La Cruz de Huanacaxtle!

I'm sitting at the Jardin del Pulpo Cafe (aka the Octopus Garden) where my amazing friend Alyssa baristas, manages the gallery and organizes nightly events. She has not only let me drop in and hang out at her workplace for the past two weeks, she is also letting me stay at her apartment and showing me around the area in her free time! In the two weeks that I have spent with her, I've gotten to see not only the non-touristy fishing village of La Cruz, but also the surrounding fishing villages and slightly intimidating gringo meccas...I walked down the beach to Bucerias, saw a surfing competition in Sayulita, day tripped to the best community center ever in the quiet town of San Pancho, explored Puerto Vallarta for a day with another Washingtonian named Sandra and met so many new friends and travelers! La Cruz is a huge sailing stop, so there are many boaters here from the west coast of the US and Canada, and they have inspired me to go on a sailing adventure someday too! It has been very fun to talk to them about their adventures and I even went to a going away party on a sailboat that was heading out on the "puddle jump" to French Polynesia...three weeks of sailing in the ocean without seeing land! My time here has been an excellent combination of relaxing on the rooftop deck playing guitar, dancing and playing on aerial silks late into the night at the Octopus Garden and splashing in the waves of the Pacific!

Malecon beach walk in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle!

View of the lower level of the Octopus Garden cafe from the upper patio and dance floor. Most definitely the best community gathering spot in La Cruz! 

La Cruz friends Brittani (left) and Mary Jo (right) hanging from the aerial silks above the dance floor at the Octopus. By the way, I'm more at Brittani's level than Mary Jo's at this point! 

A boaters potluck party with live music in Linda's garden on my second night in Mexico.

The fresh mango pie in Bucerias was absolutely delicious! Possibly the only pie bakery in this area of Mexico?? The Olympia Pie Bakers Guild would be so proud!

One of my favorite days so far was last Sunday when Aly had the day off from work and our friends Mary Jo and Julio took us out on paddle boards! We started at Piedras Blancas beach and then we looped around the marina and ended up getting caught in the wind and fighting our way back to the beach! But it was a stellar sunny day and so nice to spend more time with Aly--a good buddy from camp--in familiar salt water (that is SO much warmer than the Hood Canal)! We also took a break from paddling at a killer seafood restaurant midway through and enjoyed the view of the bay!

Former Camp Robbinswold staff reunited at Piedras Blancas beach near La Cruz!! The rocks are white because birds sit and poop on them--how precious! 

Lunching at Mariscos La Colegita with Aly and a pina colada...yes, that is a massive plate of coconut prawns in the foreground.

Paddling into La Cruz from the beaches north of town

All in all, it's also been excellent just helping out at the Octopus Garden, checking out the Native art gallery here and relaxing with friends in La Cruz. I'm appreciating this extended time staying in one place, as much of the rest of my trip will be more fast paced while I'm moving from town to town.

More photos on Vallarta, La Cruz, San Pancho and SUNSETS will be coming soon once I can get my photos off my camera!! Thanks for reading!

The Start of the Next Adventure!

So I've ended up in Mexico! I have plans to stay here for the next four months, until the end of June. Many people asked me before I left where and why I was going, so in this first post, hopefully I'll provide some explaination.
This trip was insprired by graduating from Evergreen last spring and hearing over and over again that I needed to "get out" and travel, learn, experience, etc. away from home. I started to do this during the summer after I graduated, but I was waiting until after the medical school application process to really get out. I knew that this spring would be an important time for me to travel because it fit well with my work and school schedules, because right now I'm free of both of those! But there were so many places I wanted to visit, and I know people in many different parts of the world...where to go? Where to go?
I picked Mexico because I wanted to refresh my spanish and eperience a different part of Latin America, which I loved so much in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Having never really seen Mexico beyond a day trip to a border town, I wanted to understand this place that has such an impact on life in the US. I also thought I would take the opportunity to visit my friend Aly in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (small town north of Puerto Vallarta) and Cam, who lives six months of the year in Mazatlan. These two amazing women (and their housemates) offered to host me, and with Cam I will be helping out with a medical brigade from the Iowa University PA school. From now through mid-April, I will be visiting these friends and traveling with my mom to the Baja peninsula. After that I will have about seven more weeks to travel in Oaxaca, Chiapas, the Yucatan and maybe Guatemala before meeting up with Jay to go on a WWOOFing adventure in Chiapas. I left the middle part of the trip open, mostly because I talked with friends and family about coming to travel with me during this time, but many were unable to commit, so I'm still waiting to hear when they're free. Regardless, I don't have any doubts that I will meet plenty of interesting travel companions on the way, and hopefully lots of locals who can guide me and show me the back door secrets as well.
It has taken me over a week to get just this first post up, but I will be adding photos and stories from my time in La Cruz very soon! Thanks so much for reading and please contact me at kelsey.sholund@gmail.com with feedback or travel recommendations! Hasta pronto!

