We have spent the first day at la Cienega animal shelter in San Jose Itrubide and what a pleasant experience. The animals look healthy, the land is absolutely stunning and the people are welcoming and extremely friendly.
 

 
With the new cameraman Scott Mckinnon on board we’ve got off to a brilliant start: filming a scene with an injured hawk and an endangered eagle yesterday morning and an operation on a cat with a huge tumour growing out of its back. Despite the jetlag we’re firing on all cylinders and it looks as though this is going to be another cracking trip.
 

 
For regular readers of the blog you’ll know that I started a campaign to save my own name. This hasn’t gone all to plan as Luke keeps on calling me various different things on every trip we venture to: from Bruce in Malawi to Narinder in India. And when we arrived at the charity it didn’t take long for Agetha, who runs the sanctuary, to call me Bruce (in fact it was the first thing she said!) Last night I was christened with my new Mexican name of Lupe. Which I have now found out from my Spanish girlfriend is actually a girl’s name, so this is wonderful. Not only have I lost use of the name of Nathan, but I’ve been given a new one which is used for girls… oh well…

Whilst in Mexico I’m also working on my Spanish. The most useful phrase for anybody working on a film crew is the following: tengo hambre, quiero comer ahora! (I am hungry, I need to eat now!)