Mi viaje al Ecuador

Tres dias en Arajuno y Shikulin

2009-08-07T19:05:00.001-07:00

I left on a Sunday night to arrive in Arajuno, so that in the morning we would be able to head straight out to the community we would be visiting and half enough time as it would take the whole day. On Sunday night we stayed in the second floor of the nurses house, which was in the process of being converted into a hostel, I think mainly for student travelers. Arajuno also had an airstrip, which used to be the only means of entering and exiting, except for by foot. They had constructed a stone-paved and now vehicles could

The next morning we woke up, gathered the supplies we needed, and a truck took us to Rio Arajuno, which we would need to cross in order to go to the community. Our purpose there would be do vaccinate all dogs for rabies. I paired up with Amanda and we were led into the jungle by Antonio and Paulina. The community we were visiting was a Kichwa community named Shikulin.

Trying to cross the river wasn't difficult; however, by the end I had managed to fill my boots with water and soak my socks. By the end of the hike my feet were completely raw and I my skin was split in a bunch of places. The hike was a bit hilly, but nowhere near as difficult as my hike into th Shuar community, Uwijint. One time we had to cross a log (makeshift bridge) that was about 30 feet long and hanging over a small river and mainly stones. Upon arrival to the community we took a break as we waited for the families closer to the community center to bring there dogs for vaccination. I took a look around at the school, which housed 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. They taught the children Kichwa, Spanish, and I think English and German, but how much I was not sure. In school, the kids also learned how to do daily survival activities, such as hunt, fish, and cultivate plants.

While Paulina was doing the vaccines, I took time to play soccer with the boys and we ended up playing two matches in boots in thick mud. We then hiked down to the river, where Antonio crossed by himself to vaccinate the dogs of a family that lived on the other side.

I took time to splash around in the river. When he returned we headed back towards Arajuno, passing by three more houses where I was able to vaccinate some of the dogs. At one of the houses the owners weren't home and the dogs were scared. We tried to lure them out with food and they would come but when we tried to grab them, they attacked. On one such occasion, the dog bit through the glove I was wearing and into my hand. Needless to say I was a little scared of possible rabies and so I have been getting the vaccine at Hospital Voz Andes, where I have done a few rotations.

Anyways after hitting up the remainder of the homes, we headed back and rested for the remainder of the evening. All-in-all we spent about 7 hours out hiking and vaccinating dogs.

The next day in Arajuno was spent in the Subcentro de Salud. It had been pouring rain that morning and the electricity was out as well. Not more than a minute after our arrival, an emergency patient was rushed in. He had been working that morning, cutting logs or poles with a chainsaw, which slipped out of his hand and sawed into the knuckles and his left hand. One of the knuckles had chipped and everything was exposed. We used headlights and flashlights to improve the seeing conditions for the doctor. I helped clean the wound and held the hand as the doctor quickly closed up the two major openings so that the kid could be rushed to Hospital Puyo, about an-hour-and-a-half away. The kid was freezing because he was soaked and didn't have any clothes to change into so I gave him my t-shirt. Shortly after they rushed him off. I was told that he was going to a Hospital for X-rays and tests and where they had more resources to better operate on his hand, but where there was only a general surgeon. The truth of the matter is he probably would never have full function of his hand again.

I walked around and took some picture of the clinic. There was an emergency room (very dirty), a sala de partos (birthing room?), where there was both a seated bed and a vertical rope for those who wished to be standing when giving birth (a very common practice in indigenous communities), and finally the dentist's office.

The remainder of the day was spent doing patient consults. The doctor at the Subcentro allowed us to play an active role in the checkups and diagnosis of the patients. I listened to lungs, looked at throats and ears, and when he asked told him the drug regimen required for the specific patient (namely how much the patient needed, based on a book he had on his desk). After examining each patient, he would ask what we thought it was and then tell us whether he agreed or not. The diagnoses seemed quite superficial and at times as if the doctor was just going of past history or the symptoms the patient emphasized. This is pretty common at Subcentros as they do not have any diganostic tools and can only prescribe basic medication. We left that afternoon for Puyo. When I arrived in Puyo, my housemate, Yoland, told me that there was a rotation scheduled to go back to Arajuno and educate the community on how to prevent malaria. So we signed up and the next morning headed back out to Arajuno--this time in the back of a truck. The ride was beautiful; however, by the end my butt was sore and my back bruised from bumping on the truck so much. Futhermore, the pesticide container was leaking liquid into the bed of the truck the whole ride!

