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!