Galápagos

Well, I got home Saturday afternoon after a Friday the 13th red-eye flight. It's still a little strange to hear everyone speaking English...it's like I can hear everyone at once and I just don't expect it. But it's good to be home!

The Galápagos Islands were amazing! I met up with my mom and aunt Annie and we toured Quito for a day, then had to fly to the islands. Instead of doing a cruise, we had a small tour group (4 Italians, 3 Japanese people, and an Austrian family) and we stayed in lodges every night on different islands. The trip went from Santa Cruz to Floreana to Isabela then back to Santa Cruz.

We saw more animals than I even thought we would, and I had high expectations! Snorkeling we saw fish, a sting ray, sea turtles, huge school of fish, and probably 20 white-tipped reef sharks. I had to keep reminding myself I wasn't in like Sea World or something- just the wild Pacific Ocean. Of course, we also saw the famous Darwin finches on the different islands.





The island of Floreana only has 120 inhabitants and has no electricity from midnight until 6 am, but the cabins we stayed at were right on the beach. We did some hiking there and saw lots of sea lions and a penguin hanging out on the pier.


hiking on Floreana

I think Isabela was my favorite island; the beaches were white and gorgeous. At night, we stayed in a campsite called Campo Duro in the middle of the island, and we were the only ones there besides the owner. He showed us to our tent after dinner and we all just stopped in our tracks to stare at the stars. The owner probably thought we were crazy, but I've never seen anything like it, and doubt I ever will again. A million stars, from horizon to horizon. Just magic.


♥ Isabela

Santa Cruz is home to the Charles Darwin Research Station and Lonesome George, the last turtle of his species. Its main town, Puerto Ayora is really nice--lots of little shops and people riding bikes.




It was refreshing to see how wild the islands themselves still are. Most don't have many inhabitants, and they're definitely not overrun by tourists or anything (at least at this time of year). This trip was sooo worth it...I recommend it to anyone who likes wildlife or diving or beaches or just the sound of the ocean without any interruptions.



For that matter, I think Ecuador is an great place for anyone to visit, though I didn't know that before I came. The people are incredibly nice, the Spanish is clear, and there is so much variety in terrain and cultures packed into its small borders.

Leaving Ecuador to return to the US was sadder than I thought it would be. The world looks odd without mountains and I probably won't be able to do surgery again until I'm in vet school. I am so grateful for my trip though and can't wait until I can return to South America.

Parques y Termas

I spent my last full weekend in Ecuador in Quito. I feel like I know every part of this city now. Saturday I traveled with Leo to help with a surgery and then later in the day, checked out 2 of the main parks, Parque Carolina and Parque Metropolitano. There were tons of families playing soccer and picnicking--this must be where everyone in Quito goes on weekends. Sunday Trisha and I went to Old Town again. It was much calmer on a Sunday and a lot of the churches were holding mass. I finally went into La Compañía de Jesús, the most intricate church in Latin America, and it was incredible. The inside is completely coated with gold; my camera couldn't even capture it so I just sat down and stared. We also toured the Government Palace, which is like the White House of Ecuador.


the cutest little boy in a parade in Old Town


inside the government palace

The last thing we did was climb the bell tower of the Basilica. Only in Ecuador would they let people climb rickety ladders inside an old church without any supervision. There were some awesome views, although my camera died.


Thursday Donna, Trisha, and I planned a relaxing day at the hot springs in Papallacta. It ended up being more stressful than relaxing. I never want to ride a bus again. To get there, we took a bus, a cab, the trolebus, another cab, another bus, and then another bus (all for like 5 dollars though). It took us about 6 hours to get there (it should take 2) and it was cloudy and freezing so we stayed for an hour. The hot springs were gorgeous though, and the water was natural mineral water heated by the volcanoes. We got back to Quito and went to dinner at El Pobre Diablo because Trisha saw it on the Travel Channel, which was delicious.


las termas de papallacta

Today is my last day at work :( and then off to the islands!


Ecuadorrrrrr

Esta semana en la Veterinaria Dino

with Leo's dog Dina


This week I did my first solo surgery! It was a spay on a cat with no name. It took over an hour and a half, but it felt like 15 minutes. Diego said my sutures are beautiful (porque la mano de la mujer es más linda y mejor para coser)and I'm just happy that the cat survived. It came in the next day for its second antibiotics shot and, thankfully, looked great.




the finished product


In the same day, I learned a Japanese acupuncture trick through Diego of all people. We were amputating the infected toe of a Basset Hound when it died on the table. Diego ran and got a needle and poked it in the dog's nose, which apparently stimulates the respiratory system. The dog came back to life. It was amazing--probably something I won't learn in the States but a trick I'll never forget.