The first purpose of the trip was to educate the community members at a meeting that had been setup in one of the public buildings. We showed up over an hour late and so everyone was already at lunch! So instead we headed out on a walk with Darwin, one of the field researches for the Malaria Center and looked for larva and pulpa and breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

In that very toilet, we found a mosquito larvae that was, I kid you not about an inch long. Apparently it will eat other mosquito larva. There are also specific bugs that each mosquito larva, a good natural approach to keep malaria mosquito numbers down. After about a two hour walk where we saw some neat things, snail eggs and snails, but not many mosuito larvae, we returned to the meeting room just in time to catch a fumagation. They didn't cover anything or move anything, just asked the family to get out and walked in a sprayed.

We decided to take a bus back because the truck was too much and it ended up breaking down because of flat, which delayed the return by about 30 minutes. And that was all for Arajuno!

Weekend in Tena

2009-08-07T18:54:00.001-07:00

So the whole group of CFHI kids in Puyo went to Tena, about an hour-and-a-half away from Puyo for the weekend. We stayed in a small resort owned by a 25 year old Dutch guy named Martin. Our main purpose there was to go rafting. We spent a whole day rafting on a couple rivers. Since there were so many of us, we were split up into groups. My guide was a 27 year old dude from Quebec who left home about two years ago to see Australia and Asia. His plan was only to stay away for a few months, but ended up hearing about place after place and decided to keep his trip going. In order to afford his travel he worked in camps, led hikes, rock climbing, rafting trips, anything he could. In Ecuador, he found this job as a rafting guide. His name is Gyllam but he went by Guillermo so that people could pronounce it. Anyway he was a pretty sweet guide and we did tons of neat things along with river throughout the day. I didn't bring my camera and therefore wasn't able to take pictures, but a couple of the girls brought waterproof cameras, so hopefully I get my hands on those pictures somehow. At the end of the rafting trip, which with lunch and all was about 7 hours, there was a bridge that crossed over the river I'd say anywhere between 40-60 feet above. Some other people had already jumped off the bottom tier. I climbed up to the top tier of the bridge, following my friend Chris, and without any rope or anything jumped off. WOW!!!! I had no idea what I what to expect. About two seconds after I started flailing because I hadn't hit water yet-it was a long fall, well longer than I figured it would be. This was definitely more exhilirating than my other bridge jump. Oh yeah I forgot to mention. When I climbed up to the top tier and was positioned, a truck of natives passed me and one of the girls said to me "Tu vas a morir", translation: "You are going to die". That was comforting I thought, turned back around and jumped.

Shell (24 de Julio), Hospital Voz Andes y Casa de Fe´

2009-08-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Friday I woke up early as usual and took the bus to Shell, the next town down from Puyo. My first scheduled visit was to Hospital Voz Andes, a Christian missionary hospital. I arrived where I found myself entering a morning meeting amoungst the doctors. This is typical in hospitals. They will talk about a set amount of cases and at Voz Andes, although I am not exactly sure about how they do it in the States, the residents will go through each case file. On top of being a group discussion, it is suppossed to help the residents learn and adjust their practices. After the meeting I tagged along with a Dr. Martin from Texas who was on-call(not seeing patients) and therefore passed me on to another Dr. Dueñas. Since it was a Friday, he was only had patient consults in the morning. We saw about six or seven patients. Dr. Dueñas focused in family medicine, so he sees a variety of patients with all sorts of different illnesses and needs.

To list a few, we saw a patient with hyperthyroidism(?I think that is what it is called) who had been on vacation for a weeks and hadn't taken her pills and as a result here situation worsened. We also saw a patient who had come in to get stitches removed from her big toe on he right foot. An older man who was having problems with weight loss, but hadn't been diagnosed with anything, had a prostate exam. I watched the doctor put a gloved finger up an older man's bottom. I was a little shocked, but I guess I need to get used to it, as I am going to have to do it atleast once in med school.

On a side note, I talked to some of the other members of my program and they were telling me that it was common for gay male doctors to volunteer for the position in med school. Apparetnly in med school students practice on other doctors, because only a doctor really knows how to properly perform one, and as so it is the best way for students to learn.

