Sum up

I realize I never finished my carnaval break updates. Really that would just take too mush time. To sum up;
- Cuenca was very pretty but a ghost town cause everyone had left for the holidays
- The bus ride to the coast was gorgeous
- the bus ride up the coast was gorgeous
- spent the last few days bumming around on different beaches and playing in the waves
- spent the last few nights eating great dinners, playing boardgames, and drinking wine or capariñas.
- Flew back to quito, spent a day in Quito before busing back to tena
excellent trip overall. some of my best times in ecuador. I will upload photos as soon as these computers allow it.

The brigade has arrived

yo,

It is really hot today. Sun all day long. Hot humid and sticky. Yesterday was the first day of the neurologist brigade. Two EEG techs and two neurologist are here, next week more neurologist will come. It seems here that everyone and there mother has epilepsy, which is what an EEG tests for more or less. Yesterday was a madhouse. I have never seen that many people in the hospital, which is saying something cause normally the place is pretty crazy in the mornings. But yesterday morning the craziness was directed at me. Everyone thought I was a doctor and could get them seen. I was cornered by people telling me they or their child was sick and had come from far away. My place in all this chaos is to translate for the EEG techs, call the next name on the list, and help set up and take down when I can. Unfortunately none of these duties involve deciding who goes when, and I felt like an ass when I had to tell people to wait. Some of them walked three hours from some remote location and then had to take the bus just to sit in a waiting room for 6 hours and do the journey again that night. Having to tell people who had made such a journey that they had to wait was a hard thing to do. Luckily today was much more organized. We managed to see more people in less time and everything stayed relatively calm. Yesterday i was at the hospital from 740 am until 640 pm. Today I got to leave at 330 pm. Let's hope things continue to go this smoothly.

locked out

I just got back from a great weekend of hiking and hot springs in papallacta. I was greatly looking forward to getting home early, having time to do my laundry before it got dark, and read a bit. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my house key with me this weekend, and as it is sunday, my family is up at the farm, and likely to not be back until 8 pm. Because of this I am chillin at an Internet cafe in Tena, with all my shit, passing the time doing nothing in particular.

anyway, back to this weekend...

Heidi and I left Tena friday afternoon around 4pm and got into papallacta around 7:30. Natalie came in from Quito around 8, and katie joined us around midnight after some slight bus confusion. Spent most of the night in the hostel hot springs and the rest making, and tending a fire. We got an upgrade on our room the first night since our original was not ready. This meant we got a fireplace. I loved having the chance to build a fire. It reminded me of being home. Having a fire was also very welcome because papallacta is freakin freezin.

Saturday was the day of our big hike. I have hiked in papallacta's nature reserve three time before, but have never gone past the first lagoons, which are about and hour to hour and a half hike in. This time we hike three and a half hours in. This hike is at very high altitude and with a lot of steep ascents along the way. This means it was rather exhausting. The hike brought us to a set of three lagoons and later a very large gorgeous lagoon. At this particular one we decided to stop and debate whether to chance it and continue to the next ranger station or to turn back. After a cheese, cracker, and cookie lunch we decided to turn back just to be sure we would ge4t out of the park before dark, because we did not know exactly how farm the station was. It rained the entire way back. We were soon soaked to the bone and freezing. Despite this we got very giggly from either exhaustion or the sheer lunacy of our situation. We booked it back and, because it was mostly decent, made back in an hour and a half. At the station we got a guy to drive us back to our hostel in his truck. We all hunkered down and squeezed together for warmth in the bed of pick up. He didn't charge us anything for the ride, and we ere changed and into the hot springs as soon as possible. The changing part actually took awhile since our hand were so cold we lacked some dexterity. Gracias a dios we had hot spring in our hostel and were able to warm up quickly.
After we could feel all our body part again we treated ourselves to a rather delicious diner, and some amazing hot chocolates, at the spa just up the road. Its about a 5 minute walk but we took a cab anyway. We were just that tired. Today we had a one last quick dip in the springs and caught a bus back to our respective cities.
Which bring me here, the only open internet cafe that does not even have the ability to play youtube vids. But at least here it is warm.

a train ride and some incan ruins to go with it

ok, where was I?