Goodbye Ecuador!

Now I'm back at my parent's house in Seattle, where the internet is fast, everyone is speaking in English and I am spending 5 days here before heading off to camp! I will always remember of the 8 1/2 months spent in Ecuador as an incredible experience and I have so many good memories from my time there. I learned so much about Ecuadorian culture, traveling and medicine, and I can't wait to go back in a few years to see what happens in the country. Until then, I plan to finish my bachelors at Evergreen next year and take a year off before medical school. Thanks so much for reading my blog and following my travels, I hope to start it up again when I go on my next international adventure!

Learning how to milk a cow at Vanessa's host grandma's house on my second to last day!

Vanessa's host grandma and her cow, Valentina

In Vanessa's garden, wearing a scarf that her host mom made me!

Hiking to the top of Volcan Imbabura on my last day in Ecuador (4600 meters)

Medical Brigade Trip to Santo Domingo and Cotacachi (May 14-22)

This past week I took some time off from my internship and living in beautiful Tena to translate for a group of 40+ doctors, nurses, dentists, physical therapists, pharmacists and students who came from the University of Kentucky (UK) for a Medical Brigade through the Shoulder to Shoulder organization.
I met the group on Saturday in Quito and we rode the private tour bus that we would call home for the week to the Santa Rosa Convent in the city of Santo Domingo. While the town is not known for it's charm, and it happens to be one of the most dangerous places in Ecuador, we were safe sleeping, eating and hanging out inside the former nunnery! The only two people I knew from the group at the beginning were a coordinator and a Peacecorps volunteer. But I quickly made lots of new friends from Kentucky and among the other translators, who were all medical students from Quito!

Santa Rosa Convent in Santo Domingo, where we stayed for 4 nights

Sunday was our first clinic day, and the entire group went to a very underprivileged neighborhood outside of Santo Domingo (SD) called Plan de Vivienda. The patients had to stand in many lines, first registration, then the nursing station, then to see a doctor and sometimes to dentists and physical therapists as well. Finally they went to the pharmacy, where every patient expected to get some free medication. We worked surprisingly well together as one big group, but nonetheless, it was a hot and hectic day. Thankfully the Ecuadorian translation crew was ready to unwind that night by celebrating a birthday with 13 bottles of watermelon flavored liquor!
After that night, it was a miracle that everyone made it out the door on Monday, as we started our second clinic day. This time we split up into two teams and my group went to the Shoulder to Shoulder Medical Center in another squatter neighborhood of SD. I had visited the clinic back in February on a field trip with CIMAS, but this visit was so much better because I actually got to help treat patients! I spent the morning translating for Tom Young, a pediatrician and professor, who also happened to be the director of the Shoulder to Shoulder program at UK. In the afternoon I translated for Jennifer, a Internist Resident at UK. We ended up seeing only women with gynecological problems, so she was a little out of her element, but I had a ball working with her. Both doctors were very inspiring and I learned so much from them! For dinner that night we got to eat outside of the convent at a fancy restaurant, which (like everything) was paid for by the brigade. After the meal, the main Ecuadorian doctor at the UK clinic sang and played guitar for us.

Ronald the Peacecorps volunteer and me in front of a mural at the UK Shoulder to Shoulder Medical Center 

Outside the clinic at the end of a busy day!

Tuesday was our third, and last clinic day in the Santo Domingo area. My group traveled outside of the city for about 30 minutes on a dirt road to the Tsa'chila community of El Poste. I again translated for Dr. Tom in the morning and we saw a constant stream of kids with parasites. In my spare time, I played games with the kids and after lunch we had lots of fun hanging out with them, coloring, playing soccer and taking pictures. At about 2:30 pm we got back in the bus and drove further into the jungle to visit their community tourism site. They told us about their history and demonstrated their traditional hair painting, dances, medicinal plants and artisanal work. I got to translate again, but this time for my brigade group of 20+ people! Afterwards, we returned to the Medical Center in SD, where the other half of the group spent their day. That afternoon, the local community put on an appreciation show, which included another dance performance! That night, the whole group went out to a karaoke discotech, which turned out to be a hilarious experience!

