otovalo continued

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Then after the animal market starts the food market...streets and streets of vividly coloured fruits...40 mandarins for a dollar, women selling beans and peas from big bowls in front of them, huge prawns in buckets and fish on stalls..I sampled the watermelon there..so delicious i had to keep going back for more! AGain hectic and filled with indigenas with bright coloured ponchos and felt hat aand the men with long plaits black ponchos and bright white trousers...I never knew guava was a long knobbly thing..

After the food comes the haberdashery and jeans and their material for skirts and belts, and finally you come to the main square where the handicrafts market geared towards tourists is,

Again you have to be there to imagine it. Every square inch wwas packed with bright cloths hammocks chairs jumpers ponchos jewellry art, bags bowls and hats being sold by the women in their frilly shirt.
Of course every stall holder you pass tries to get you to look at their stuff., and then if you do buy something the bargaining process begins and when it comes down to haggling over 50 p even though you know youre paying over the odds its hard to begrudge it--
It was hectic.. and i survived with refreshing watermelon and these delicious doughnut like balls! When you are there its hard to buy anything because its so overwhelming but when I left i regretted not buying everything i liked because you cant find it here!
MUm tried some local cuisine which i tend to steer clear of asnd it turned out to be some meat on potatoes which in her words tasted of rectum and i can confirm smelt disgusting enough to make me feel ill!
On the Sunday we got up early and walked to the sacred waterfall which was pretty and ended up hitching a ride wioth an American hostel owner to see a lagoon and some local villages..then after looking around the now very small sunday market it was time to go back to quito..
It was nice to do the journey in the day because on one side you can see beautiful snow capped volcanoes..and the massive drop of the side of the road..
I then tried to buy some hospital clothes in quito and was put off by the sizing wehich given that the average height for a woman here is 5 ft puts me at the large end! and mum went off to meet her family....

On Monday it was back to hospital which i was dreading..boring again! Met up with mum just to have tea and chat in the afternoon and she told me here family is pretty awful...obviously hosting as a business not b ecause they want to so she had decided to stay in a hostel instead..

GRR THIS IS REALLY ANNOYING:::SOMEONE HAS BEEN SANDING THE WALL RIGHT NEXT TO ME SINCE I STARTED WRITING AND ITS SO LOUD AND A HORRIBLE SOUND I WANT TO PUNCH HHIM!!!


SO yesterday and today we are just taking the afternioon together to look round the old town which is full of catholic churches dripping with gold and full of statues of saints....i dont know why one of the comandments is not to worship idols...they must have forgotten that one...

I was exhausted yesterday although i joined the gym on monday so i can do 4 weeks worth of exercise and minimise the impact of thew almost 100 % carb diet in ecuador! The gym is worth mentioning...
ITs not actually a gym its classes monday to friday.. They have a variety, two of which are body combat and body pump which ive done at home., and the one which i tried first is called power jump...its insane... its mini trampolines that you jump really fast up and down on in a variety of ways for an hour..Ive never been so exhausted by an exercise class. I know the altitude doesnt help but even so...i was shaking by the time i finished...serves me right for doing no exercise since before exams and then taiking an insane class...but at least i could sleep a bit better!
also now im walking back later at night there is always someone at the end of my road offering my hash or cocaine

On that note i got some zopiclone today..apparently its prescription only but i told the pharmacist i was an intern from england and then she had no prob handing them over without one..

So the hospital--its basic, a and e no privacy no changes of sheets between patients, bad x rays, no monitors, wierd method of extracting blood..shove a needle in try and hold the child still whilst you catch the small drips..thus avoiding the need for a syringe but it takes ages..
Also the vast majority of the patients are just diarrhoea and vomiting or fever. Because the ydont have GPs here they all come to A and E instead. I havent seen any interesting tropical conmditions but a fair amount of poverty related disease so three hepatitises theis week and two malnuourished kids..fungal infections...and of course most have intestinal parasite.s..I think im going to take a stat does of metronidazole before i come back..im sure a drugs rep will give me some at some point..
mostly its just really really dull because first theres a ward round which is too fast to understand, then i sit and watch the patients being clarked by the junior dr and then reviewed, occasionally examining something or taking blood etc..then uzsually at 10 00 theres nothing to do so i wait for two hours ish to leave,,,


so now we are going to the basilica..

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