That sunday we woke up at 4am to eat breakfast and catch a bus to alausí by 5am. We wanted to take the train all the way from riobamba to alausí, but there was a mudsilde on the tracks between these two points. Oh well.
Getting on the train in alausí was a major cluster fuck of pushy tourist and pushy ecuadorians all wanting the best seat on the train to see la nariz del diablo bit of track. Heidi and I followed a coupld of other tricky people who used the method of sending one person to the train and one to get tickets. The train ride itself was not that thrilling. Had some good views and it was fun to ride and old-time train. The ride lasted about an hour and a half.
When we got back to the station we bought a bus ticket to Tambo from which we caught a taxi to ingapirca, the most important incan ruins ecuador. Roads were horrible from all the rain and our cab broke down after taking on a rather large pot hole. After about 20 minutes it started running again, which was good cause i certaintly did not want to walk the rest of the way in the rain. With a little luck the rain stopped once we arrived at the ruins. I love going to ruins. I don't why exactly, i kjust like to image what they were when people lived there; what they looked like, what people did in their daily lives, stuff like that. Had a good time walkig through the buildings and taking pictures. Did not stay for too long because we wanted to get to cuenca before it got dark. Took another cab back to Tambo, which had no buses to cuenca, so took a smaller bus to cañar. Tons of people along the way covered in flour or baking powder..not entirely sure. I managed to avoid that particular method of attack throughout the holiday. From cañar we caught a bus to Cuenca and got in around 6pm. So in the end it only took us 4 buses and a train to get to Cuenca, the city i have been wanting to see since i got to ecuador.


...and sorry still no pics :(

My introduction to carnaval and Riobamba

So this blog is about two weeks late, and i am only to going to write the first part now, but hey life is busy here in Tena man....wait that is a complete lie...im just lazy

Anyways, I had a week off for carnaval, and with it went on an awesome trip through the southern sierra(mountains) and southern coast. Started the trip in Quito on a Friday. From Quito I took a 4 hour bus south to riobamba. Amazing how much nicer the journey is when the road is paved the whole way and and you are going through the mountains not across the mountains. All of which is contrary to my usual bus route between Quito and tena. I got into to riobamba pretty late because the terminal in Quito was an absolute zoo due to carnaval travelers. I have never seen that place so crowded. At any rate, we had to wait for the bus for about an hour. Met up with Heidi(another volunteer at the hospital) in our hostel. She was coming from tena and we arrived at pretty much the same time. Really nice hostel and very close to the train station, the train being our primary reason for being in Riobamba.
Our original plan was this; get to riobamba on Friday to wake up early on Saturday to get train tickets for Sunday morning. The train would then take us to alausí and the famous piece of track called "la nariz del diablo". The attraction of this is that you get to ride on top of the train, see some beautiful views of the mountainside, and get scarred shitless by the steep decline and incline of the so-called "devils nose". So, we woke up early got breakfast and went to the station, which was still closed despite it being 930 with a supposed 9am open time. Instead of waiting there for it to open we decided to walk around and see a bit of the city in the daylight. Went to several plazas, a marketplace, and a few Churches. Throughout our walk we saw people setting up stands to sell foam spraying cans, colored powder, water balloons, and eggs all in preparation for their carnaval celebration. I was optimistic they wouldn't throw water at us because we were gringas. I don't know why i reasoned this. It was very foolish on my part. It did not take long before we were sprayed with foam, and then some more foam, and then some more. Soon we realized; one, we wanted to see the parade, second, we would have to by foam and fight back in order to due so. It was a lot of fun. We walked down the streets spraying everyone that sprayed us, and running from those attacking with paint. The whole city was one giant shaving cream/paint/water fight in which no one was spared. Grandmas, babies, people in nice clothes, people in cars or on motorcycles all got soaked. Heidi and i went through three cans of foam each. While very good at retaliation we were not successful at avoiding the paint. About two hours later we arrived at the hotel,and, to the amusement of other guest, soaking went and covered in various colors of paint. Washed up best we could, but it ended up taking three or four days to get the purple paint out of my eyebrows. Once clean and dry we had no desire to venture out again. We ordered in pizza to the hostel and split it with some other guess that also did not want to leave. after lunch we rejoined the festivities from a safer spot, the roof of the hostel. From the roof i threw water at passersby with no danger of getting wet myself. Almost every balcony or rooftop had someone throwing water. This continued the whole day. At one point it died down and Heidi and i dared to go to a look out point a few blocks away. Just as we were getting back we were hammered with water balloons throw from a car window. Later that night when we went to dinner we took a taxi there and back directly from hostel to restaurant door. We were traveling with very little clothing and its cold in the mountains. Therefore, we wanted to make sure that what dry clothes we had left remained that way.
It was a great first day to a trip i can say that much. It also made us aware that we should leave the house in raincoats until the festivities passed. which meant we had to be scared of water balloons for the next four days (with good reason, they can hurt).