Future Med Student Kristin putting fluoride on kids' teeth

Dr. Tom examining kids from the El Poste school

Coloring with the kids 

Friends from the Tsa'chila community (it was the same one I visited back in February on a CIMAS field trip...they remembered our group!)

Dance performance at the Medical Center

Wednesday was our community work day, so we painted and laquered all over the Medical Center to spruce it up a bit! After lunch, we said goodbye to Santo Domingo and drove about 6 hours north to Cotacachi. We checked into our hotel which was a former hacienda, ate dinner and went straight to bed!

Hotel Rancho Santa Fe in Cotacachi

Thursday was our one and only clinic day in the Cotacachi area, and we split up into our two groups again. My group drove up on the side of the Cotacachi Volcano to a small agricultural Quichua village called El Cercado. We set up our clinic in a dirty and neglected community center. For part of the morning I translated for doctors in general medicine, although the majority of the patients were little tykes from the school next door. By midmorning we were running short on translators, so I had to go into the dental and physical therapy room. I was the only translator there for most of the time, so I was running between 5 different providers who needed translations. Dentistry was immensely busy that day, between the 3 dentists they pulled a total of 60 teeth just to relieve people's pain. There were many more teeth that needed fillings, which we weren't able to do. On top of being overwhelmed with people, we were also inhibited by a double language barrier, as many patients only spoke Quichua and not even Spanish. At the end of the day I felt worn out, but not accomplished because this community needed so much more help, like a nearby clinic and health education. Afterwards we drove back into town and perused the main street, which is lined with nice leather shops selling all sorts of beautiful coats, purses, belts, etc. I was a little too shocked by the extreme poverty that we'd seen during the day to make any purchases. 

View of Imbabura Volcano from our clinic site on Thursday

The dental and Physical Therapy team!

Shoulder exercises with a broom!

One little guy is not so happy that his teeth are getting pulled!

My team (half of the entire group) after our final day of brigade clinics.

I'm in the front row, second from the left.

After a few solid days of working, we got to do a little sightseeing on Friday and Saturday. In the morning we drove back towards Quito to check out the Cochasqui ruins. I had visited them before on a CIMAS field trip, so while they took the tour, I went on a 2 hour hike up in the hills. It was a gorgeous morning and so incredibly clear that at least 10 volcanoes were visible! We headed back to the hotel for a late lunch, and then in the afternoon most people took the bus to Laguna Cuicocha, just 12 km from Cotacachi. However, we didn't have much time to hike before it got dark and we all wished that we'd been able to spend the whole day there! Friday was our last night all together, so we enjoyed another tasty meal and had a group reflection meeting in the hotel's silly "casino room". Most of the medical providers said they planned to come on another brigade trip in the future because they enjoyed their experiences. Overall we all agreed that the 50-something of us had worked surprisingly well together! 

Cayambe Volcano during my hike

A lonely little goat that I ran into

Llamas at the Cochasqui Ruins

Laguna Cuicocha in the afternoon fog

On Saturday we got the true gringo experience of shopping in the Otavalo market during it's busiest and biggest morning. Everyone was let loose for 2 hours and most people went a little crazy on the souvenirs! I was quickly overwhelmed by the market, so I took a short hike around the surrounding hills, but like a few other people on the trip, my stomach was starting to feel sick. After our last meal altogether in Otavalo, we drove back into Quito with a stop at La Capilla del Hombre (the Guayasamin Museum, my favorite in Quito) on the way. That night, the Ecuadorian translators made reservations for us at one of the wildest restaurants I've ever been too, call La Boca del Lobo (Wolf's Mouth). It had such weird decorations and was pricey for Ecuador, but we had a great time celebrating the end of the brigade! Afterwards we hung out at the Bungalow bar and many people attempted to stay awake until their airport shuttle left the hotel at 4 am. I didn't quite make it until then! 

My favorite painting from the Guayasamin Museum the second time around

Sunday morning there were only about 10 of us left from the brigade and all the others were flying out that night, so I said goodbye and headed back to Tena. 
What a week it had been! I learned tons about health care in general and health workers motivation for paying over $1500 to volunteer for a week in another country. The reaction of the local people to the brigade was also very interesting, but to me it's still unclear whether or not we really made a lasting difference in the health of impoverished communities. 

