Hi everyone,

Today we had our first break and we were set loose in Quito for the afternoon so I thought i could update my blog. Like I said before, we´re kept very busy with our rotations. On Friday I was at a different rehab center and we got to help with the physical therapy of an Ecuadorian boy who has neurological deficits and couldn´t stand on his own. We´re getting some good work done on our project.

We have been rotating through the ER in the public hospital, surgery, and a few rehab centers. While it´s interesting, none of it is particularly spectacular for me. The other people in my group are really excited about intubated and giving shots etc. none of which is foreign to me

On Friday night, after dinner, we went out to a bar with a live band. Some of the people in our group really wanted to go to a club so we had to leave, only to discover that they had locked the door with a padlock and we had to go find someone to unlock it for us. (Carlyn, you need to tell Jamie about that, I thought of him). We spent the rest of the night at a club called Bungalow 6.

We had some free time this weekend, and by that I mean they kept us busy with non-work activities. Yesterday (Saturday), we took a drive out of Quito and went to an Indian market. It was a four hour car ride because of a cycling race that was going on, that was holding up traffic. I bought a bunch of local crafts and had a lot of fun haggling with them. Next we went for a boat ride.

There are a lot of volcanoes around Quito. The one we were visiting erupted 1400 years ago and imploded. The crater became filled with water from underground sources and formed a lake. Lava from the eruption formed a few islands in the center. The boat ride was beautiful. The volcano is still active and because of the sulphur, the water was a brilliant blue and was bubbling.

Today we went for a tour around Old town, and walked by many of the squares. Quito is over 500 years old and our tour guide entertained us with a lot of the folk lore. We went to several museums and I kept up with my old habit of trying to get away with as many pictures as I could, even though the security guards were watching us like hawks.

Quito is a great city. The weather is phenomenal but quite variant. It can be brilliantly sunny one minute, and then thunder and lightning the next. Although we think it´s quite hot, the locals walk around in long pants and wool sweaters.

None of the laws in Quito seem to be enforced, and from what I hear the police force is a bit of a joke. Basically the speed limit is as fast as your car can go. One of our tour guides was telling us that after 7pm, 80 % of drivers have had at least two drinks. Although homelessness and drug use isn´t a problem in Quito, alcoholism is. Mostly because alcohol is so cheap.
They use American currency here and it´s hard to find anyone that will give you change, even for a 10 dollar bill.

There are people in the streets that sell the most random things. For instance I saw a woman this morning with clothes pins in one hand and batteries in the other.

Anyways, I´m running out of time, I have a meeting to get to.



Ruth