.....and the stupid thing wont let me upload pictures. the internet in tena as a whole is going through and tough time right now.
...... more pictures to come soon

wasting precious time

Hanging out in good old selva net. Like usual the internet is going extremely slow. I wanted to make a few blog posts about my carnaval break trip. However, between day-long power outages, and general impatience for the internet connection, I have not gotten around to it. Right now I am wasting time hoping people will leave the internet cafe so the internet is fast enough to upload pictures.

hmm...not working
Maybe i should go work on that paper of mine....maybe

Donde está la fiesta?..En Tena pues

Today marks the end of the festivals of the Napo province. Kinda like an independence day for the province except they celebrate it for about two weeks. This morning there was a grand parade of every school in the province it seemed. Imagine a parade three hours long of nothing but marching bands that have only drums. I had planned on missing this parade but found myself trapped when I entered town to use the internet. There were so many people that once I got off the bus I became a rather “captive” audience member. Last week they had another parade that was a much more interesting. More dances and more cultural. Today was just pretty military. I only took pics of the other parade.
Tonight the streets will fill with people for a big city-wide dance. They had the exact same events for the festivals of Tena. Went to that dance night, but I will probably skip this one. I think before I described it as a summer fest-type atmosphere meaning super crowded and filled with people who are mostly drunk off their asses.
At any rate I enjoy how everything is an excuse to party here and there is always something going on despite the fact that it is a pretty small city. A lot of Ecuador is like that I think. Walk around long enough and you are bound to find a parade, a protest, a dance, or a concert right there on the street.

the Tena "Airport"

I feel the need to explain this so-called airport because I just find it so bemusing.
There is a runway and tower; there is also a volley ball court and a soccer field. People regularly walk across it to get from point A to point B. They also use the runway as a track for jogging and general exercise. How is this possible you wonder?
Well only about three planes land here a week, mostly military. Before they land a siren sounds and people meander off the runway...or you know keep playing volley ball and hope the pilot doesn't land too low too quickly.

oh pablo, how i love you

A guy read this poem on the bus between archidona and tena the other day. reminded me of my old obsession with pablo neruda, and that i should re-read some of his poems now that i understand spanish better.





"Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche."



Pablo Neruda



Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Escribir, por ejemplo : 'La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos'.
El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.
En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.
Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.
Oir la noche immensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.
Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo.
Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.
La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos arboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.
De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto al amor, y es tan largo el olvido.
Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Aunque ésta sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.

