Nuska travel experiences: the small haired warrior

INTRO

The endearing travel story of Anna and Nuska began in a peculiar way: competing together across Europe in Agility competitions. Here is a video where you can see how good the two of them were!

After Nuska became 7 years old, the backpacking stage began on the other side of the ocean. They traveled through Panama and Colombia mainly by bus. Although they were not allowed to get in many of them, Anna soon learned to sneak in with Nuska in her backpack or under a blanket. All the tricks are welcome to travel with our dogs!

Back in Spain, and after a break living the "normal life", they hit the road again, this time around Spain and Portugal with a new tactic: thumbs up. From then on, hitchhiking became their favorite way to travel. "Method" that they applied to their next trips through Europe and Mexico. Until the age of Nuska said stop traveling. She had already earned a good sofa-style life.

Note. Air travel were constant, most of which could be done in the cabin, due to the small size of Nuska (miniature Snchanuzer). Many would be horrified at the idea of taking their dogs in a plane. Obviously, this is not pleasant for anyone, but there are some dogs that, like Nuska (or Cocaí itself), seem to have been born to travel and endure adversity. Nuska is, has been and will be a warrior dog whose footprint in the world will remain forever.

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Hello, this is Nuska. I was born 13 years ago in a small town in Catalonia. My life could have been simple: balls, walks and sofa, but it has not been like that. Here I will tell you my story. I chose Anna as a companion, a teenager with little knowledge about dogs, but with a lot of love and desire to learn. I was always wise and confident in myself, so I decided to fall by her side to be her teacher. I taught her a lot of things, I believe that everything is important, but here I am going to focus on travel.

Our first trips together were to Agility competitions, what time those, I was young and athletic, no one could stop me! Anna transmitted me her competitive energy, and so I do with my joy to do something together. We were the perfect team! Airplanes, airports, permits, passports and long hours of transport, in the air, in the trunk of a car, on the grass watching from the corner the competition tracks. That's how I got to know France, Germany, the Netherlands and some parts of Spain far from Catalonia, it was really fun. Years passed and I no longer had the body of yesteryear, so we changed Agility's competition trips for other kind of trips, much more fun no doubt about it.

When I was an "agilitist" dog with dreads

Years passed and I no longer had the body of yesteryear, so we changed Agility's competition trips for other kind of trips, much more fun no doubt about it. The first big trip I made was to Panama, I joined Anna to finish her university degree in that country. This was the first time she left Europe and for me it was a big shock: there were birds of my size walking the streets (she called them pelicans), storms way noisier than the ones we have in Spain and dogs, many dogs in the streets, not like the ones we are used to see in the parks of Spain. They were elusive, always in the corners, afraid of people (for sure they did not know Anna) and they never wanted to play, they only looked for food all day. Well, let's continue with the story, Panama was not bad, but there were no parks or mountains, there was no way to walk through nature as we used to do in Catalonia, dogs could not enter natural places. Anna told me it was dangerous for me because there were many snakes, spiders and jaguars (I did not understand anything, but I believed her and always waited patiently at home). Anyway, let's say we did not have good moments because that's not true at all! We visited amazing places:

Bocas del Toro, Panamá

Swimming with my favorite hooman

Climbing the Barú Volcano. This adventure was so hard because we got lost and had to walk for two days without water and no food, sleeping on the fucking freezing ground! A year later we came back to thank the mountain for allowing us to stay alive

After Panama it was Colombia turn, this country is much more benevolent with dogs than Panama, there were many small parks and more natural places accessible to us, although they were more strict with the regulations. I remember this day when we were visiting a natural reserve and my hooman had to talk to a local so he could enter the reserve with me as if I were his dog (I do not know what the park guard would think when he saw him walk a miniature Schnauzer with a soft shinny hair). Then she entered as a regular tourist, of course, we entered through an uncommon entrance and we had to walk to the tourist area for a while, but it was fun, I think she gave the local some avocados in exchange!!!! Not everything was always so easy, in the Amazon there are no bridges to cross the rivers, no roads to follow, the guide cuts the leaves with a huge knife and when you cross a river almost always there is only a stick a few fingers wide so that you cross it by balancing on it. Obviously I could not walk on those sticks and Anna could not carry me in her arms, because she needed her hands to hold on to another stick with which to make balances, so it was my turn to cross the rivers swimming by my own, it was not very difficult but my hooman always had a terrible time, I listened to her praying to the God of alligators and piranhas to forgive my life, I had to have a good relationship with that God, because I had no troubles. Take a look on these pictures of our adventures around Colombia:

