Milagro

 

Milagro! My home for 3 weeks! The city of pineapples and sugar cane. Located about 40 min outside of Guayaquil, Milagro is smaller but much louder, busier and dustier! We stayed in the city center in Hotel Don Juan, recommended by the hospital.

Real Piñas, on the way to the hospital!

The view from our hotel! The night we arrived, sirens sounding and people screaming I ran to this window to see what the commotion was.  A shop below our hotel had somehow started on fire. People gathered and quickly the firefighters arrived and ran in with hoses. Once the area had been calmed, multiple news crews showed up. Quite the excitement for the first night.

Basically a constantly bustling city center. Loud honking taxis, tons of people, street vendors galor, bikes, motorcycles, cars and even horse drawn wagons!

Hotel Don Juan. Really a very nice place. Agua caliente, TV con cable,  air conditioning,  and Desayuno every morning.

Speaking of Desayuno, I needed to stock up at the local store to survive! I thought, I'll buy canned fruit for breakfast! That would be perfect, but...HOLY PEACHES!!! This country loves their Durazno. And no, there wasn't a canned pineapple in sight...or any other fruit for that matter :)

The hotel had a full kitchen right down the hall from our room. They were truly gracious hosts, and allowed us to use a portion of the fridge and dishes at our request. We survived, although it wasn't always 5 star dinning!

But hey. A coast town does have its advantages...  fresh cangrejo!

After breakfast an MMI bus picked us up every weekday morning at 7:40 for the ride to the hospital. The hospital de las Piñas was located on the outskirts of town. The ride in every morning was always entertaining. Chickens, pigs, millions of stray dogs and little food stands peppered your view constantly.

Then we would get to work! Jon, Wislande (my savior-our ophthalmology technician!!) and I, ready to get busy!

 

In 2001 MMI opened the Centro Cristiano de Servicios Medicos-Milagro, headed by Dr. Rios. This program offers a 12 bed hospital which includes screening patients, operations and a training program which focuses on caring for the poor.

We typically screened patients in the morning. We'd go at a fairly quick pace, and with Wisland's help I could actually conduct and exam and interview. When we finished with patient's for the morning, the hospital provided a home cooked lunch in the guesthouse daily. Often in the afternoon we'd continue seeing patients still waiting. Sometimes we would travel to the local university to do vision screens on incoming freshman.

If we weren't in the clinic we were in the OR. Dr. Rios provides surgical services to patients from all over Ecuador. He also travels to the US to obtain corneas! We were lucky enough to be there for almost an entire week of cornea transplants. We also saw pteriogoid removal, cataract surgery, strabismus repair, and trauma...think injuries at banana plantations!!!

And then we were done, ready to get our travel on! Ecuador finishes with a recap of Cuenca and Ruta Del Sol...

Guayaquil

Guayaquil is a the biggest city in Ecuador. A huge transportation hub, and only 40 min from Milagro, we bussed it to Guayaquil every weekend to either stay the weekend or hop a bus to a new destination. It's right on the river, and despite it's size and population, is relatively quite and really very clean. Like any big city, it offers it's share of nice restaurants and the comforts of a metropolis.

It has a huge beautiful church in the central square. Which looks out on...

An iguana park! Seriously, they are absolutely everywhere! In trees, in little ponds. Obviously on benches! Yikes. Iguanas are neat, but hundreds of them....when in Ecuador!

It also has an incredibly fun neighborhood called Las Peñas. A short climb up, oh, 456 stairs brings you through this colorful and historic neighborhood. A perfect time to take a break from the heat and humidity for a little mora ice cream! Guayaquil suffered and earthquake and this neighborhood has posted before and after restoration pictures outside of many homes and businesses.

A view from the top!! Las Peñas is nestled on the hill right behind the church. There is also a GIGANTIC cemetery in Guayaquil. We visited but were not allowed to take pictures. There were extremely elaborate tombs, and lots of local taxi driver ghost stories revolving around the tomb of Victor Emilio Estrada. Apparently his spirit wanders at night and hails a cab to his grave...and trust me, taking a taxi in Sud America can be a slightly dangerous ordeal even without competition from "undead" passengers!