Anyways...the in patient process is different here in Ecuador. I do not know about everyone, but when I go to see my personal doctor, he has his a handful of rooms, where each patient will meet separately. The doctor will then come to your room and each room should be cleaned afterwards before another patient comes in. Here, the doctor's office is the appointment room. The sheets are never changed, I assume because it is impractical and costly, but I am not sure why. So an old man with a prostate exam wipes his butt on the bed sheet and then a kid lays on it and puts her hands all over it and such. I guess they haven't had any problems with it, but it just doesn't seem sanitary enough to me.

I was also able to participate (observe) the doctor perform two ultrasounds that day. One was on a patient who was determined to have appendicitis and was set to be operated on. I had never seen an ultrasound done before and I was able to gain some insight into how the technology works and how it is applied. A probe is placed on the skin where waves are sent through the skin and down into the core of the body. A grainy, black-and-white image appears on the screen and it takes a little bit, atleast for me, to get oriented to the fact that as you move down the screen, you aren't moving down the patients body, but further into the core. After seeing the appendicitis patient, Dr. Dueñas told me that he would probably be scheduled for surgery and so I made sure to find out when as I am extremely interested in surgery and had never seen an appendectomy before. I then found the surgeon, Dr. Eckehart Wolff, a German trained surgeon who had been working at the hospital with his wife for some 20-or-so years. He was very numb to the experience, as he had done it a million times, and chatted about various topics. He told me that appendicitis was a recently new illness to this part of Ecuador and that cases were higher in Quito and more developed cities as there was more fast food and greasy food available to the population. He also told me that he was at the hospital when the first case of appendicitis occurred in Arajuno. Arajuno is considered the final frontier before the jungle and has only recently had a road built to access the town (a stone and pebble road however). Before if you wanted to get in or out, you have to spend over ten hours just hiking or be able to afford a plane ride in. Also present was an American anasthesiologist from Texas who told me step by step about what his role was and what he was doing and so on. The surgeon was incredibly fast in performing the surgery, it only took him thirty minutes and towards the end the anasthesiologist noted that he was a little behind in the drug regimen he was delivering to the patient becasue he didn't expect the surgeon to finish that quickly. The surgeon then left and I stayed with the anasthesiologist to watch the wake-up session. The patient would wake up for a minute wiggle around in pain and then pass back out for a few minutes. This went on for a little but and I left before he was fully awake, but I am pretty sure it was all under control.

After surgery I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed over to Casa de Fe´ an orphanage located in Shell. Kids are there for two main reasons, either their parents can't be finacially responsible for the children or in the sadder case, the kid was born with some deformity. In indigenous communities, it is a common practice to dispose of a deformed child as he/she will most likely hinder the rest of the family/community. I arrived just in time to head off to the park with the older and more capable kids. I chased them around, played on the jungle gym, went down all the slides and pushed one kid on the swing. They were all adorable children and even in the light of their situation were full of love, energy, and hope. You might not think so, but these kids were just as happy or happier than a kid with his parents might be. After the park, it was movie time and so all the kids sat down under the covered area where they watched Sleeping Beauty in spanish.

I took this time to head off to the little kids room, where a dozen or so kids were just hanging out with the other girls. Alot of the children here had birth defects or developmental problems. The little girl in the pink, was out to get me from the start and spent the whole time I was there giving me hugs, lots and lots of hugs. Another girl, who had two club feet (one which had been amputated) and who couldn't speak, but understood everything kept asking me to comb her hair and then would mess it up and ask me to come it again. It was truly powerful experience, mainly because they are children and I hate to see children be treated as such from the beginning of their lives. However, it is nice to know that someone is there to take care of them.
There I met up with two other girls from my group who had been there all day.

La visita a Uwijint

2009-08-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

We left on a Tuesday morning for the Shwar community called Uwijint. Shwar tribes only make up about three percent of the indigenous population in Ecuador, but there are more than a haldnful of Shwar tribes and they each have different costums and traditions. In order to get there we were given vague directions: take a bus towards Macas get off at kilometro 51(there are no road markings here in this part of Ecaudor) and look for a man named Ramon, he will show you where you go. So we set out on the bus and I took some shots on the way. The tire pick I found interesting, so I wanted to show it, Ecaudor seems to be overrun by tires, a commonplace for mosquitos to breed and the larvae to develop.

