Puerto Ayora, Nautre, and Hospital Oh My!

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
October 27, 2009 16:30


Well it’s been about a little more than two weeks since I arrived in Puerto Ayora, and I finally have a chance to kind of sit down and post updates. From the way that the natural environment encapsulates this town to the uniqueness of the cultural environment, this might be one of the most interesting places I have been to. I am going to write here about the town, the environment, and what I have been doing in terms of my work.

Puerto Ayora:
When I got to Puerto Ayora, the first thing I noticed was that it appeared as if there was a lot of construction going on and that maybe the town was expanding. Well the town is expanding, but the thing is as I looked closer at these so called construction projects, I noticed nothing was being done on them; it was as if someone laid foundation, placed up a couple of beams, maybe even a level, and then stopped. There is something apparently that I have learned here that is called Ecualogic, which basically incorporates the fact that while people here have lots of ideas on how to improve the town, they usually will stop midway through the project or they will do a half-ass job of it figuring someone else will come along and finish it. Obviously it is not the case everywhere, but it is very apparent. It really comes down to if you have to ask yourself why, just remember, you are in the Galapagos and that answer is pretty much justifiable. I will give them props though on not being wasteful. You will see that even in these half done buildings, people manage create a home for their families.

The town itself is also really small and takes about 25 minutes to walk around most of it. My house is a far fifteen-minute walk to the main docks. I live currently with a host family in a 3 story yellow house that looks like it is the only house to survive a major storm. Here is a picture of the house.




I live with four other volunteers here, all girls, with three of them from my program. They’re great though occasionally I do wish there was a little more testosterone in the house. One of the girls from San Diego is preparing the teachers for a teaching exam and then is trying to coordinate a program pairing a volunteer with a teacher in order that the teacher can practice his or her English and the volunteer his or her Spanish. Another girl also from San Diego is volunteering at the women and child abuse center here and has begun teaching self-defense classes for women. The third girl from the Philippines started by working on organizing a library in a town 10 minutes away called Bellavista and is now teaching 3 classes there. She is teaching her students English while incorporating the Galapagos Islands into her lessons. The fourth girl from Norway is also teaching English in the schools around town.

We live with our host Mom, Norma, who is an English teacher. By English teacher I mean she knows the ABC song and…… that’s about it. In my month and a half of learning Spanish, I now know more Spanish than she does English. You ask yourself how on Earth a woman who doesn’t speak English is teaching it and then you remember: It’s the Galapagos and through Ecualogic it all makes sense! She’s very nice and thoughtful though especially when it comes to the fact that I do not eat pork and shell fish. Norma cooks two meals a day for the volunteers, lunch and dinner, which comprise of some combination of rice, vegetable, and meat with a soup for lunch and then a fried rice with egg, meat and a vegetable for dinner. The meat is either a beef, chicken, or wahoo fish and the vegetable is usually corn or a potato with sometimes getting real vegetables like broccoli and beans. It’s very starchy and I am trying to run as much as I can to stay in shape. Thank goodness the larger meal is lunch, so I can walk off a little bit of lunch. The only thing I am really lacking are hot water showers, though two of the girls I live with have hot water in their bathroom that they allow me to use on occasion. Since it is a small town, we usually will go out and drink at a pier and then go and then go to this bar that plays music and has a pool table. We’ve befriended a couple of the locals here who are pretty chill.




Galapagos Islands Environment:
The thing I really like about Puerto Ayora is that it is right on the coast (as the name might suggest). This allows for me to walk down the road and see pelicans, sea lions, frigates, and assortment of finches, and the occasional blue-footed boobie! The Charles Darwin Research Center is right next to the town also, which is where you can see the iguanas and the tortoises including the famous Lonesome George tortoise. It’s a cool center if you are only staying in town, but there are better places to see the beautiful creatures and vegetation these islands provide. These are pictures of Yellow Warbler and a Black Finch, my two favorite birds I have seen yet:




Last Thursday, I went with the chicas on a day trip to the island of Floreana. There, I was able to snorkel with sea lions, sea turtles, colorful fish and a blue tipped fin shark (I think)! It was the first good snorkel trip I did as the first one was more or less a sham and I have to say that I am incredibly jealous of you people who can scuba dive as I can only imagine what I might see at deeper depths (word on the street is there are some hammer heads). It was such a blast, as the sea lions would literally swim right by you and even brush up on you, which happened to one of the girls I was with. We also had a chance to go up to the highlands of Floreana, which has a very cool layout. As you drive up the hill by the coast you see a more desert environment. However, the ecosystems and vegetation changed in almost an instant into one that was incredibly green and beautiful. We did a small hike to a tortoise park and then to a house that some crazy German family had made in the 1930’s by carving out rock.

