Hola! For the most part, this week was pretty tame compared to some of the adventures I've been lucky enough to have here in Ecuador. We just arrived in the rainforest though, so I'm sure that's about to change!
Anyways, on Tuesday I returned to the clinic again and shadowed the same ob/gyn I was matched with the day before. I learned quite a bit about how the Ecuadorian health care system works, with the basis being that everyone is entitled to free care. This sounds great, but in reality the options doctors have to provide for patients are extremely limited. One crazy example of this is that the physician was allowed to give out free birth control to adolescents only once they've already had a baby. With the amount of 15-18 year olds that came into the office either pregnant or already with children, you'd think they'd want to proactively provide other options.
I had a Spanish lesson that afternoon, then the rest of the week was split between exploring in the morning and class in the afternoon up until Thursday. We went to old town again, explored the local artisan market, then on Friday a group of us went to teleferrico, a cable car located about 15 minutes away at the edge of Quito. The ride takes you up through the clouds to over 14,000 feet, giving you a spectacular view of Quito and the surrounding nature on a nice day. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy when we were there, but we still had some good views and enjoyed the ride.
In the afternoon, four of us wandered towards new town Quito and stopped in the Jardin (garden) Mall. We walked past lacoste, united colors of benneton, and other high end American stores at marked-up prices. I had no idea Quito had enough of a wealthy population to support those kinds of stores, but it seems like the rich elite are a small but present group. We also accidentally came across the botanical garden, which had a beautiful array of flowers, cacti, and plants.
We walked back towards our section of town in a downpour, resulting in wet feet and pants up to our knees. There was no time to change before heading to dinner though, since we were meeting the doctor who'd supervised our clinics the week before. His girlfriend Beth, a high school and college Spanish teacher, and Emma, the nurse from the clinics, also joined us. Nadim, a family medicine physician, finished his residency in Chicago then he and Beth began a year long treck across the world volunteering and exploring. Emma came here to volunteer as a nurse for 3 months and is now engaged to an Ecuadorian and planning on staying for the foreseeable future.
We'd wanted to meet with Nadim to pick his brain about how he was able to travel for so long right after graduating. The dinner was extremely informative and I even learned about a program where US doctors are placed in countries that accept our licensing, which included New Zealand and Australia along with a few others. You can be placed for any length of time from 3 months to a year and are provided with a salary, housing, a car, and flights. Nadim worked for 3 months in New Zealand and earned about the same as he would have made over that time as a doctor in the states, using the money to fund the other 9 months of their journey. He explained that he was placed in a technically rural area, but New Zealand's so small they were only 15 minutes from the city. I had no idea something like this existed and I hope to take advantage of the opportunity at some point in the future.
By Saturday, I'd had my fill of walking around Quito and my host mom highly recommended taking a day trip to a town called Papallacta, so that's what I did. Two friends from the program joined me and we headed out around 7am to find a bus that would take us to the proper location. Despite the Ecuadorian method of buses not saying where they're headed and barely slowing down enough for you to hop in, we found a bus pretty quickly and made the 1.5 hour journey without much trouble, arriving around 9.
The main attraction in Papallacta is the thermal springs and in particular there's one hotel that doubles as a resort with pools you can visit for the day. After paying a mere $7 entrance fee, we were amazed to walk into a gorgeous area with about 5 main pools and many smaller hot tubs. The water comes from the hot springs, then varying amounts of cold water are added to each pool creating different temperatures to suit your preferences. With air temperature around the mid 50s, the water was highly enjoyable and we spent the morning lounging in the pools marveling at the incredible mountain scenery surrounding us in all directions. After lunch was more of the same, then we headed back to Quito mid-afternoon. A few of us tried to see Harry Potter at night, but we arrived to find crowds and a sold out show. We never expected that the English version of the film in Ecuador would be tough to get tickets for, but I guess the craze spreads well beyond the United State's borders.
Sunday morning, I showered at 4:45 in order to have breakfast by 5:30 and leave the apartment at 6. Sadly, that was my last time at my host family's house. When we return from the rainforest we're in a hotel the last 2 nights and the program ends on Saturday-crazy! We had to pack up all our things and take whatever we weren't bringing to the rainforest over to store in the hotel lobby. A 7 hour journey that involved curvy mountain roads, bumpy dirt paths, and rickety bridges ensued, then we finally arrived near our destination about two o'clock.
Now when I say near, we actually ended up on the bank of a river and had to fake motorized canoes to reach our hostel-talk about being secluded! Luckily, it was well worth the odd transportation. We're staying at an Eco-friendly lodge that uses solar energy to run and is situated on the banks of the river with breathtaking views. We were taken on a hike along the property to explore, where we saw a blue frog and a hissing beetle. We then ate a 3 course dinner on the covered patio, which included chocolate cake to finish. Not exactly the rough jungle experience I'd expected, but I'm not complaining!
Well, that's about it. We have health brigades planned each morning from mon-wed and it'll be interesting to compare this experience to the other clinics we've had thus far. I'm feeling much better about my Spanish and I've had a couple break through moments this week where I've been able to have conversations with actual Spanish speakers. I'm excited to see what the rest if this week brings and enjoy my first jungle experience to the fullest.
Pic #1: View along the drive to the jungle
Pic #2: Where we eat our meals. Hard life, huh?
Pic #3: Blue frog!
Pic #4: Hanging out on the patio before dinner.
Pic #5: Parrot friend that lives at the hotel.
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