day without rest. They are very skinny, not well fed and not well taken care of. Seeing them made me thing in how abusive our race is. We find acceptable to have fun on the expenses of other beings, in this case the horses. And it made me thought of slavery and how we have not ended it; we just shifted it from one race to another (at the end we are all beings). By looking into the eyes of those horses I realized that the fight for animals’ rights has been the biggest and hardest one, after the fight against slavery. Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.