achoo216's Xanga

Friday, August 18, 2006

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 05:49:50 GMT

Hey kiddos,

Back from my South America/Cancun trip. Can't believe my summer is already coming to an end. Starting classes in a week. Joy joy. Here are some pics from the Galapagos trip I took with Jenn, Loanne, Miranda, Larry and Tina.

Male frigate bird using his red pouch to attract his future wives

Bartolome Island - one of the most scenic viewpoints in the Galapagos

Sea lions lazying around

Playful Galapagos sea lion

Galapagos penguins

Bartolome Island

Sunset in the Pacific

Monday, July 31, 2006

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:00:43 GMT

in the middle of one of our jungle hikes last weekend, we had to squeeze through some narrow places. and yup, becky is wearing green scrubs haha

jeannie, becky and i helping rosita cook a typical ecuadorian meal of llapingachos..which are potato and cheese pancakes

in the middle of our rafting trip, we stopped inside this cave that seemed pretty deserted and gave ourselves mud facials

oops

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:57:27 GMT

went down to the central highlands to a place called banos over the weekend with anne and christa, two girls who go to iowa med. anyhoo, we were mountain biking along the path to puyo which is supposed to be quite scenic..but anne fell off her bike and hurt her shoulder pretty badly. thankfully, we were able to catch the next bus back to quito and take her to the ER at one of the american run hospitals here. lets just say that it felt quite weird to be in the hospital as a friend of a patient, instead of working as the med student. the experience was a classic example of how a bad doctor-patient encounter can leave the patient feeling distrustful of the doctor..which is what happened. without even looking at anne´s shoulder and arm, the doctor came in with the xray and said that everything was fine and nothing was broken. however, he left w-o addressing any of our concerns or questions.. oh well. something i realized here is that whatever the doctor says, goes. the patient has no say whatsoever..which is drastically different from how it is in the states. anyhoo, takeaway from the day is; make sure you have all your insurance stuff handy while traveling. also, i must say that the three of us were quite worried and scared about possibly needing to get medical attention here in ecuador especially after everything that we´ve seen in the hospitals. just glad that she´s ok.

my medical program is officially over...i´ll be traveling to the galapagos later this week and then to cancun then back to the states to enjoy simple conveniences like hot HOT showers.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 23:44:03 GMT

just got back from the most amazing weekend ever. a bunch of us decided to head over to tena for some of their jungle excursions for the weekend. we took off thursday afternoon (yup i skipped clinic oh well) and got back sunday night. itinerary is as follows:

day 1: took a super long bus ride (5.5 hours) from quito to tena. we were all a bit nervous since right before we took the bus, a random tourist came up to us and asked if we were traveling on a night bus. according to him, it´s pretty common for a night bus to "accidentally" pick up guys who will hold us all at gunpoint. needless to say, i was nervous every time the bus stopped at some random road to pick up more passengers (and they did that pretty frequently). we had to stop halfway and get out the bus b-c the police were checking IDs and bags. minus that and the loud music that was blaring in the background and the weird kungfu movie they showed, the bus ride was ok. we arrived at tena around 9pm.

day 2: headed out of tena bright and early and headed over to the middle of the jungle. the lodge we stayed at had an amazing view of the amazon basin. we put on our "water proof" boots and hiked for the next 4 hours in the middle of the jungle. the views were really beautiful. i had to keep reminding myself that i was really trekking through the primary forest. we came across a bat cave which was pretty neat..but definitely not so neat when i was canyoning and had bats fly right above my head. that was a bit freaky but also kinda cool. the canyoning was really fun...it consisted of using only my back, arms and legs to schimmy my way up two really close surfaces if that makes sense at all. we headed back to the cabin for lunch and then trekked for another 3 hours to an indigenous village. the kids all had ascites which was kinda sad to see, but they were really cute.

day 3: full day of rafting that included getting thrown into the water by my guide about 10 million times, but i´m proud to say that i managed to throw him out at least once haha. highlights include capsizing our raft where everyone was thrown into the water. we also passed by this small cave where we docked and walked around inside. one of the guys decided it would be funny to give me a mud facial by surprise. pics will be posted whenever i get them. we also played futbol with the local kids which was really fun.

day 4: climbing up waterfalls! that was an amazing experience. the scariest part was when i was crossing over to the other side of the waterfall and lost my footing. yup, i was dangling under the pressure of the waterfall holding onto dear life, praying that my hands would be able to hold onto the rope. if i fell, it would have been pretty bad since i had already climbed pretty high up and there was nothing but a small pool that was 2 meters deep below me...wouldnt have been able to surface that easily since the waterfall was directly over the pool...thank goodness i managed to stabilize myself with the help of our guide...although i do have some scratches and bruises on my legs. nevertheless, i would do it again! i´ve never climbed a waterfall before, and that day i climbed three..yay! after that, trekked for another 3 hours and slid my way through muddy soil downhill and back to the cabin.

back to quito after that. if any of you ever come out to ecuador, definitely head out to tena. the tour i went with..amarongachi tours...has cabins in the middle of the jungle and no other tours go there, so we felt like we had the jungle all to ourselves...all in all, highly highly recommended. i´ll post an ugly pic of my legs haha...they are both covered with about 15 sandfly and mosquito bites each and about 4 big bruises on each..my war wounds..