Santa Marta

Looking for flamingos in a lake at Guajira region

Making some kids happy, they were so amazed to see me that they all left the classroom

But in that country not all are good memories, we took the plane many times because it is not an easy country to cross by bus, the fact is that when we were in the Amazon jungle and we were going back to the capital the lady of the airline stopped us and denied me boarding the plane. We got stuck there for while… In the end her boss came to the rescue, solving everything. Good news because for a moment I saw myself being adopted by a family of jaguars. Once again, when we were about to leave the country, they denied us to get in the plane due to the lack of a permit. Some crocodile tears and begging made him sign a paper according to which if anything happened in the country of entry the airline did not was responsible for my deportation. I was lucky, the country we went to was Panama and they are sooo relaxed with the rules, they never denied my entry.

After Colombia we returned to Spain again to enjoy a well-deserved rest, although it did not last long because in less than a year Anna was ready to hit the road with her backpack on her shoulder and hitchhike around the peninsula. But I was no longer the young dog of the past and that type of travel was no longer adapted to my age, I enjoyed it, but many times the unpredictability of the trip surpassed me, I no longer tolerated heat, long walks or crowded places. Even so, I went to Portugal, where Anna and I lived among a herd of horses and slept in a caravan, it was fun, I had never lived with horses and I have to say that I quickly realized that, although they were 200 times bigger than me, if I showed them my sharp teeth I won all the battles. They are clever animals, they always respected me. Although I could not accompany her on her horseback riding, I enjoyed it a lot when we went to bathe in the natural lakes. Then we went south, it was the hardest part of the trip because we walked many days on the beaches and the sun and the heat in July was crazy. I was already very tired from the trip, and Anna decided to go back to Barcelona. For a few years every time we made a long trip I ended up becoming sick, never bad things of course, but little by little chronic diseases that in a quiet and stable life the symptoms they not appear. Although that was not my last trip. We crossed the Atlantic once more, this time to Mexico. It was the journey in which my friend understood that not all trips are for all dogs, in all ages.

I will briefly explain my last trip, in Mexico. Mexico was a very dog-loving country compared to the other two countries in Latin America that I visited. People always greeted and pet me on the street and gave me food in restaurants, I quickly learned to escape from my house and go to the grill chicken restaurant on the corner to beg for leftovers. They did not seem bothered by my presence. The trip through Mexico was one of the longest and hardest, since we went through all kinds of climates, landscapes and situations.

These little signs helped us to get a quick ride

We started to travel routinely with the truckers, I love trucks, there is always a lot of space in the cabin so I can stretch out to sleep happily, and they usually have air conditioning! On this trip we could not hike much in natural places or get to places as paradisiacal as in Colombia, since there were always people who warned Anna not to follow this path or the other. I never understood why, but I saw that people used to be afraid to go alone in uninhabited places. In addition, I could not walk much longer, my bones are not what they used to be and I had some back problems, so above all we visited the cities and many picturesque villages. I often stayed in the house where we were staying (Anna called this kind of accommodations Couchsurfing, which I do not understand exactly what means, but they always treated me great), while she out visiting.

After a few months doing that, I was getting more and more tired due to the weather changes, the wait and the walks, so Anna made the decision to return to give me the retirement that I really deserved. Now finally, I can rest and I am super happy doggy, sleeping all day on the couch at home. I do not regret all the experiences I had, since they turned me into a very experienced dog with a lot of knowledge of the world, I always know exactly what I must do without being told and according to Anna, I am the most creative pup she has ever met. So this has been my story, I hope you liked it and that thanks to my advice many other dogs leave the sofa at home and embark on discovering the world with their hoomans.