I haven't blogged since my trip to Mindo and my mom has been asking me when I am going to update. My last two weeks in Quito were EXTREMELY busy!!! I guess I have to update from retrospect. Oh and the fact that I am stuck in the airport (again) gives me a great incentive to do it while I am still in this country.

Okay, so the third week, I rotated in Pediatrics with Dra. Monica Andrade at Carcelen Bajo Community Clinic. As with all of the clinics that I rotated in, Carcelen Bajo (CB) was a publicly run hospital with little resources. CB is located in the north side of Quito, and is a poorer area than I have seen during my other rotations. I also assumed that this is where most of the Afro-Ecuadorians in Quito live, because Dra. Andrade saw quite a few. Pediatrics was quite regular, kids coming in for back to school checkups, regular checkups, ear infections, etc. The most interesting things that I saw when I was in CB was a 2 week old baby that I had an infection in his knee. He was otherwise quite normal, but his knee was red and swollen, and when we tried to check his reflexes, he had a weak response in the knee leg that had the infection. Dra. Andrade insisted that his mother take him to the hospital to receive an injection of antibiotics.

Another cool thing that I got to do was learn how to listen to heart and lung sounds (properly). Dra. Andrade was very good about letting me and the other students become more hands. There was another family practice doctor that we shadowed for a day and a half, Dra. Gabriela Meza. She was extremely good about letting us ask patients questions and try to diagnose the patient. CB gave me a really good foundation for my last rotation in Emergency and Ob/GYN.

So my third weekend in Ecuador, I went to Banos. Yes, for those of you that know Spanish, banos DOES mean bathroom. But Banos is named such because of the natural springs that they have. I left with my two friends Stephanie and Sharon on Friday afternoon after clinic. The bus ride was four hours long!!!!!!!!!! We stopped some of everywhere. I thought the ride would never end. Sharon had to use the bathroom the entire time, and there was no banos on the bus to Banos! lol I read and slept most of the trip, but Sharon and Stephanie We stayed in Hostel Plantas y Blanco (Plants and White) and our first night, we ate at an Italian restaurant, walked around the city and met a Danish lady who was married to an Ecuadorian man and they owned a little cafe not to far from where we stayed.

Late Friday night into early Saturday morning, I had the absolute worst stomach pains!!!! Turned out I got sick (again). Luckily, I had two med students with me, and everyone knows that 2 med students equals one doctor... They bought me Cipro and Gatorade. While they hired a taxi to take them to a waterfall, I laid and bed and tried not to feel bad. Later on that day, we went to get spa treatmens; I got a facial and my eyebrows waxed, Sharon got a full body massage, facial and a pedicure, and Stephanie got a massage and a pedicure. We went shopping but afterwards I started feeling bad again. When they went to dinner, I went back to the hostel to eat Ritz Crackers and drink more Gatorade.

Sunday, we woke up early, had breakfast at the hostal, and walked up to the natural baths that were 200 meters away from our place. When I tell you it was PACKED at 9AM with Ecuadorians, it was PACKED! There were tons of people there dressed in traditional clothing, with their ENTIRE family (aunts, cousins, grandmas, uncles...) and skipping us in line. We decided to ditch this famous bath and go to another one about a mile outside of the main city. Needless to say, we were the strangest things walking in there. There was nothing but Ecuadorians in these baths, everything was in Spanish (OF COURSE!) and there were no White or Black tourists. We stood out like a sore thumb! First we had to take off our clothes and get down to our swimsuits. Steph and Sharon decided to wear bikinis. No other women had on bikinis!!! Then we had to give our stuff to an attendant to hold while we were there and go shower completely. Since no one told us that, we just got in the showers and got wet so we looked like we had completely bathed. Steph and Sharon went into the cold shower because it was less crowded, but I just barged my way into the hot shower. We went to the medium temperature bath, that was more like a swimming pool because kids were in there with their parents. We got sick of being around kids, so we decided to go into the more crowded and warmer bath. It was the most awkward experience of my life. People were just standing around in the pool staring at each other. Everyone in there was at least 50+ years of age, and would have qualified for AARP and/or Medicare in the US. We just huddled in a little circle and spoke English to each other until it was too awkward to deal with anymore. We left, got showered, packed our stuff, wandered around Banos, went to a Catholic church service and eventually boarded our bus back to Quito.