Viernes a la Cascada and la fin de semana

So instead of having rotation on Friday, my homestay mom and the coordinators wife organized a trip on the Chivas (party truck, see below) to a cascada or waterfall about an hour-and-a-half away from Puyo.





The road to la cascada...not really interesting...YET


And here we arrive on a typical road in the Oriente. They are just rocks ranging from smaller pebbles to large stones (I think they are all river stones) and the roads are bouncy to say the least. We managed to get stuck on this particular road. And with all of us on the Chivas, it wouldn't budge so we all had to get out. That didn't work either and next thing I know, my homestay mom is at the front by herself trying to push it out! WHAT A WOMAN! I'll talk about her more throughout, but she is awesome as is my whole homestay family in Puyo. So I see this and my housemates and some of the workers jump on the front, kick her out and get the truck unstuck, and we were back on the trail.



At the entrance of the park, you have to get off the truck and hike for about 30 minutes to the actually waterfall, which is kinda tucked into the jungle, but not far into it at all.

QUITO! What are you doing here? For those of you who don't know I got Melody two cats, one who looks exactly like the one pictured below, how strange!


After the thirty minute hike up and down hills and across unsecure wooden briged made of logs and pieces of wood, we finally arrived at the cascada. The lady and the little kid are my homestay mom, Nancy and her grandson, Mateo. He's a crazy kid, full of energy and out of control, but lots of fun nonetheless. I was recovering from a cold/flu/who knows and the waterfall and pond were freezing so I opted not to go in (and Nancy made sure I didn't). So I took pictures instead and there are some below.



After the waterfall we headed to a monkey refuge, where something like 30 monkeys lived (a handful of different species). Unfortunately my camera battery died, but I got a picture of the meanest one there perched on the balcony thing. The monkey were playful and if you didn't watch out would grab whatever they could. Some girl had her earrings taken, but luckily I was able to snatch them out of the monkey's mouth. Also there were talking green parrots, a boa, and lots of bugs!


After the refuge we headed back to Puyo because some people wanted to head out for their weekend trips that night.

I ended up staying in Puyo that night and heading out to Riobamba in the morning, where we hoped to catch the train to La Nariz del Diablo. However, before we left Puyo, we received a call from others in the group who headed out earlier saying that the train was sold out, but that we could catch the train from Alausi to la nariz the next morning if we got there early enough. So we headed out to Riobamba as planned passing through Ambato, both decent sized cities, but not very nice looking. In Riobamba, we ate lunch at a weird outdoor kitchen, marketplace(pictured below). After we headed to a market near the terminal to do some souvenir shopping--everythin was really cheap and I was able to practice my haggling skills.

Plaza in Riobamba


We needed to catch a bus to Alasui that night because we had to be up early in the morning to get tickets for La Nariz del Diablo. We took a late bus, which I think wound through the mountains, but it was so dark I couldn't really see much outside. Like most of my weekend trips, I went with my compañeros OmarÇ(pictured below) and Shaun. That night when we arrived, we met of with the other group of peeps, grabbed some Chinese food for dinner and kicked it at this quaint, little bar with a spaceheater (Alausi is in the Sierra, up in the mountains, so it is a bit colder than the Oriente).


In the morning, we woke up early to get tickets for La Nariz del Diablo. It was a good thing we did because the line back up fast and the person in front of us bought half the tickets for a German tourist group. Luckily our group was second and line and we were all able to acquire tickets. The rest of the people outside were not so fortunate and grew restless--I thought there was going to be a riot! I snapped a picture of them from afar because I didn't want any of them to get upset and yell at me (haha look at those fools)!


After getting the tix, we ate breakfast and walked around the town until it was time to get on the train. The town of Alausi had a old western feel, maybe it was the air or the dry land around us, I couldn't quit tell. Below is a picture of my hostal and some of the surrounding town on a Sunday morning.





