"Cuy: pet or dinner? gringos: people or money? it's your perspective." That was the haiku I wrote in my haiku journal at the end of our week in Quito. In Quito, I felt as if I were cuy. I was prey. I was vulnerable. I was ripe for the poaching. I felt like Quito was hungry, and I was on the menu. And I looked delicious. So although I was really sad for our week in Quito to end (it meant that it was time for Aleks to return to the US), I was relieved to climb aboard a bus that [View Full Entry]

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We got into a rhythm in the big city. Lying on the equator, we had a consistent 12 hours of relatively safe sunshine to exploit. Of course, just wandering the Quiteño streets would always yield some surprise or another (like the man breathing fire at the intersection, or the anti-Bush graffiti we saw sprinkled about town), but we also wanted to get out and see as much as we possibly could of the surrounding areas. We started each day with a hearty breakfast of fresh and exotic Ecuatorian fruits (with names like taxo, durazno, babaco, granadilla, naranjilla, and tomate de arbol [View Full Entry]

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I've always had a thing for busses. Maybe it's the thrill of a voyage; maybe it's the the voyeur in me, hoping to witness the beauty of people just being themselves; maybe it's the Forrest Gump in me ready to meet my next best Bubba in the face of a stranger. Our first Sunday in Quito we decided to take the bus up north to a little town called Otavalo. Otavalo is famed for one of the most incredible artisan's markets in the country, and we hoped to find a few special regalitos for our loved ones. We walked up the [View Full Entry]

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Quito is a big city, and like any big city, it's dangerous. Like our own city, Denver, Quito has 2 million citizens, but these 2 million Quiteños have to cohabitate in a fraction of Denver´s area. Adding to the temptation to steal is the huge gap between the rich and the poor, and, in particular, between the Ecuatorians and the Americans. While the living wage in America gets you about $2000 a month, the living wage in Ecuador is on the order of $200 a month (The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Ecuador is $4,770, compared to $43,954 in the [View Full Entry]

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It had been too long since Spain. Too long since I had last taken myself completely out of context to learn more about myself, my country, humanity, and the world. Now in our 4th year of medical school, we had a bit of travelling time before graduating and moving on to residency. So Audrey and I scoured the internet looking for a medical-volunteering program in a South American country where we could practice our Spanish and learn more about the culture of many of our South American patients. We found CFHI (Child Family Health International, www.cfhi.org) which offered us a month-long [View Full Entry]

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If you are a faithful reader of my blogs, you know I'm hopelessly in love with flamenco (). The first espectaculo that I saw here in Madrid left me absolutely speechless. The dancers were so confident, powerful and feminine. They controlled every movement and captivated the viewer. When I left the small tablao and walked out into the night air, I felt my own energy had changed. Just watching these women dance filled me with confidence, power and an inner sense of calm. After seeing these amazing performances, I couldn't just spectate. I had to see for myself [View Full Entry]

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Last Friday, our plans to rent a car and drive to Sevilla for the weekend were sadly thwarted by the dieties of manual transmission. Tracie and I had been planning on this excursion all week, but I say "planning" in the loosest sense of the word. We hadn't actually gotten around to making those important reservations to rent one of the three automatic cars to be found in Madrid. Walking home from the travel agent, tails between our legs, we soberly considered other options for a weekend holiday. We investigated trainfare to Sevilla. Expensive but doable. Then we realized: this is [View Full Entry]

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When a dear friend asked when the next blog was coming, I had to confess that "I don't really have anything new and interesting to report, cuz I didn't travel this weekend, I've just been kickin' it here with the daily grind in Madrid. I got nuttin'." But she wisely pointed out that even the daily can be exotic in its way. So I'm trying to look at my city and my experience with new eyes and share that vision with my faithful readers. So allow me to introduce you to la gente de Espana. The Spanish are beautiful people with [View Full Entry]

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The other day I was walking in the Calle Gran Via, and I saw a crowd of people gathered around a man on the sidewalk. He was playing speed chess against any brave passerby who was up to the challenge. Each player had a total of 3 minutes for the game. I don't mean that each move received 3 minutes. I mean the whole game was begun and completed in less than 6. The rules: you lose if your king is check-mated, and you lose if your 3 minutes runs out. The man was playing a loop of Tracy Chapman's "You [View Full Entry]

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A solo trip to a nearby pueblo was just what I needed on the last day of my four day weekend. At the Atocha Renfe station, a nice man recommended Avila. I hopped on a train and set off. When I arrived in Avila, I was, at first, disappointed. The pueblo was quiet and lifeless. All of the town, save a cafe or two, was completely vacant. Where were all of the Avilanos? I decided to take a walk near the Muralla, the old wall that fortressed the city in days of old. I was surprised at how closely the villagers [View Full Entry]

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