Los Hospitales y El Parque Historico de Guayaquil

So today was our first whole day in Ecuador! We had the pleasure of sleeping in because of our late arrival last night. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel restaurant- yummy fruit, breads, eggs, and yogurt. At ten o’clock we jumped in two vans and headed to the oldest hospital in South America, the Luis Vernaza General Hospital, built in 1564. Don’t let the old age fool you! It’s still quite the hospital! We toured various areas including the emergency room, three levels of Intensive Care Units, cardiology unit, and post-operative recovery area. The hospital is divided based on funding- the private part and the “Junta.” The private area was noticeably nicer, although the patients pay a bundle for it. The “Junta” is an organization, which funds their care through a lottery in Ecuador. Patients who come to the “Junta” area pay based on what they can afford and the lottery covers the rest. Their care was still pretty remarkable. One brand new ICU was comparable to one in the United States. They are very advanced in some ways- they even had a whole area for stem cell implants. 

Sign on the door for the stem cell implant wing... 

I love stem cell in Spanish- mother cells :)

An interesting aspect was the lack of privacy. There were six to twenty patients in each room lying on stretchers within arms distance of each other. They did not seem put off by this though. The patients were very friendly and excited to see us. I got to use my Spanish quite a bit with the patients and our tour guide. The courtyard of the hospital was sooo beautiful and included a little cathedral. 

Courtyard of the Luis Vernaza Hospital

Courtyard again.... so pretty!

Here's all my pals... 

            Our next stop was the children’s hospital in another part of town. It was really nice and reminded us of Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake. It is also funded by the "Junta."The babies and children were so cute! I am so sad we won’t be doing clinicals there, but it was fun to tour it. I guess the nurses there get too nervous when we're around. Quite unfortunate because the children were ADORABLE and I would be so good at lovin them up! :) 

Riding in the air conditioned van! We're spoiled... 

We spent the afternoon at “El Parque Historico de Guayaquil.” It was a history park with a bunch of different areas. We had tour guides lead us through. First, in the wildlife portion we saw a bunch of crazy animals like crocodiles, parrots, tapirs, sloths, monkeys, and crabs. It totally reminded me of our trip to Manaus, Brazil last summer. One monkey entertained us thoroughly as he tried to crack open a nut on three different surfaces. The other areas had restored buildings like a bank, restaurant, farm, etc. We took a bunch of cute pictures on the cable cars outside just like San Francisco!  

Pretty parrot... I didn't even mess with the colors of the photos!

Cheesy cable car photo- a must. 

Restored urban buildings

Trisha! You would be so proud of their recycling.

 In the park they used old soda bottles to grow plants in! 

For those of you who don't know, I have crazy reactions to mosquito bites. They swell up and turn white within a few minutes and I get hives all around them. Well this was my first one worth documenting. By the end of the park tour I had five bites on my arms and I was starting to swell! I'll have to be better about using my repellant... 

By the end I was pretty tuckered out from the humidity, lack of sleep, and bites. We stopped by the MegaMaxi grocery store to pick up some water and food. Here we are with our huge jugs! 

Thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll have some more exciting stories to dish on soon. :)

Love, Allie