The rest of the week was quite sad. A dog broke his spine, a bird came in with a tumor in its mouth, a puppy named Max has parvovirus, and we had to tell a lady her cat has leukemia and everyone (EVERYONE) started crying. Compare this to last summer, where basically all the animals at the clinic I worked at came in for vaccinations or ear infections.

I'm so glad that I came to Ecuador and that I'm learning so much; it really has been the perfect program for me. I'm getting tons of experience hours and seeing the country at the same time. I truly love this place and I think I'll be back someday.



My internship is almost over, but that means it's almost time for my mom and aunt Annie to come see Quito and go to the Galápagos, the islands with more species of animals than anywhere else on earth. I'm so excited!

La selva en Mindo

I should have updated earlier this week, but work at the clinic picked up a little so I've been busier than usual. Sorry if this post gets long.

First off, the weather in Quito has done a 360 and is now sunny every day!

I am constantly reminded (and shocked) by the condition of the clinic. Leo is considered well-off in Ecuador, yet he can't afford to buy new gauze or suture needles. Nothing is ever autoclaved. Anesthesia in particular is very expensive so it's used in minimal quantities, causing the animals to wake up towards the end of their surgeries. This week, my hands were literally inside a dog's abdomen, trying to cut her ovaries when she started jerking and screaming. It was pretty traumatizing, but i's these kinds of experiences that I feel really prepare me and teach me to be calm under pressure. On a lighter, less graphic note, I got to babysit an adorable puppy named Armando for a night. My host mom called him my hijo ecuatoriano.


Mi hijo y yo

This weekend, while my real family went on vacation (apparently illegally) to Canada, I went to the cloud forest / jungle in Mindo with Donna and Tricia. The trip started with us almost missing the bus and having to stand for the 2-hour drive but we made it. The cloud forest is one of the most ecologically diverse places on earth, and Mindo is famous for its extraordinary number of birds, butterflies, and flowers.
The actual town of Mindo is so small that there are only 3 main roads and by Sunday I recognized all of the stray dogs.
We stayed in a hostel down a dirt road, right in the trees so it felt a lot like camping.


our hut

Saturday, we went tubing down a gorgeous river and on a zip-line canopy tour with 10 cables. On one of them I couldn't brake and crashed into the trees and we later found out that they've had quite a few broken limbs there-not quite as safe as Costa Rica's zip-line yet.


doing the 'mariposa' on the last cable

Sunday we had a delicious breakfast at the hostel and went to the Mariposario aka butterfly garden. Coolest butterfly exhibit ever! They were landing all over us. Later we went horseback riding part 2 to the river. We wanted to do a bird-watching tour too but apparently they all started at 5 am so we got on the bus back to Quito. But we didn't make it back smoothly of course. Donna lost her phone and was going to get it from someone who found it when the bus pulled away. So we left the tranquil town of Mindo as I was yelling at the bus driver to stop and she was sprinting down the road.

If I were to sum up the weekend, it would be beautiful scenery, nice people, riding on the backs of trucks, bruises, and bugs.

P.S. Apparently they eat horse in Mindo and also hold their funerals outside so you awkwardly walk right by without realizing it.

Cartas y la mitad del mundo

Well I´m finally feeling better after depleting my Sudafed stash and sleeping a good 10 hours every night. I can´t believe I've been here 20 days already!

Last week, work at the clinic did not pick up due to the World Cup ending like we thought it might. A few exciting things happened though: the giant boa in Borja is sick so I gave it some injections of vitamins and antibiotics; someone found a tiny hummingbird and brought it in; and Leo took us to the zoo, which has all Ecuadorian animals.

On our down time, Katie, Donna, Diego, and I have started playing cards. Diego taught us the Ecuadorian card game "Cuarenta" and we taught him a few of our games. It was a challenge at first to explain games in Spanish, but my vocab now includes the words for shuffle, deal, flip over, and "you´re a cheater."

This weekend I was a tourist. Saturday, Donna and I tried to sleep in, but that's impossible here with the sun rising before 6 am and the buses outside and the juice mixer going in the kitchen. So we went early to go explore la Ciudad Vieja, or Old Town, which was the first World Heritage site in the world. We hit the basilica (HUGE), Plaza Grande, and then the Panecillo, a hill right in the middle of Quito which has a giant Virgin Mary statue and a 360 view of the city. It was overwhelming how many churches and historic buildings there were, but I'm sure I'll be back.


the basilica


on top of the panecillo

Sunday I went with Donna and Trisha (the girl who just moved into my house here who is from-get this-Grand Rapids) to la Mitad del Mundo aka the equator. We saw some traditional Ecuadorian dances there, went to the Planetarium, and took pictures.


hey, i´m in two hemispheres

It was a nice, laid-back weekend and Quito finally gave me some decent weather.
Coming up this week: is the giant boa still alive? and a trip to the Cloud Forest in Mindo this weekend.