The town we arrived in (at km51) is called Pitirishca and is a small indigenous village comprised of like 10 buildings and a few families. After meeting with Ramon, he pointed us to a house down the road where his two daughter Delfina and Veronica were waiting for to guide us on our hike into the jungle.

The hike began off straight up hill with razor shard, velco like leaves protruding into the half-worn path. On top of the constant hills, there was tons of mud everywhere, and the fact that I was carrying way too much weight (probably about 40 pounds in water, clothes, and other stuff I probably didn't need). Below is a pic of the four of us in the group and our two guides.

The hike seemed to never end, but thankfully we were able to stop a hand full of times to rest. Our guides didn't seem to even be phased and on top of that didn't bring any snacks or water. On the way I stopped and took some pictures, while we were entering the jungle, we were only barely piercing the cortex. Later we were told that if we even tried to go further in, we would probably be killed or something nasty because the deeper inhabitants of the jungle didn't care for outsiders.

I'd like to take a moment to mention that I am the butterfly king! Butterflies are attracted to me and are constantly landing on me. The reason I believe is I taste good. But then again so do they!

So after about four-and-a-half hours, we finally arrived to our community: Uwijint. The community was really small and unlike most others was just comprised of one family. It was located in the middle of a patch of jungle that had been cleared for planting, housing, school buildings, and other smaller things. We spent the two nights there in a Shwar hut. The roof is made of palm leaves that have been dried out and it will last up to 20 years! While the all natural housing was neat, the bugs were not! The first pic is our hut, the second the inside, and the third is a picture of our family's hut from our hut. The smoke is a product of the fire that is constantly running for the purpose of cooking, boiling water, and keeps out the bugs.

Surrounding the house were all sorts of plants, some natural and some brought in and cultivated, but all used for food, medicinal, or spiritual purposes. I only really took a picture of the plantain tree, but I took a bunch of notes on the natural medicines they prepare for specific illnesses.

The Moncayo's(the name of the family we were staying with) have a variety of pets and wild animals that hang around and call Uwijint home. Most are common, but there was one, a wild animal, probably the first ever domesticated that stood out. His name is Tanpish and he looks like raccoon, anteater, who knows what else (I think he most closely resembles an aardvark). They also had a dog and a blue-green parrot. Also running a muck were ducks and chickens. There actually were only a few ducks, but there were 5 roosters, 5 hens, and one of the hens had 5 chicks.

Anyways, we rested after our hike and waited until they called on us to welcome us with La Danza de Bienvenida. The ceremony was performed by two boys and two girls, with a third boy providing the beat by way of one drum. The whole ceremony, Gustavo was explaining to us what was going on and what the purpose of each movement(act) was. After they performed the dance, they asked us to participate with them. The role of the guys was to jump back and forth from foot to foot while making a kind of stabbing motion with the speak towards the ground. The girsl just twisted around alot making noises with the beads they were shaking. For one act, the guys would chant and then for the next the girls would chant, although we didn't do this part, we left the chanting to the kids.

The dancing was tiring and afterwards we had our first dinner by candlelight inside Gustavo's hut. The bugs were swarming and I am pretty sure I ate atleast a dozen trying to down my dinner and yerba louisa aromatic water.
As there is no electricity and it was dark, I called it a night.

The next morning I woke up and played a little of soccer with the kids as we waited to see what we were going to do. It turns out that the dog had found a guanta and Gustavo had trapped it in a whole and were going to kill it and have it for lunch. We hiked about thirty minutes into the jungle where Gustavo had already dug out a huge tunnel into the earth, where he planned on stabbing/drowning the animal. While we waited, we built some clay figurines. I made a clay jungle women that I tried to give to Veronica and Delfina, but they denied it! My masterpiece devalued and degraded. Gustavo also let me help him with the hunt. I helped fling out clay that had been dug out and when time came to extract the guanta, I got to get on my hand and knees in the tunnel and pull the thing out of the ground. I had no idea what to expect, but the animal pretty much looked like a giant gopher/rodent. In the Oriente the meat of a guanta cost more than that of a chicken because of the labor in catching and rarity in finding the creatures.