Like most towns in Ecaudor, there is some Christian iconic statue. In Alausi it was not a Virgin, but was Christ himself and he was located on top of a hill on the edge of town. From there we could see some pretty sweet views and found out that the statue was a giant mosaic (lots and lots of tiny tiles).



I really like this one, it's almost professional!


We were under the impression that we could ride on top of the train for the whole ride, but apparently too many accidents have occurred recently, so they don't really allow that. Furthermore, the train wasn't actually a train, but a bus with train axles (great, more buses!!!!!!!!)

What we expected...

What we got...


The ride was quite nice actually and it stopped at a couple places so we could get out, look around, and take pictures. I'll let the pics do most of the talking as I am getting tired of all this typing, enjoy!


The weird hill is La Nariz del Diablo an it has a boca (the line that runs across it, although it is difficult to see)
The next picture is a view of the switchback railroad setup that allows for the train(bus) to go down a mountain with over a 45 degree decline.


I am sure by now if you have been keeping up with my blog, this pose has become familiar. I think I am going to patent it when I get back to the states!


And finally me wearing the conductor´s cap in front of La Nariz.


A view of three levels of tracks as we ascended the mountain on the return route.


And finally some pics of lovely Ecaudor on my return to Puyo. The sierra is very dry, but nonetheless hilly like almost all of Ecuador.

Dias Dos y Tres en Rio Negro y Dia Cuatro en Rio Verde

So the way the program is run, everybody is split into a group of two people, with whom you do all of the daily rotations with. My partner was a girl named Jasmine(Jazz) and our first assignment was in Rio Negro. Rio Negro was a smaller town located between Baños and Puyo, about a 45 minute bus ride from my homestay in Puyo.
OHH NO THEY ARE BURNING THE FOREST...not its just that humid and warm...YIKES!

The towns along the highway that winds around the sides of the mountains consistently looks the same.
Below are typical sights of the towns located right off the highway in the hilly Oriente.


The one street of Rio Negro:

We spent a total of two days in the Subcentro de Salud in Rio Negro, a clinic associated with the socialized health care system present in Ecuador, supported by the Correa government.

The first day was long, but gave me a good foundation on the operation of such clinics. The doctor, was in his first year of practice, and as mandated by the government of Ecuador, all first year doctors must spend a year in a rural clinic, before they can move on to their desired placement or even apply for another placement.


The docs name is Eduardo Zea and he was very nice and stopped to explain things as patient after patient came in (we saw a total of 32 patients in about 6 hours that first day). He was clearly stressed by the situation, because many patients did not have confidence in him, because he was new, or because most of the patients, which were women, didn't feel comfortable with a male doctor. He tried his best and showed a deal of care for the patients. Day two was very much the same, although fewer patients came in and in the afternoon, the doc had to make a house visit to a kid who had been in contact with two confirmed swine flu cases and was showing similar symptoms. I believe he turned out not to have swine flu, but he said it would be better that we didn't go so as to not expose us to a possible case. That morning I was not feeling great about the way the program was run and did not feel like I was going to be able to help many people, which probably played a role in me helping the crab cross the road.


The next day we went to another Subcentro de Salud in Rio Verde another small town just 15 minutes past Rio Negro, with a similar setup, but a slightly larger town.

We arrived at our scheduled eight o'clock time, but the doctor was not there and didn't show up for over an hour becasue she was out supposedly getting a box of supplies for the clinic.

While we were waiting, I chatted and kicked a ball around with two kids who were sitting outside the clinic. After a little bit, they had to leave and so I attempted, briefly and with some success, to talk to two patients who were waiting about why they were at the clinic, what they thought about the health care system, and what they thought needed fixing before the doctor arrived. One lady told me that there was no consistancy in the docs schedule, and that they couldn't always depend on the services, but that she was greatful for the basic free health care she received from the governement. After lunch we decided to leave as the clinic was dead and I was getting tired of spending time just sitting in the clinic. I felt that I had learned as much as I could from this clinic and that I had a good basis to use as a comparison to the larger clinics and hospitals found in the larger towns and cities.