On Friday we went up to the highlands of Santa Cruz, the island Puerto Ayora is located on. There we saw these massive craters that were formed as a result of a volcano about to erupt and then the land from underneath collapsing completely. We also went into a lava tunnel, which was really cool to see as you saw all these different colors on the walls of the cave that were created naturally. We went to a tortoise park that was incredibly wide open, green, and had lagoons in it. You could see a vast number of tortoises that varied also in shell shape. I was a much bigger fan of this park than the Darwin Research Center primarily because you could really get close to the tortoises and the tortoises had a lot of room to roam around. Since the tortoises are property of the Galapagos national Park, no one can fence in the tortoises, so they use barbed wire, which the tortoises can move through. There was one tortoise that was allowing us to get incredibly close to it without hiding in his shell. It was incredible and I was literally less than a foot away from this magnificent creature while it was eating. It actually almost went for my camera!
We went camping last Saturday night with some of the locals we have met and had such a blast. We camped in an area called Galapaterra, which had a great beach, relatively warm water, and some cool birds including a flamingo. It was nice to get out of town to enjoy good food and drinks with friends all under a clear night sky, which provided us with an incredible view of the stars. I was completely mesmerized and while not as nice as those in the mountains or in the Sinai desert, since I am by the equator, it is a completely different night sky. I spent a lot of that night just looking up at the sky and in deep thought about how big we make our relatively small problems.

The thing that I really like about the beaches here is that the entrance to the beach is usually at least 1km away from the coast. This forces you to have to walk the rest of the way through the beautiful trees and allows the beach to have an almost isolated feeling. My favorite beach that I have found is located in Tortuga Bay, which is just outside of Puerto Ayora. It is about a 30 min walk and roughly 2.5km away from the entrance. While it does feel like a never-ending walk, I like it because it makes the beach a lot less crowded. After about 30 minutes of walking you come out of the forest and see a beach that it more beautiful than anything I have seen in the US. It gets even better when you take your first step as you land in the softest sand imaginable. It is literally like walking through a beach of purely refined flour. The ocean waves are perfect for anybody who enjoys surfing, something I still need to try here. Down by the end of the beach is a pathway that leads to a nice lagoon, which is pretty warm and great to swim in. It is definitely a great place to take a girl.



Work I Have Done Here:
I spent the first week here working in organizing a library in Bellavista. I came in thinking the library was going to be a small one-story building with about 16 shelves of books. Well it is indeed in a small building, but it’s also in a tiny room with two shelves that still make it feel cramped in there. A lot of the books were dirty and completely worn and it was difficult to breathe in there. I organized all 2 shelves of books and just have to do some computer stuff and the library will be ready for the public. This is the library:


Last week I started my work in the hospital, which was what I had come here to do. I am working 24-hour shifts with a Chinese doctor who has lived in Ecuador for 30 years and speaks both English and Spanish. Being here in Ecuador definitely has its advantages, especially if you are not a doctor yet. I came in thinking I was going to be doing my EMT-B stuff and maybe learn how to start IV’s and take blood sugar readings. While I haven’t learned how to start an IV yet, I do feel like I have been thrown into the fire.

THE NEXT PART IS A STORY THAT ONE COULD PERCEIVE AS BEING TOO GRAPHIC. READER’S DISCRETION IS ADVISED. PLEASE SKIP DOWN IF YOU FEEL THIS COULD BE TOO GROSS FOR YOU.
On day one, a Canadian guy comes in with his big toe nail making a 45-degree angle with his big toe. The Doc comes up to me and says, “So Sam this guy clearly needs his big toe nail removed. You want to do it? All you have to do is pull it off with some pliers”

“Uhhhhhh. Sure. If all I have to do is pull it off,” I reply (remember it’s Ecuador).