I also got to try Chicha while trapping the guanta. Chicha is fermented yuca based spit that smells rancid and tastes about the same. It was an experience, but I am gonna have to pass on the Chicha from here on out!
We then headed back to the houses, but on the way stopped to cut down a specific type of palm tree that at the top has a part called the heart, which is edible and delicious. They cut down about four trees that were each really tall, probably 5-10 years old. I had to stop to wonder how much damage they were doing to the jungle, but they seemed to have it under control.

We reached the river where I had to thoroughly wash off the guanta so that it could then be cooked for lunch.
I walked into the hut, threw the guanta on the fire, and my nostrils filled with the smell of burning hair--yuk! Gustavo and I then headed to the river to rinse all the clay and mud off as his wife and the other women prepared lunch for everyone. I didn't get to take this pictures, but I want to say thanks to Katie who took the initiative to take pictures of the guanta being cut and cooked for me!

After bathing I hung out with the others and then we ate lunch. Guanta meat is darker than beef and a lot tougher. It had a unique taste and even though I didn't love it, I enjoyed trying it. Gustavo then walked us around his garden and showed us the plants they had and explained what each was used for. The last plant we came upon, was similar to ayahuasca and was used for spiritual quests and for making the most important life decisions--should I marry this person, should I go on a hunt, you name it they used it for it. Gustavo got stuck on talk about this plant for about 45 minutes. He clearly placed a heavy importance on the plant and it was obvious that he had used it many time before and that culturally it was powerful. He said that after about an hour or so after ingesting, everything in the jungle would transform into spirits, who were waiting to help you. He also cautioned to never do it alone and that everyone always went in pairs, one to watch and the other to experience. I do not remember if he said this, but apparently if one person died during the ritual, the other person was killed also, as it was a sign that bad spirits had been released, or something of that nature. SCARY STUFF! After talking about all the plants we set off to fish for dinner. Gustavo, Lucas, and Delfina did most of the fishing, while us gringos swam in the river and hung out. They would trap fish living under certain rocks with nets that had been wrapped around the stone and with a stick to poke through and force the fish out. I was suprised to see that the fish were alga eaters, what we call plecos in the states, and Louis and I have used on occassion to clean our fishtanks.

When we were done fishing, we headed back to rest somewhere as we awaited La Danza de Despedida. The ceremony was very similar to La Danza de Bienvenida. Before however, they painted our faces. If I remember correctly, I was the lion, or some fierce, wild cat. They also dressed us in the ceremonial clothes so that we could be better participants? The clothes were small and the necklaces were made of nuts and teeth, teeth which proded my sides. It was alot of fun though and I recommend going to anyone who gets a chance.

Then dinner!

Then sleep and in the morning the hike back out of the jungle. On the way back, Yoland and I took turns hacking eachothers heads off!

This was is called the headsplitter!

Exhausting!

We arrived back in Puyo to a lovely double rainbow!

Unfortunately we were all burnt out and weren't up for the journey to find the pot of gold!

Viernes a la Cascada and la fin de semana

2009-07-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Dia Uno en Puyo

2009-07-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

So my first real day with the program began in Puyo. We had two events scheduled for us: a visit to the Orquidearo?(Orchid Garden) and then Omaere, another garden run by a Shwar medicine woman and her American husband. The purpose of both was to familiarize us students with many of the natural plants that indigenous tribes around the Oriente(eastern Ecuador, Amazona) use for medicinal and dietary purposes. Much of the jungle around this area is considered secondary forest because it is not natural and has been destroyed quit significantly, but the families at both places work very hard to preserve the forests and return them to their natural primary forest state in appearance. Much of the destruction of the surrounding jungles has occured as a result of the exploitation of the natural resources located within the jungle, amazon by petroleum companies--a group greatly despised here in the Oriente. Both of the places were beautiful and I was able to take pictures of alot of the plant life that had been brought back and the resultant animal life that followed the reinstatement of certain plants and trees

The mud pile is a piece of a maggot nest or whatever you wanna call it...I actually ate some...apparently they are high in protein. The forest is teamed with all sorts of insects and at the beginning of the tour in the Orquideario, there are pictures of the new inhabitants every year as the forest develops more and more.

I spy a stick bug...do you see it?

