In La Serena, there is a beautiful Japanese Garden.  While usually these are very peaceful places, my time there took a distinctively exciting turn.  Because a dog got into the garden.
The garden itself is very beautiful.  It’s a carefully manicured, intricate garden with tiny bonsai trees and so many peonies.

It’s also home to many ducks that hang around the pond and nearby stream.  I found that when you faced the ducks with a camera, they froze and looked right at you.  Not sure if they had been trained to do that, but it worked well for pictures.

Now, as I said, a dog got into the park. And though they’re both adorable, stray dogs and ducks aren’t often friends.  So the dog started chasing the ducks.  And ducks being ducks, they flew to the safety of the pond because surely the dog wouldn’t follow them into the water.  Wrong.
But the dog couldn’t swim.  You could tell he realized he had made a mistake.

He was seriously reconsidering his life choices.

But he was unable to pull himself out of the water.  At this point, just about everyone in the park was watching around the pond, urging the dog to jump up and out.  (At least I think that’s what they were urging… my Spanish is not so good.)
And finally he did!

But when he got out of the deep water, you could tell he was nervous about the water.  So even though the upper area of the pond was only deep enough to cover his paws, he rook refuge on a rock, and was hesitant to leave it.

So, it took more encouragement from everyone, but finally the dog was back on dry land, and after a few good shakes seemed no worse for the wear.

Literally the first thing he did? Started looking for more ducks… closer ducks, or maybe ducks on land.
And he found one.  In the form of a duck that couldn’t fly, and seemed a bit wobbly on its legs.

Now everyone was intervening for the opposite reason.  Operation Save The Ducks had officially started.  It was a quick operation, though… as one of the park guards quickly came over and showed the dog to the exit.

And then the park returned to it’s peaceful, zen like calm.