“Oh but first you are going to need to inject this local anesthetic into three places,” he says.

“Well doc, this is day one and I’d rather watch you do it.”

“Oh come on Sam!” Then he turns to the Canadian guy. “What would you call him? A ummmm pussy?” Here I am, in the ER in another country, getting called a pussy because I would rather watch the doc show me how to give the injection. After about 5 minutes of conversing, I agree to try (I made sure the Canadian didn’t mind). The only injection I have any training with is an Epi-Pen and that’s an auto injector. Here I am with no clue on where to even begin in terms of injecting Lidocaine and being peer pressured into it. So of course I was nervous as heck. The last thing you want a patient to see is that you are nervous and shaking with a needle. I calmed myself down and went in for the injection.

“You are too shallow! Go deeper!” say the doctor. I tried again, but this time, I am so shallow that I only grazed the outer layer of skin and the needle came out. Dr. Hokwah finally took over and looks over at me and says, “You were too nervous. You can’t be so nervous. Just do.” Thanks doc! I never realized that I shouldn’t be nervous when giving someone an injection! I told him that I just wanted to see how he does it the first time and then the next time I would do it. Well I got my chance!
On day two, this guy came in needing stitches in his leg. Since I saw Dr. Hokwah do them last time, I told him I would give it a shot. He was great guide. Again, I had to first give the guy a local anesthetic and he guided my hands so that I could feel how deep I needed to go to give the Lidocaine. Then I grabbed the suture and listened to the doc give me the instructions. Although I got the string in, I was having trouble with the not and tying up the stitch. He finally took over for the first one. I saw him do the second one and told him I wanted another chance on the third one. He agreed and I mimicked his method to do a stitch solo. What an adrenaline rush! The doc approved and I felt victorious!




Continue here if you skipped ahead:

Aside from being in the ER I have had the opportunity to scrub into a surgery and a delivery of twins. The surgery was a gall bladder extraction. When I walked into the OR it literally looked like something that would have passed as an OR in the 1970’s. The automatic ventilator didn’t work, so the anesthesiologist had to bag him the entire time. The table the guy was one was rickety and one of the arms pieces actually broke off as they were putting the guy to sleep with this IV coming out. They also do not have a heated blade that can cauterize so the surgeon had tot tie up each individual blood vessel which took probably made the surgery last about at least an hour longer. Considering that what they have is the most basic of equipment, I felt like they did a great job.

Watching the delivery was also really cool. The amount of time it takes from head to baby being completely out is literally 3 seconds for each baby. I could not believe how fast it was. I also have to say that I am really really really sorry to all you women out there and what you have to go through. At least you have some cute babies at the end of the day! I then followed the doctors and the nurses and helped clean the babies. They each weighed like five pounds. I almost felt as if I was going to accidentally throw one, but I didn’t.

From what I can see at the hospital is that they do the best they can with what they have. The only thing that concerns me is how nobody wears gloves (except me, I had my nice BSI CE) and only some wear masks. There is usually only one doctor on call and at night he might be the only doctor in the entire hospital. This results in either me being left with a couple nurses “in charge” or just no one being there, which was the case during the delivery. The thing that I like that Dr. Hokwah is doing is having me go and talk to patients by myself. I have my nice Spark Chart Medical English/Spanish translation sheet, which has been like a bible for me, and I feel this has been the best way for me to improve on my Spanish. Dr. Hokwah and some of the nurses have been very helpful with helping me with paper work and I have really been enjoying it. Because of how long this post is, I won’t get into any more stories, but I am going to be trying to update this more frequently!

Quito: a Taste of What I'd Love to do in Another Time in My Life

Monday October 12, 8:40am CT, Airplane to Galapagos, Ecuador:

When I was flying from Bogota to Quito, I was thinking this was going to be a place I’d do a little sight seeing just in the city, get everything ready for my venture to the Galapagos, and if I was lucky, I would find a bar somewhere to watch the Broncos-Patriots game. Boy was I wrong!
From the moment we started descending, I was in awe of the scenery surrounding the capital of Ecuador. Quito’s airport is one of the highest in the world, so as you can imagine, I was kind of surprised to be flying so low to the mountains (I have never flown to Vail or Aspen so it was the first time I ever landed in the mountains). The mountains are also different than what you see in the Rockies. The vegetation is a lot more tropical being almost a hybrid between evergreen and jungle.