If you look closely at the girl, you will notice that she is wearing natural lipstick! Actually it is the flower of a plant found at the Orquideario that the tour guide placed in her mouth!

The second half of the day was spent at Omaere. The Shwar medicine woman was out of the country and so we were greeted and guided by her husband. His name was Chris and he looks as crazy as he is--he came to Ecuador some 18 years ago for his thesis and ended up never leaving!! He was quite the character and eventhough he came on strong in his beliefs, he did a good job of explaining some of the indigneous culture...housing, waring, family doings, and such.

Below is is a picture of the bottom part of the "walking" palm. It is a really interesting tree that looks like most of its roots are exposed, but actually those are "legs". The lighter leg is a new growth that anchors to the ground and eventually over time allows the tree to shift position into lets say a more suitable basking spot. The Next picture may be hard to make out, but it is pretty much a swarm of some giant ants or something...I am not exactly sure.

I cut out alot of the other stuff, because it is repeat from the Orquideario, however, I wanted to take moment to show the Green Parrot and Scarlet Macaw (Louis and Robert, I am sure you will enjoy this). These birds are inhabitants of Omaere and moved there as the forest began to grow and resemble a more natural state.

And finally just a little bit of the messages you will see in the Oriente about the value of the environment:

Baños Parte Dos

2009-07-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday I spent with Chris, one of the guys in my program, on a hike around Baños. The first stretch was up to the Virgen, located on the side of one of the mountains around Baños where they had built steps leading up to her. We were able to see the whole town of Baños and the river and mountains surrounding it. At the top of the steps was the Virgen. The walk is a apparently a ritual done during important ceremonies such as marriage or the death of someone close. From there, we had two options, one was to go across to the Cross and the other pointed up the mountain to the Ventana or a view from above.

I found out later that evening from a guide in Baños, that we were crazy for going for the Ventana, which makes sense as the path looked like it hadnt been used for a long time. The hike was extremely long and once we reached the top, we know it was well worth it. At the top we met a 65-year old man from Brasil who was a world traveler: he told us that he had biked from the southern tip of Argentina all the way up to Alaska over a six year period! Yikes!

At the top we were able to see Cotopaxi (although it had become covered with cluouds) an active volcano that had erupted within the last five or six years. From there we continued on around the mountain trying to find another path down. We walked through some farms and I took some pictures of various flora and fauna.

On the other side of the mountain near the top was a cafe/resort called Cafe El Cielo. It was really nice and I relieve Swiss-run. We rested there for a mintue and headed back on down the mountain. On the way we were able to observe different views of the town and surrounding area than we had before.

Also I ran into two people from Houston who were working at the orphanage in Shell, a small town not too far from Baños. After reaching the bottom, we rested for a few hours grabbed a late lunch and walked to the otherside of the town where there was a bridge and a path down to the river that you see in the pictures I took from the top of the mountain. From there we could see waterfalls (cascadas) leaving the town and reminance of past constructions. One of the bridges looked like a death trap, just waiting for one too many people to cross at once and fall to impending doom!(The second picture is my friend Tarik standing on the death bridge that you see in the first pic below)

I live down by the river:

One thing that has ceased to amaze me about Ecuador is the ability for people to live anywhere and everywhere, on the sides of mountain, secluded down by the river, out in the jungle(cut off from the rest of society); you name it, someone lives there.

That night we went to the public baths where they had a cold, hot, and really hot pool, as well as a couple showers that used water from a waterfall, which was extremely cold. I took the rest of the night to rest as the next day was going to be long.

The next day we headed out to Puyo…on bikes. The total ride was about 60 kilometers through the hills, with lots of ups and downs. On the way we stopped a few times to rest and take pictures of the dam and beautiful scenery surrounding us.

We also stopped along the way to jump of a bridge from which we were connected to a rope. This was the most exhilirating thing I have ever done in my life! The video won't post on the blog so I will upload it to facebook! Towards the end of the ride I cramped up and fell over on the side of the road, which was rough. I managed to finish out the ride, but was pretty dead for the next day and still recovering from a serious cold, but I made it to PUYO!!

Weekend in Baños

2009-07-23T18:42:00.001-07:00

My first weekend in Ecuador was spent on a toursit trip to Baños. The first two pictures are taken from my window on the third floor of the hostal we were staying in. The third picture is taken from the restaurant we had lunch in called Casa de la Abuela. That night we all went out and walked around the town a little bit and went out to a couple cars with some of the local tour guides. Below are a few of the other people in my program up on a bridge located in one of the Parques in town.

