travel'n

                           National Park Tayrona, Colombia/ paradise                    

Do I look like I am on vacation?

                                           Tayrona, Colombia

making lunch

eating lunch

buses on the rampage in Bolivia, yes that is a cornfield

Villa de Leyva, Colombia

Boat ride to Tayrona

Tayrona, Colombia I slept in the hut on the hill

my bed

Lake Titicaca , Peruvian side, Isla flotantes

Lake Titicaca, Bolivian side

Inca Altar, Isla De La Sol

 World most Dangerous road, Bolivia, 45 deaths this year

Deserted beach Florianopolis, Brazil

me with lamb, peru 

Andes, Salkantay trek, Peru

4,600m the Salkantay pass

Spencer and I at 6 am Machu Picchu

Spencer and llama

me with ecuadorian family at a mud bath

Spencer and me on Rio Napo

Spencer with escaped lamb

Market

Ollantaytambo ruins, Peru

    I spent the last month and a half traveling around south america. Spencer met up with me while I was still in Ecuador. We spent a week in the jungle in Ecuador with Quichan cultural tour. We then flew to Cuzco, Peru and spent a week going to ruins, we did a 5 day trek to Macchu Pichu and then took a bus to Lake Titicaca.  In Lake Titicaca we went to the floating islands of the Uros, an indiginous group of people that choose to live on floating reed islands. Spencer unfortunately had to go home while I continued on to Bolivia.  I stayed  for  a few nights on the Isla de La Sol on the Bolivian Lake Titicaca, it was gorgeous. I was then headed for La Paz which proved to be a difficult task due to the countries current crisis. The bus I took ran into a road block where the bolivian people were striking and not allowing anything to cross, so our bus driver decided to go around the road block by driving through a corn field. We were all very relieved 2 hours later when the bus returned to paved road. From La Paz I flew to Brazil, to visit a friend for a week. We spent our time visiting deserted beaches in Florianopolis, it was a relaxing week. I then flew to Colombia, starting in Bogota and making my way up  the gringo trail to the beaches. I stopped in an old colonial town called Villa de Leyva and then took a 20hour bus ride to Santa Marta. From there I headed straight for the most beautiful beach I have ever been to in my life in Parque Tayrona. I spent an extra few nights there..... it was very difficult to leave. From Colombia I flew back to Quito to catch my flight home.  As I was boarding the plane to go home I was on the brink of tears, when they made the announcement that they would offer a flight gift certificate for anyone who would offer to stay another night. I did not even give it a second thought and got off the plane to stay one more night in South America. But to my mothers relief I am home now safe, planning my next trip. 

Tubing In the Jungle

A view of the Rio Upano that we tubed down
Our guide said Chaco sandals would be perfect, he did not mention
the 5 hour walk through the mud.
My friend Cath from Austraila and me floating down the river

This picture is for Jill........ one day I will have my own
This is a picture of another montain we climbed called

Las Ilinizas, 17,00ft

Me climbing up the steep face, look mom I wore a helmet
The Ecuadorian version of Bullfight, not quite as elegant as

Spain.

The people in the ring are in as much danger as the people in the stands

Here I am on the summit of Cotopaxi, 19300 ft, I puked

from the altitude right before they took this photo

A marvelous display of the climbing equipment we used
Me cold and exhausted in front of a crevasse
It looks like you could climb right up..... not so
The climbing refuge at Cotopaxi about 4800meters, high enough

This last week was wonderful, I spent time doing one of my favorite things, hiking. I spent all week in a climbing refuge acclimizing in Cotopaxi National Park, it was amazing. The hike to the summit of Cotopaxi, an extinct volcano, was the hardest hike I have done in my life. We started off at midnight, you have to climb at night because the snow it not sturdy enough during to day. We hiked for 7 hours straight to get to the summit with loads of equipment, 20 below zero temperatures, wind, and 1/2 the regular amount of oxygen. I was truely exhausted but loved every minute of it. I am now in Macas again to finish off my time of service here, the up coming month is the month of health. We will be doing free health screenings here in Macas all through August if any of you want to visit:)

These photos are of 2 weeks ago when I went to Cuenca, which is a very European city in Ecuador. The other photos are of Cajas National Park, which means box in spanish or cold in kichwa. It was a very beautiful glacier valley and is only navigable with a tour group. There were lots of people fishing, I was disappointed that I did not have my rod because the lakes are full of trout. None the less I had fresh fried trout for lunch.

Good times

It has been awhile since my last post, things are going well. Macas is great at its slow steady pace but I love to get away on the weekends. The first picture is a barbaque we had with all the volunteers and other workers from the Patranato Municipal. It was delicious. The next photo are of me in Baños, again, it is a really fun outdoor rec. city. I rented a bike for 5 dollars and rode it down a beautiful rode that passes by several waterfalls, with a steep drop off to one side, it ends at the largest waterfall in Ecuador Pallon de Diablo, or The Devils cooking pot. For a dollar you can climb up a very narrow and clostrophobic passage to a platform behind this massive waterfall, so much water is falling right in front of you face that it literally takes you breath away. Also it is very wet as you can see.

Medical Brigade: Morona Santiago

My first medical brigade was a truely amazing experience. The pictures can not express how unique and interesting this trip was, a real adventure. We started out by driving on a dirt road for 8 hours through the night arriving at Porta Morona in the morning. We go straight into a canoe and started another 8 hour long journey up the river, 1 hour into the trip it started to rain very very hard, we all had to bail the canoe with bucket to prevent it filling with water. Six hours later our canoes motor broke, in the middle of nowhere, luckly our guides where very knowlegdable and where able to fix it. When we arrived to the first village we were welcomed by the locals with their traditional drink, Chicha, everyone drinks this because there is no drinkable water. The people there suffer from parasites, bat bites, every sort of rash you can imagine, malnutrition, and other general injuries. They have no form of health care in this area, so people die and suffer from illness that are very easy to treat. They also have no pure water or means of evacuating someone that is very sick. Right now the group I work with is trying to gather data to present to the Ecuadorian goverment to get some aid for these people, I really hope is happens it is a pretty desprite situation. One of the pictures is of us picking up a very sick women in a canoe, she was given IV fluids and then trasported 5 hours in canoe down the river and another 8 hours by ambulance to the nearist hospital. Despite all this the people are very happy and accomedating. There is one picture of me with braids, the girls of one village had never seen a person that looked like a `doll´ and insisted that they do my hair properly. Another picture is of the doctor I work with examining patients, my job is usually to give injections and give oral medication, I think I have now given somewhere around 100 gluteal injections. There was 8 people in the brigade 3 doctors, 2 nurses, 1 aid, 2 teachers, plus our guides, I was the only english speaking person in the group, it was a real test on my spanish skills, but I got along alright. The doctors estimated that we treated over 300 patients in this brigade alone and there will not be another brigade to this area for a least 3 months. Wow. The adventure did not stop there on the way home we high centered our canoe on some rocks and tore a hole in it therefore had to bail water out for the remaining journey. In the drive home we had a particularly wild driver who broke some piece on the axel and the wheel came loose. He had no means of fixing it so we waited and luckly a bus drove by that took us back to Macas. This was a very exciting and eye opening week. More to come I am sure.