Completely opposite of the disastrous and unorganized customs experience in Bogota, Quito’s took literally 4 minutes to get through, but that could be due to the fact that I only had 12 other people on my flight. I walked outside seeing a guy with a sign saying The Secret Garden. I walked over and told him I had reserved the bus ride and that I was Sam Zuber. “Ehhh, sorry you are not on the list,” the driver stated. “I am here to pick up a Dan Ayetsbur. You make reservation?” I told him I had, and showed him my ticket with my flight number, which he used to track when it was landing. Seeing that I was the only who had made a reservation from that flight and that the other 12 people were not approaching him, he figured that I must be Dan. It was about a fifteen-minute drive to the hostel, which is located in the old quarter of Quito. For $8.00 a night, it was great although I only have this to compare with a slum in Eilat. The only bad part was that it was five stories and I was on floor four so lugging my bag up four flights of uneven stairs was definitely my workout for the day.

I got settled into my dorm room and decided that I wanted to explore part of the old town by myself while it was still light out since I was strongly recommended by the girl working at the reception desk not to go out by myself, unless I wanted to get mugged. I ran uphill towards the basilica where I was told you can get some of the best photos of the city, but unfortunately it was closed, so I decided to continue uphill via 1000 steps to reach a park that was located just outside of the old section. It was very serine and peaceful as I view the entire old section of Quito. Because of Quito’s layout on the top of a mountain, the city itself is incredibly narrow, but extremely long. After being there for an hour I headed back for dinner where I met some Brits, Aussies, Dutch, and one American. Since this was my first time really in a hostel and I was flying solo, I wasn’t really sure what to expect and was a little nervous and quiet. You realize though after talking to a couple people that basically everyone here is either by themselves or with one other person and that everyone’s story is different. We schmoozed for the next few hours until the hostel bar closed and we headed out into town. We started at this Irish pub called Finn McCools where to no surprise, I saw some Israelis. Apparently there is an entire hostel in Quito that is more or less for Israelis. I assume the reason is that the Israelis are not really accepted anywhere else they go as the word on the street is that many travelers and hostels aren’t too fond of them. It was good to spit out the Hebrew though especially cause my Spanish is still pretty basic. We stayed at the pub till around 2am and then went dancing at Tequila Sunrise with a couple of local girls for an hour before the place was practically bombarded with police officers. Fortunately for us, the Ecuadorian girls we had met knew just where to go when everything else closed and we ended up at this dance bar called Blue. This Cuban guy Pedro (who Shauna would have absolutely fallen in love with at first sight) we had met had joined us en-route and we danced to 80’s music and techno. Me and Pedro got into a dance off and I used my Adagio moves along with some things Robby taught me from home to at least be able to stand my ground. Watch out NYC! We were there till around 5:30 in the morning, stopped off for some late night/early morning food. We gave our cab driver a couple extra dollars to wait while we ate, but he decided to come in instead and play cards with the other cabbies leaving us to have to find a cab at 6 in the morning.