Beer here is pretty cheap although the selection is limited. The two types you tend to encounter are Pilsner and Club. Pilsner comes in 20 oz bottles for about $1, while the Club is the same price for a 12 oz.--Obviously I have the Pilsner.

I also want to take a moment to apologize for being so slow about updating this-- I have been in the jungle the last three days and busy traveling around, not to mention computers here are slow and the internet even slower. I will hopefully be caught up this weekend. Keep checking in for updates

Road to Baños

2009-07-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

From Quito we took a private bus to Baños, where we planned to stay the weekend as tourists. The bus was tiny and when loaded with all the passengers and our baggage barely crawled along on the hills. At one point we were pulled over by the Policia becasue we were driving so slow and our driver had to pay off the officer so that we could continue. As we left Quito the countryside became poorer and poorer, many building half constructed or stopped once a roof was put up, but were not completely covered or painted. Common on the roadsides accross Ecuador are little shacks where you can purchase local fruits, candies, basic little snack foods.

The countryside here is beautiful and the domesticated animals seem to rome anywhere although at one point I saw an old couple protecting their cow from being hit by passing trucks on the freeway--That´s right, a cow on the highway! Other than that there wasn't much else to see. Gas here is pretty cheap as they take it from the Amazon in Ecuador and refine it hear, a serious problem that is destroying native habitats.

My first week in Quito, Ecuador

2009-07-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

My first week has been extremely busy. I arrived on Saturday at around midnight. My home stay parents picked my roommate Ryan and I up and took us directly to their casa. Mis padres se llaman Ramon y Lejia. They are very nice and have three children all older than me as well as five grandchildren. They also have two beautiful beagles named Panchita and I can't remember the other ones name right now, but she is the daughter of Panchita.

Sunday was my first full day and it started off with a shower and desayuno, upon which we had orientation, including a test to determine my spanish speaking skills, to give us a little bit of info on what we would be doing for the remainder of the program. After the meeting we went to lunch at the TropiBurger, a not-so-fast fast food restauraunt. For the evening we took the metrobus out to La Mitad del Mundo, where there is a statue that was erected by Europeans at what was believed to be the center of the earth or equator over a hundred years ago(they were pretty accurate only missing by 500-600 ft). The ride was a little over an hour and once we arrived I was amazed by the beautiful mountains and the clear skies in the countryside. Surrounding the statue is a little commerical area where there are shops with handicrafts, restaurants, and live music.

Just outside the fenced off area where the above building is, is the other Mitad del Mundo that is setup and run by indigenous people and is called Inti Nam. Located there is what is considered the ¨real¨or more accurate location of the equator, which they calculated using GPS. They have some cultural things there such as a preserved shrunken head that they said is about 150 years old (see below for procedure and pics). The neat thing about Inti Nam is they show you a bunch of little things that try to prove to you that you are at the equator, somewhat scientifically. For example they show you how the water spins opposite ways on opposite sides of the equator; however, we all came to believe it was a scam as I overheard that the tour guide saying in Spanish that it is all really just a symbol.

The next two days I spent taking 16 hours of spanish classes and therefore didn't do or see much. Lunch during these days was eaten at local cafes where a whole meal cost between $2.50 and $3. Some guys from my program and I met up with my friend Michael and some of the guys from his program at the Reina Victoria Pub. We had a few drinks, I tried the Pisco Sour which is has sour mix, some alcohol, and whipped egg (although I do not think they actually put alcohol in it). After that we went to Hotel Quito where some of Michael´s buds were staying and hit up the blackjack tables. I bought in $20 and ended up walking out $10 up.

The next day was my last day of class and I only had it for 4 hours. After lunch, a group of us went on a tour around Quito, to the Panecilla, a Basilica, and the top of a mountain where there was a military museum that noone cared to see. I sat up front with the driver because there wasn't enough room in the back, which turned out to be great becasue I was able to talk to him about the city and all sorts of stuff as we drove around. Also I think he took a liking to me, because he made sure to point out things and give me my own little tour by car. His name was Wilson, named after President Woodrow Wilson, and he was a incredibly friendly guy.