Anyways,  back down the hill! We stayed at Hotel Andaluz each time we went to Guayaquil. It was very nice, and they are really quite flexible with prices! If you sort of just stare at the initial quote they will quickly ask you what you are willing to pay. We responded $20, and locked that price down each time we returned!

You meet extremely cute kids everywhere you go, with some mad saleperson skills. How could you not buy agua from that smile????

Last stop, Parque Historico! Complete with an amazing zoo! Birds, monkeys, ocelots, tapirs, tortugas (sort of tortuga-ed out by this point) made up the menagerie!

SCUBA

Pick your jaw up off the floor. I, yes I, went scuba diving. Jon wanted to book a day trip for scuba the second we landed in the Galapagos. I adamantly protested. Heck no! I've never taken a course, yadayadaya, you need to be certified, I'll get the bends and there is no hospital here. Obviously I'll die.

He did his usual...look at me, say nothing, then just look away technique for about two days. Then finally he said-look you will be fine, lets check it out.

We checked out a travel agency near the water. We were pretty impressed with the staff, they all spoke excellent English and seemed very reliable...and stuff. We booked floreana through them, and decided to inquire about scuba. We were told if you were not certified you would be able to do a "Discovery" dive. The instructors would go down with you one on one to test equipment and acclimate you. Then you would go to another shallow-12 m-site for a tame dive. You would have an instructor with you at all times, and really what can happen at 12 m...

So we went... I had a heck of a time popping my left ear (only to develop an ear infection a few days later...) but all else went smoothly. Honestly, it's pretty scary at first. You have an extreme urge to hyperventilate. But once you calm down a bit and make your way under it's incredibly awesome.

We saw amazing things snorkeling, but nothing compares to seeing a shark or ray 10 feet from your eyes! 

Next up Tortuga Bay.

We actually went here twice...wouldn't you? The bay is about a 30 min hike in and once you are there there is about a half a mile strip of beach for the taking. There is a wavy section where you can swim or surf and there is also a calm bay where you can swim or kayak. It was beyond gorgeous.

Ahhh. I already miss it! We left Galapagos and headed to Guayaquil for a night en route to Milagro... el ciudad de las pinas. TBC...

Galapagos parte dos

Lets start this post off right, more ceviche. Served with ketchup. Ketchup on my soup...you know the way to my heart. After a little sea food sustenance we hit up the town to explore tour options. We planned a few things, stay tuned !

That afternoon we were off to another beach. This beach was on the other side of the island, and called Garrapaterro Bay. It was lovely. There was no one there for the first 45 min or so! It truly felt like a deserted island paradise. We swam and sunned a bit until it was time to pack up.

 

Flamingos! On the hike out of the beach you pass by a little lagoon. As luck would have it there was a gaggle? or pink flamingos!

The next morning we set out for Floreana. It was a formal tour that started with a 2 hour boat ride. We ended up with another gaggle, this time of old ornery folks. Lets all say a prayer for our tour guide and his patience with these geezers. Yikes.Once off the boat we waited quite a while for the bus to come. why? Because the island only has one bus! When it arrived we were carted up the island to the bottom of the largest peak. Some of the frailer folks decided to just ride right back down. Good choice! The hike in started with a tortuga reserve. These babies came from another island, so they are kept contained as to preserve each islands natural fauna.

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The hike continued through intense mud. Quite a few spills by the other hikers. Not gonna lie. It was pretty funny! Jon and I, donning our tennis shoes, did just fine. We hiked through the pirate oncaves! Sailors new about this island and its natural spring for many years. It was a common stopping point. The sailors carved little shelters and kitchens into the ashen rock for protection.

After our hike we snorkeled, had lunch and made our way back on the boat. We stopped for a bird frenzy. We saw pinguinos, boobies (nascaw and blue footed) and more sea birds! We have been doing pretty well on our quest to find the wildlife of the Galapagos. Stay tuned...