The next day aka four hours later, I woke up to find almost every person in the hostel decked out in yellow Ecuadorian Jerseys. Saturday was a big day for Quito and Ecuador as there was a qualifying match against Uruguay in Quito. Some of the people wanted to go and scalp off some tickets, but it was a little too pricy for me. So a couple of guys I met and I, decided to go and check out the city for a few hours before heading to a plaza to watch the game with a bunch of Ecuadorians who were unable to get tickets. Of course we were all starving so we went to get some food. As we were walking we see this guy holding a sign with a chefs hat and big slippers on his feet dancing in the middle of the street yelling at us to follow him to his restaurant. It should be noted that we were right in front of a different restaurant at the time so I’m sure the owners were not too pleased with this foolish looking man. We had all gotten to Quito the day before and could not believe how cheap food was here. You could get a quarter of a chicken, with soup, salad, rice, beans, and a drink for 2 dollars. Of course you get what you pay for and our soups had pieces of chicken in them that I had never seen in a soup before. Mine had a nice delicious foot in it. While strange for us, Ecuadorians eat the entire animal. The main course chicken though was actually really delicious. After lunch we went to the basilica, which was now open and climbed all the way to the top. One of the guys I was with, Rob, was scared out of his mind about climbing up these steep ladders, which I obviously found amusing (sorry Rob). The view was incredible as you basically had a 360 degree view of the entire city.
In the old quarter of the city, there is a hill with a huge statue of the Virgin Mary dressed as a guardian angel. The first thing I was told when I arrived at the hostel was you just don’t go there or it’s almost a guaranteed mugging. We figured since we were four guys we could cab it up pretty safely and we did. The statue was cool and the hill provided more views of a section of Quito that were unseen from the Basilica. It was cool to see these low clouds sweeping in and blanketing the hills next to Quito.

Around 3 we headed back to the hostel very quickly and then headed with some more people from the hostile to a plaza to watch the Ecuador v. Uruguay game. The plaza was entirely swarmed with yellow. There was an enormous screen running stream of virtual billboard like advertisements in the plaza and we were all excited to watch the game on it with the entire Ecuadorian population. As the starting lineups were mentioned, we saw the entire crowd walk toward the three patio bars where there were these small 20 inch plasma TV’s and concluded that the game was not being played on the big screen. It was funny to see because you could barely see the game from the back and a lot of the way the crowd reacted was from watching others. We decided only to watch the first half before going back to Finn McCools for the second half where we could actually see what was going on. It ended up being a disappointing 2-1 loss to Uruguay so the crowds were not going anywhere near as crazy as they would have had there been a victory. I stayed at the bar until around 10:30 and headed back home because it was erev simchat torah and I wanted to check out the Chabad House in Quito. Unfortunately, I started getting sleepy and my 20 min power nap lasted till 2am when one of my roommates Martin got back. We went downstairs and chilled for about another hour before going to sleep.
I woke up on Sunday around 9 since I wanted to get a head start on the day. Colin, Martin, Rob, and I decided we were going to meet up with one of the local girls, Tifa. Along with the rest of her family and family friends, we drove outside of Quito and into the Mountains. The scenery was majestic. After viewing the equator from a distance (both real and fake), we headed to a chair lift in the middle of the mountains. What an incredible drive. As I had mentioned before, these mountains are a lot different than the ones you see in Colorado with much greener vegetation. When we got to the chair lift, I got a little nervous. There were no towers to keep the cable up like in Colorado except at the beginning and end and the chairs were legit plastic patio chairs you see outside in restaurants with a seatbelt that would be loose on a 300 pound man, who would break the chair. Rob was absolutely freaking out. The view going up though was surreal and it was such a blast!

After the cable trip, we headed to the fake equator and took some pictures there. I asked Tifa to dance with me because lets face it, when am I ever going to do that again? It was a first for Tifa also so we Salsa’d a little before getting out of the park. After a long day, we ended up back in Quito at Mulligans where I was able to connect with some Americans and watch part of the Indianapolis vs. Tennessee game. I found out the BRONCOS HAD WON!!!!! And was overjoyed! It was definitely the best day of the trip so far and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we went to a place most tourists don’t go to outside of Quito so I have to thank Tifa and her family for letting us partake in such an amazing experience! We said our goodbyes and headed back to hostileft where I packed and got ready for my 7 am flight to the Galapagos Islands.

Bienvenidos!

October 9, 2009 9:37am CT, Bogota, Colombia: Welcome everyone to My Galapagosian Adventures. I have never been a blogger, but I feel if there is ever a time to start, it might as well be now. For those of you who can't tell from the title, I am heading down to the Galapagos Islands for the next three months. Through the organization Galapagos ICE (Immerse, Connect, Evolve), I am heading to the town of Puerto Ayora on the Island of Santa Cruz to volunteer in a local ER. In addition, I plan on finding other ways to help out the community such as helping construct a library (which I am doing for the first two weeks as I work on my Spanish).

