Still alive!

My friend David in Baños after a mud mask... amazing picture

Maureen, David, and Kelea in our hostel in Baños

Inés, Kelea and Myself in Mindo!

Inés and me over the cloud forest

Eating Ceviche on the coast!

Two of my bosses - Shannah (left) and Belén (right)

The view from my room in Montañita

It’s been 21 days, a trip to the coast, a zip line through cloud forests, and some minor intestinal problems... but I’m back! The past three weeks have been tiring, yet I’m happy to report that all is well and continually interesting in Quito. We are still working hard on the Maternal Health project, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and I’m guessing that we’ll be finished by the first of August at the LATEST! I’m really anxious at this point to begin on my thesis research. After eight hours of work, however, I don’t really feel like writing about it at the moment – well at least not office work. Last week (for work), with my three bosses and a fellow intern, my good friend David, I hopped a flight to Guayaquil and then spent three days on the coast conducting interviews with adolescents in a little town called Palmar. It was pretty neat to be able to travel in the middle of the week and I was even able to conduct eight of the interviews on my own! Even though the work was in Palmar, we stayed in party central – AKA Montañita – that is located a half-hour to the south. There, after long days of chatting about sexual and reproductive health choices, we would return for fresh Ceviche, soothing reggae beats, and excellent views of the Pacific. After my three-day getaway, I grumbled back to the office and continued with the ever-present tasks of data entry, translations, and research – all while struggling to get over some deep-fried coastal shrimp that turned out to not agree with me completely (not at all in fact). The weekend came quickly enough, thankfully, and I was immediately on the road again with Inés and my two friends from work to a little town called Mindo. Actually, I already knew Mindo and its mosquitoes quite well. Last year, in the depths of Mindo’s forests, I somehow neglected to bring bug repellent and ended up with about 50 bites on each ankle alone, causing them to swell to the size of melons. Fortunately, I learned my lesson this time around and brought along some DEET! After visiting several waterfalls and eating a great lunch, David, Kelea and I decided to fly through the treetops by zip-line before heading back to Quito. (MISTAKE, I just realized that I actually went to Mindo the weekend before going to the coast... my bad!). This past weekend (the ACTUAL weekend after the coast), I went on a different mini trip with the same people – David, Kelea and Inés – to hot springs in a town called Papallacta. At the moment, on this Tuesday evening, I’m sitting in bed, considering warming up some food, and searching for live music options in Quito tonight. I need to get out of the house and do something fun!

P.S. I forgot to mention that before all of this happened I took a trip to Baños with about eight people and we biked to literally ten or twelve massive waterfalls and went to a crazy spa that involved steam boxes followed by ice water, and mud masks... fun stuff!