Galapagos Parte Uno

I cannot believe I am in the Galapagos!! Can you? Match day came and went and as fast as you can say Charles Darwin, I was on a plane to Guayaquil. I landed late Saturday night where Jon was waiting in the lobby with a handcrafted Dr. Geier sign he had colored at the hostel. Poor guy must have been a wee bit bored. We taxied to the Hostel, which was a tad steamy, but had miniature monkeys and turtles and parrots in the lobby. Up early the next am for our flight to the Galapagos. Proof....

The arrival! Jon enhanced these photos and they are seriously amazing. You get the non enhanced version because it took me about an hour to load them! There were rainbows galore as we flew through the clouds to the little airport on Santa Cruz. yes. I flew through rainbows to land in the Galapagos. Heaven on earth

We landed, bought our admission which goes to the national park funds, and boated/taxied to  our hotel. It is a very nice hostel/hotel, with air conditioning, private bathroom and a dvd player What more could you want. BTW a fantastic thing about Central/South America is that you can buy pirated DVDs for about $1.50. Not that I've done that...

 

First things first, good eats! We were advised by a local to stop by this ceviche shop. It was run by an old man next door, who served his creation with SA ketchup and banana chips. Throwing caution to the wind we devoured this delicious ceviche. The travel doc was pretty adamant about her eating recommendations. Nothing raw, nothing on the street, nothing you can't peel...thanks. Advice taken and promptly discarded.

Bellies full it was time to wander about town. Sea lions are everywhere. The small ones are calm, and mostly sleep, itch themselves and do sea lion yoga. Large lions however, grunt and hiss at you should you approach their "territory". Such strange animals. Sort of like slightly more agile manatees on land, but flipping twisting wonderful creatures in the water.

Our rather aimless wandering brought us to the Charles Darwin Center. We began our hike up to see the Tortugas and were immediatly struck by how many gecko/unidentified lizard species there are! These red necked guys are my favorite.

This brought us to the Tortugas! We were able to hijack a cruise ship tour, thrifty!! The turtles were thought to have floated over to the Galapogos on pieces of vegetation that broke off from the land. They are able to survive for months without food or water. This is why no land mammals are found on the Galapagos. Depending on the elevation and vegetation of the island, the tortugas developed different shells. They became giant because they found ample food, with virtually no predators. The islands with lush vegitation created low and extremely large turltes. Islands with less ground cover cause turtles to develop the saddle back and longer legs, so there were able to stick their neck up and eat higher up.

They apparently store much fluid in their pericardium, and therefore were taken by pirates and whalers. The sailors would ravage the tortise population for fluids, and also would take them aboard because they needed no food/water, but provided meat, fluid and oil to the sailors. Therefore the tortuga population became depleted. In fact at one point a single turtle was left on one of the norther islands, lonesome George, and when he was discovered he was brought to Santa Cruze to the Darwin center for safe keeping. Since they have been trying to breed with various females, but have not been successful. Turtles live for 150 years and are most sexually active from about 80-100 years old.

The  Darwin Center has a section for males, females and babies. The babies are kept there for about 5 years, until their shells harden. At that point, they have virtually no predators and may be released to the low lands. It takes them about 25 years to make their way up to lusher surroundings.

After visiting the turtles we stopped at a rocky beach that was literally crawling with crabs.

Stopped for a pisco sour (left) on the way home. We sipped on the dock with marine iguanas and sea lions.

The center of town boasts and impressive street of kiosks that open after about 7pm. They serve mainly rice and meat or rice and seafood dishes. Here was encocado de camaron. A delicious shrimp dish in creamy coconut sauce. Holy yum. If you eat on the street, they use virutally no gluten. However, in restuarants we have run across a few sauce problems, soy sauce, teriyaki etc.

Jon, contemplating our next move...er, next culinary delight!

Hasta luego, stay tuned. Next up includes tortuga bay, floreana and scuba (seriously!, my chicken butt scuba-ed).

And the celebrations continued

Wine with Mom and Lisa!

Class party at the W!

Sancia and I-Body buddies 4 years later!

Body Buddy 2-Chad!

Jon's roomie-The famous Daniel

The lovely Molly-we survived crazy busy endo together!


And I'm off to Ecuador! Stay posted, I'll try to get a post up now and again!