Monday, July 17, 2006

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 22:55:17 GMT

safe and sound back in quito after my brief stay at the coast in a little town called chone. so one of the things that really stands out is the amazing amount of machismo that exists here..especially along the coast. when i was in chone, there wasn{t a single time where i can leave the house without being harrassed with comments such as "chica bonita!", "chica americana!", or some other variation of chica from guys that stand in the streets. even worse, there would be guys who were riding their bikes with their respective wife and kid, and as we walked by, their eyes would obviously follow our movements as we walked along. arghh..soo annoying! i{m definitely glad to be back in quito and can somewhat blend back into anonymity.

i saw some really cool things in the hospitals here...some of the stuff is pretty sad..makes me appreciate our healthcare system back in the states a bit more..the lack of resources here in some of the hospitals is mind blowing. it{s really sad to just stand by and watch helplessly at a patient when i know in the back of my head that if they were in the states, they would get the treatment they need.

on a brighter note, im taking advantage of the weekends here to travel all around ecuador. my goal is to hit north, south, east and west of quito before i leave..would like to see a lot of ecuador this summer.

pics to be posted soon. hope everyones having a great summer!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 00:29:08 GMT

hey guys!

ok so after being MIA for the school year, i´m back to updating my xanga. i´m spending the summer here in ecuador...arrived last thursday so i´ve been here for about a week already. just some quick things i noticed:

1. quito is NOT FRIENDLY to tourists..as in, i constantly have to watch my back for fear that some random guy in the street will cut my bag. in the june program, 3 digital cameras were stolen out of a group of 20! also, there´s a lot of ¨machismo here...so whenever i walk with a group of girls, we always get really blatant staring..it´s quite annoying actually

2. quito is very polluted. i fe el like i can´t breathe most of the time

3. my spanish blows. i can´t understand a lot of things at the clinics. hopefully this will change by the end of the program

4. i love my homestay! there´s 8 students in total for the month so i´ts always really easy to plan things to do together and just chill out

5. i did something really dumb and reckless for july 4th, but i´m still alive so that´s good news. (probably the most reckless thing i´ve ever done while traveling but i had fun and i´m still in one piece so i´m thanking my lucky stars)

6. i love caldas de gallinas which is basically soup with boiled chicken..i dont know what they put in the soup but it tastes GREAT!

7. there is no such thing as HIPPA or patient privacy here..seems like everyone is in everybody else´s business. for example, when i shadowed a pediatrician, there were other ppl peering into our room when we were examining the kid..very different from the states

8. bananas are everywhere! i´m going to start dreaming about them pretty soon

9. i love traveling. period.

okies more updates next time i get to a computer that wasn´t built last century..

ciao!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:15:34 GMT

Need a break from studying so thought I'd update my Xanga. After a couple of months, i finally feel like I'm in med school...i.e. I get to cut open a cadaver and poke around inside. At first I was really grossed out. Well, actually on the first day, I almost passed out from nausea, which was not the reaction I was expecting since I was so psyched to start. But it definitely took some time to get used to the fact that I have a real person in front of me. We've been doing pretty amazing things. FOr example, the other day we dissected the heart and it was an amazing feeling to actually hold a human heart in my hands and examine it. (okies some of you are probably thoroughly grossed out by now so i'll stop)

Aside from school, things have been going ok. I feel like I'm stil looking for that fine balance between doing work and having fun (and of course watching all my favorite TV shows. 24 is the best..)

Oh, I'm going to Ecuador to do some clinical rotations in quito and chone for the summer, and after that I'm planning on traveling around. Any interest, shoot me an email!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 16:17:15 GMT

Hey everyone, I did it! I just came back from hiking the 4 day Inca Trail that leads to the lost city of Macchu Picchu. It was an amazing experience. Theres nothing better than just being there at the moment and enjoying every single minute of the hike and being shocked by the beauty of all the different Inca ruins. By far, the hardest part of the 4 day hike was the second day, where we had to hike up to 1200 meters to Dead Womans pass, which was at 4200 meters (roughly 13700 feet above sea level). Hard as the trek was, it was just a great experience to camp out in the middle of the Andes and to wake up to sunrise every morning...to walk the same route as the Incas did 600 years ago, and to discover at the end of the path, the magnificent city of Machu Picchu.

At the top of Dead Woman{s pass, I was so happy I really wanted to kiss the sign.

Machu Picchu

Monday, August 01, 2005

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 23:27:28 GMT

Hi yall,

No more stories of me getting robbed, thank goodness. I met up with my group from GAP adventures in Lima last friday and from there, we flew to Puno and then stayed overnight with a family on one of the islands on Lake Titicaca. The lake is beautiful and is the largest source of freshwater in the world. It´s also the highest navigable lake.

Anyhow, Puno is the place tourists usually want to go to if they want to visit the Floating Islands. These islands are made of totoro reeds and just float by themselves. During the Inca time, the Uros people, who inhabit these islands, fled the Inca invasion by leaving their home in the jungle and moving to these islands that they build themselves. It´s very interesting stepping onto these islands since it feels quite jello-y under your feet. Besides being used to build the islands, these reeds are also used for food, medicinal purposes, building material for their ships, wood for fire, basically anything useful. As the bottom rots, the Uros people keep piling new reeds on the top. The little kids here are super cute. I couldn´t resist photographing this one.

At night, they dressed us up in the local costumes and we all fiesta'ed together and learned their type of dance. Whoa! I dont think I´ve ever worn two skirts and had a belt tied around my ribcage area so tightly that I thought I wouldn´t be able to breathe. I think I instantly lost 2 inches on my waist haha.

The stars are amazing from here and I saw my first shooting star last night! I dont´think I´ve ever seen that many stars in my life. And it helps that because we´re so high up, the sky is amazingly clear. Some people started a bonfire and we started dancing around in a circle...a bit silly but I had fun. Ok, more later. Time for dinner..more Peruano soup..hmmm

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:36:35 GMT

hmm i felt my first earthquake yesterday...it was a bit scary but didn{t last too long. apparently in the newspaper today, it said that it registered a 5.8 on the richter scale