Cusco

After sleeping overnight in the Lima Airport and a 5 am flight into Cusco, everyone should hold a baby lamb! Welcome to Cusco!

Que bonita. At 11,200 ft you can really feel the alt alt altitude. Every hotel offers coca tea to help with the adjustment. Coca tea is delicious. Chewing coca leaf...mmm...not so much.

Plaza de Armas. Cusco is derived from the Quechua word Qusqu. Quechua is a completly phonetic language, and Qusqu sounds like two rocks slowly rubbed against each other.

 Half Incan, half spanish. This city is amazing. It was also chilly. Note my baby alpaca get up!

I ate one million times better in Peru. Quinoa tabouli..YES PLEASE!

Palta rellena-stuffed avacado. Here continues my love affair with mayonesa!

There was also a little sampling of the local fare-Cuy!

Which turns into this. Not GF. I had to live vicariously through this one, as can you...

A little protein before hitting the inca trail!

Intra Ecuadorian Travel

Cuenca! I was able to attend Easter mass at this gorgeous cathedral. Shortest mass of my life. Less than 30 minutes, including full communion! I could have easily lasted another 30 minutes just staring at the amazing alter piece.

The cathedral. The weather in Cuenca was amazing. The cool mountain air was a delightful break from the humidity of Milagro.

The 3 blue domes that make this cathedral so famous!

Plus a Panama hat factory! Yes indeed, Panama hats are actually from Ecuador. Sounds like a trivial pursuit question to me!

Onto Ruta del Sol. First stop, Salinas.

Good ceviche...still using prophylactic pepto just in case...

Nasty ceviche, with mayonesa! Thank God for the pepto!

Amazing seafood spread! Lobster, langostinos, shrimp, mussels, squid, octopus and patacones!! I may or may not have needed a refill on that garlic butter too :)

Ruta del Sol finished up in Montanita. What a crazy cool town, and not for anyone over 30! Beautiful beaches, wild horses, and a serious rasta attitude!

Ahh. Soaking up the beach before heading to the Montañas!

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.

'

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...