Two Farm Visits and Adventures in Between! (April 22-30)

The last two weeks have gone by so fast! I spent the time interning at the hospital in Archidona, exploring Tena with Lisa on Easter weekend, traveling back to Quito for 4 days and taking a day trip with Joe to visit Vanessa's farming internship and host family! Here are some photos for all of these amazing experiences!

My host family's Fanesca! It's a 12-grain soup with fish, traditionally prepared for Holy Week and Easter. Lisa and I got to try it on the Friday before Easter.

Farm Trip #1: Tena host family's farm about 15 minutes drive from our house

Mini bananas (aka Horitos)

Papaya tree

Host brother Anthony chewing on some recently cut and peeled sugar cane

Later that night Lisa and I went to a $1 Zumba class in Tena. She agreed that it was one of my best finds ever!

On Saturday we ventured to the town of Misahuallí and Cascadas de Latas. The monkeys at the beach are crazy! This has learned how to eat fruit salad out of a plastic cup!

Getting a ride back to Tena in a truck...the best form of transportation in the climate of the Amazon!

Sunday we checked out the Amazonian park and zoo on an island in Tena. Our new Quito friends Maddy and Roberto took this picture!

The Ecuadorian National Dance Company at a free performance to celebrate International Dance Day, April 29. I got to see this while I was back in Quito for a few days to check in with my school midway through the quarter.

Farm Trip #2: Granja Sumak Kawsay (Good Life Farm) where Vanessa does her CIMAS internship!

Beautiful rainbow chard from seeds sent from a former CIMAS intern

Amazing Amazonian-style lunch (even though we were in the Sierra!) 

Tilapia cooked in leaves over a fire, with yucca, plantains and tree tomato juice

Vanessa, Joe and me with Vanessa's host parents, who run the farm

Vanessa's host family gave us so much food to take with us, including my new favorite fruit..."uvillas" fresh from the farm!

Another Hot Spring Adventure: Papallacta (April 15-17)

Since fall quarter I have heard about the beautiful area around the town of Papallacta, which is nestled into the eastern slopes of the Andes at about 10,000 ft. I took a bus straight there after work on Friday and made it to Papallacta at 4:30pm after about a 3 hour ride. While waiting for my friend Joe to come from Quito, I checked out the few hostel options and hiked about a mile up the dirt road to the fancy Termas de Papallacta resort where the best hot springs are located and where the trails up into the valley start. 
After I ate a sweet plate of grilled trout at a road-side stand, Joe came in off the bus from Quito and we checked into the really nice family-run Hotel Coturpa as their only guests for the night.
The next morning the family fed us breakfast and we headed up the road again, through the resort, and onto the hiking trails. We followed a dirt road up to the Ranger Station for the Cayambe-Coca Nature Reserve and kept climbing on 4-wheeler tracks until noon, when we lunched at Laguna de Anteojos. From there we went another mile or so, making it all the way up to the furthest lake located on the trail we were on, and ending at about 13,450 ft. 

View up the Río Papallacta Valley before the Nature Reserve 

Weird plant that looked like corn and quinoa and had a gooey coating

Laguna de Anteojos

Joe on the last knob we climbed up at our turn-around point

The highest and largest lake that we made it to (I can't remember the name!)

We headed back the way we came and made it all the way down to the hot springs at about 5:30 pm, having seen only 2 other groups of hikers the whole day! 
After grabbing some humitas for a snack, we went hot tubing in the best hot springs I have ever visited!! In the Termas de Papallacta, there were a variety of pools with interesting tiled designs, built in waterfalls and caves, lots of different temperatures and even a place to dip in the natural stream that flows by! It was paradise! We took a break at about 7:30 pm to share a plate of trout down the road, and then went back in the hot springs and stayed until about 10:30 pm. I'm pretty sure that we were actually the last ones to leave! 

The hot springs outside of the resort's cabins (only for guests)!

One of the many hot spring pools that we actually got to swim in! 

(Photo Credit: Termas de Papallacta website)

The next morning we weren't planning to stay for long, but we did make it up to the trailhead at Termas de Papallacta resort again, and this time we checked out some of their nicely maintained trails, which follow the lower part of the Papallacta River. Before heading back out on our respective buses at about 1pm, we grabbed some amazing empanadas and grilled bananas with cheese from a super jolly old lady on the side of the road. 

Lower Papallacta River within the Termas de Papallacta trail network