La ruta de las cascadas

After the long week at the vet clinic, Donna, Ravit, and a German girl Gloria made plans to go to Baños, a little town right next to Volcán Tungurahua, known for its mineral-rich hot springs. What I assumed would be a relaxing trip turned out to be quite the opposite, in both good and bad ways.

The bad first: I was very, very nearly hit by a bus, I´m now sick and can´t breathe, my body aches, and I sliced my thumb open with my Swiss Army knife trying to fix my sunglasses. But it was pretty much all worth it.

The bus to get to Baños took about 3.5 hours, as it kept stopping in every single pueblo. Once we got there, we discovered it is more of a tourist city than others we´ve been to. We took advantage of that and the low cost of living in Ecuador and signed up for horseback riding and a volcano night tour.

We had gorgeous, non-Quito weather all weekend. Horseback riding was awesome and the trail went through the town and to one of the 60 waterfalls around the volcano. The night tour sadly did not involve any lava like the pictures implied. We did get a birds-eye view of Baños though, and I had some hot chocolate that should make Katie very jealous.


Me on my horse, María


Sunday we attempted to relax in the hot springs, but the one we went to was pretty much just a mineral-y lukewarm public pool, so we decided to rent go-karts and drive "La Ruta de Las Cascadas." When they say go-karts they mean dune-buggys that you can drive for miles on windy mountain passages. It was amazing and we got to stop at about 6 different waterfalls, including one with a cable car to the bottom and one which is acclaimed to be the 8th wonder of the world (Pailón del Diablo). Ecuador is just full of surprises. El Pailón del Diablo involved hiking up and down a mountain and crawling through a rocky tunnel, hence the soreness.


Dune buggys


one of many waterfalls


Ravit, me, and Donna at Pailón del Diablo

After a long, bumpy ride in the back of the bus, I got back to a dark, foggy Quito, played some cards with Doña Ana Maria, and fell asleep.

Me encanta la vida en la avenida de los volcanes

(posted Monday 9:49 am)

Internship is still going good (last week we also had a parrot with pneumonia, a bunny with muscular distrophy in its front legs, and intense surgery on a dog with lymphoma), so I just want to write a little about life in Quito.

Quito is called the Avenue of the Volcanoes because it is surrounded by active volcanoes, all connected underground. One of them, Cotopaxi, is the largest active volcano in the world. It´s rarely clear enough to see the snow-peaked volcanoes but when it is, they are gorgeous and a reminder of how powerful nature can be...they could take this city of almost 2 million down any minute.

Obviously, the food is a huge part of the culture here- and it´s sooo good. At every meal is freshly mixed/blended fruit juice. Breakfast is just bread, but lunch and dinner both consist of soup and then some form of meat, vegetables, and always potatoes. The first day here I thought lunch was over after the soup and I was shocked when my host mom loaded up a plate with more food. And then asked if I had enough. I´m used to it now though and I´m glad I haven´t had to try the most traditional food in Quito--cow intestines, livers, kidneys, and guinea pig.

The weather here is...not what it´s supposed to be. Usually summer in Quito is dry and about 70 degress during the day, but while I´ve been here, it´s rained in the afternoon almost every day and dropped down to 40 degrees. Everyone swears this is very rare for Quito, so I hope it warms up a little.

Riding the buses in the city is an experience in itself. There is technically bus stops, but they will pick you up almost anywhere along the road and drop you off anywhere, all without coming to a complete stop. People come on often to give speeches or sell things and then jump off. If you´re a gringo and you´re riding a bus after 8 or 9 pm, you will be bugged by groups of (harmless) boys.

Also, the cost of living here really is as cheap as I´ve heard. Taxi rides are 1 to 2 dollars, bus rides are 25 cents, lunches are 2 dollars, and the hostels we´ve stayed at have been less than 10 dollars. There are laundromats and internet cafes everywhere, making it really easy living here.

By speaking to my host mom, Leo, and Diego, I´ve learned so much about the dynamics of politics of South America. It´s interesting to hear their different opinions, as Ana Maria is a 75-year old widow, Leo is a middle-aged wildlife conservation fanatic, and Diego is a recent vet school graduate.

I´m still learning about living in Quito, but I feel like I really live and belong here already. I´ll update later with pictures from my weekend in Baños, but I have to go to work now!
Love from Ecuador,
Steph