Rafting trip

So I survived my two day rafting trip through the jungle.
I am so glad I decided to go. The trip was amazing. I do not have pictures to upload yet but I am working on it. Gorgeous, the whole way was just gorgeous. I mostly enjoyed the jungle canyon, waterfalls, and tropical birds flying overhead…… and the level four rapids. The guides were awesome and very good at their job. One guy fell out of our boat early on and by the time I thought “oh shit he is in the water” the guide had already jumped over all our gear and pulled him back in the boat. I went with a great group of people too, a lot of really good paddlers. One guy had been rafting all over the world and said this trip was in at least his top five. I think it moved up the ranks through out the trip though.
Our campsite for the night was a little "beach" that we had to be prepared to leave at any moment should the water level rise. I was sure we would have to pick everything up in the middle of the night and hike into the jungle because it kept raining. We did not have to though thank god. It would have been a bitch and a half to hike with all our gear.
All of the big rapids were the first day, but we still had some pretty awesome moments and ways to keep things interesting our second day. For example, sitting on the front of the raft and trying to hold on through some level three rapids. I also got to enjoy a couple of nice swims throughout the day. When the water was calm I usually just jumped off the boat and swam about till I had to be pulled in for the next rapid ride.
By the end of the second day we were all rather sore and a little sunburned.
To wrap up the trip we ate dinner at the marquis, Tena's fancy restaurant that has sloths just hanging around in the thatch work. Got to see two of them. Restaurant knows how to entertain its dinner guests.
The next day the other two volunteers and I probably should have taken the day off. Everything hurt. Great improvements today though. I can walk without pain and stairs are only a minor challenge.
Despite the recovery processing I recommend this trip for anyone who makes their way down to Ecuador. Provided of course they come during season. Next weekend is the last trip before the rain makes it too dangerous.

my life these days

hey guys

sorry i haven't written in awhile. I am back living in Archidona and working in Tena. It takes about 40 minutes and 2 buses to get from home to work, but I enjoy the trip. My view along the way is the jungle and Andean foothills so can’t complain.

I am working in the hospital in Tena with a program called pedi-habilidad. They work with kids 0 to 12 with disabilities and illness like cerebral palsy. I help out the physical therapist when they need me and translate once in awhile. In addition to this I am going to start doing some work in the medical records area comparing charts and in general tidying things up a bit if I can. The more boring office type stuff will only be two afternoons out of the week.

I think I have formulated an idea for the final 40 page paper I have to write. Its all very up in the air right now but I would like to write a proposal for expanding the program to other rural areas in the country. We will see how this develops.

In other news I am going on a two day rafting trip this weekend. It the second to last one of the season before the rains get too unpredictable. Really excited about it, mostly for the part where we go rafting through a cave. I will be sure to write about the trip as soon as i can.

Last weekend i worked as a volunteer at a festival celebrating the Napo river. It was a great weekend. We spent Saturday at a little down about 30 min east of tena called Misahaullí. This town is FILLED with monkeys. Seriously, they were everywhere climbing trees, climbing light posts, stealing food, and going into people’s boats. I loved just hanging out and watching their crazy antics.
But i did not have too much time for this. As a volunteer we carried around rafts and set up about a dozen tents for the days activities. Two of the other volunteers and I sat a the info booth for a little awhile before deciding to join one of the teams for the rafting race. The race was held on level two rapids and at the end you had to flip over your boat and get back in before paddling to shore. It was exhausting. We won second the first round and couldn’t flip our boat back over for the second round. hahaha
I spent the night in Misahaullí hanging out and meeting some new people from all over the place. Cause I was a volunteer i got free meals and a free night at a pretty nice hostel. Good deal.
I am definitely going back to Misahaullí if only to hang out on the beach and watch the monkeys wrestle in the trees, which i guess is really all there is to do there when there is no festival going on.

so yes, my life in a nutshell right now consists of a week of routine with weekends of adventure.

oh and I must add….no snow or sub zero temps....sorry guys