So why the Galapagos? As my Mom clearly stated to me, I could have the same experience (volunteering in a local hospital in a poor Spanish speaking area) by driving less than 20 minutes in my car at home.


Well simply put, I wanted to do something that I would never get to do again. I had never been to South America before and the Galapagos Islands aren’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when I think of them either. When one thinks about the Galapagos Islands, they think of tortoises, finches, blue boobies, and Darwin. They are considered a national park in Ecuador with some of the most exquisite wildlife imaginable. I plan on spending my free time exploring everything these islands have to offer.

But that is not the primary reason why I am down here. While the Galapagos Islands are the ideal vacation spot for those who want to integrate with nature, the people who live there and the way they live is usually overshadowed. The people who live on the Galapagos are not native to the land like the Aborigines people of Australia. They are transplants from Ecuador, many of whom work for the hotels, restaurants, and shops geared at tourists. The luxury of working in the tourist industry along with the 11% unemployment rate has resulted in a fast increase in the number of people who are migrating from the mainland to the islands. Since the year 2000, almost 10,000 people have migrated to the Galapagos Islands raising the total population to 30,000 people. As a result, there is a tremendous amount of poverty though that exists on the island and the health care that is available is incredibly insufficient. Most people on the islands will get their annual checkups on the mainland, an $1,110 burden.

When I came across the Galapagos ICE website, I saw that their program offered me the chance to work in the local ER in Puerto Ayora. In addition, the program encourages its volunteers to work on some type of project while they are down there. Whether its bettering an after school program or looking at ways to improve the quality of drinking water, Galapagos ICE appears to have immersed itself into the daily lives of the people of Puerto Ayora. My plan is to assess the overall health of the residents of the four major towns on Santa Cruz and then report these findings to a health campaign called Ponte En Forma.

I have been incredibly fortunate to live in a very nice neighborhood just outside of Denver and my parents provided me with private schooling for all of my life. I’ve never gone hungry, never had to worry about the water I drink, always was able to see a doctor when I was sick, had ski lessons, went on golf trips with my Dad, and attended summer camp for eight years. I have the closest of home friends and have made even more friends through youth groups and college. My life so far has been a blessing and I know that most people in the world dream to have the opportunities that I have been provided. This is the reason why I am going. I want to immerse myself into the community of Puerto Ayora and improve the quality of life for its members. I want to develop a personal connection with the individuals I will be helping. Even if I can help better just one person’s life, the trip will be a success. I’ll admit, I could have gone to Ethiopia or Honduras, some of the poorest countries in the world, but Galapagos ICE seems to offer me the chance to contribute the most.

After 14 hours of travel, I finally got to my hotel for the night in Bogota, Columbia. Our plane must have landed with ten others because the customs line to get into Colombia was about ten times longer than any line I have seen to get into the US. I started talking to this guy named Ron who told me he ran track for the Virgin Islands and competed in the Olympics in 84, 88, and 96. I didn’t even know they had a team. Being in Bogota, I have to say that I have a lot of Spanish studying I need to do and that South America is completely different than Mexico (as in Cancun or Puerto Vallarta). I am happy to state though, that I am not completely lost in translation, so I guess my Rosetta Stone is working J. I am only in Bogota for the night and I leave tomorrow at noon for Quito, Ecuador. Because of my wonderful Jet Blue All You Can Jet Pass, I was able to get down to Bogota for an extra 28 bucks, which in turn saved me about 700 dollars of travel expenses. I definitely used this pass to the max! Since my parents love me and care for me so much, I promised them that I was just going to stay at the hotel in the morning rather than venture out into the city, although if there is a hotel sponsored tour, I’m going to try to convince them to let me go. I arrive around 3pm Central time in Quito, Ecuador where I am staying at a hostel that Jake Singer recommended to me for the next 3 nights. I am planning on going to Chabad on Saturday night for Simchat Torah, so I’m pretty excited about that. It appears the Chabad Rabbi doesn’t really know English that well, so I guess I’ll be working on my Spanbrew. I then depart Monday for the Galapagos where I will be until January 5. I know this was an incredibly long post and that my writing style just doesn’t compare to Mr. Qatar hero, but I hope that this blog will still encapsulate you and allow your mind to be in the Galapagos with me.

Chag Sameach!