Doctors and Hospitals in Quito

Greetings from Quito, Ecuador.  I apologize to those that have been keeping up with my blog for the length of time since my last post.  However after 6 types of medicine, a local remedy (Te de Coca, tea from the leaves of the cocaine plant), a visit to a local doctor, a visit to the local hospital, and $140 later I believe I am (finally) on the mend.  I developed some ear issues while diving that quickly escalated to extreme pain.  I was able to take Amoxicillin in the Galapagos and that helped significantly.  Upon arrival in Quito, slight pain in my ears returned accompanied by an unrelenting headache, and extreme fatigue.  I assumed it was the extreme change in altitude but went to the doctor just to be safe.  I was told that I still had an infection and my Eustachian tubes were inflamed   I paid him 20$ cash and walked out with a script for 2 medications.  I began taking the medicine immediately, but after another day and a half of increasing severity of the pain I decided to hit up the local hospital.  You know some people collect shot glasses from their travels, and others t-shirts.  Me, I go for medicine and local medical clinic visits.  I have a feeling most of you would be quite surprised about the facilities in an Ecuadorian hospital.  The doctors and nurses care greatly although they are limited in english, and the facilities are clean modern.  The son of the owner of our current hostel accompanied us and was very helpful in relaying symptoms en Espagnol to the 2 nurses and 2 doctors that checked on me.  They determined that my infection was still bad and the medicine I had been given thus far was insufficient to combat my issues.  SOOO, the remedy?  The nurse, a grown woman, told me she was going to have to give me 2 shots...in my butt.  Do you remember that all you 6 year old selves out there, shots in your butt?  I have to emphasize the grown woman/ nurse thing because she giggled and acted almost embarrassed in having to do this.  Heck, I did not care a single bit.  You can do whatever you want if it is gonna make me feel better.  So about 20 minutes after the shots they brought me 3 types of pills and a bill for...$106.83 (this is my total bill for about a 2 hour hospital visit, 2 shots, and the 3 types of medicine).  I believe I would be looking at least a grand in the states...with insurance.  So there you have it, a detailed account of my past few days in Quito.  We have done a little sight seeing, but it is hard to enjoy it while your head is throbbing.  Hopefully things will be totally better now, and my blogging can return to its semi-educational, semi-satirical manner.  Ciao.

Opinion of Probable Trip Cost

Happy Winter Everyone!

We finally got our first blast of snow for the year, and it finally feels like winter here in WNY.  12" Overnight!  Yee haw!

Winter has Arrived! 

So, Opinion of Probable Adventure Cost.  This is, as you may have guessed, another (lame?) allusion to a Landscape Architecture term.  This one however can apply to the majority of design and engineering disciplines.   When a project is designed a lot of clients, rightfully so, need to know how much money the proposed design will cost to be constructed.  In Lehman's terms they need a cost estimate for the project.  Due to reasons which are beyond me, we cannot legally call the document which provides estimated construction costs to the client a "Cost Estimate."  Rather we are required to call them an "Opinion of Probable Construction Cost."  Sound like legal jargon?  Yeah, it is.  Alas, I digress...

So, how does the title relate to the trip?  Well, a voyage of the this magnitude seems like it would require a lot of cheddar.  Maybe more than a Landscape Architect would make?  I needed a plan if this was ever going to get off the ground financially.  Could we still eat, sleep, and play prior to departure and still make this happen.  I needed a Cost Estim....rather an Opinion of Probable Trip Co$t.

It took a long time for me to get on board with this whole venture, we are talking years!  I am a realist, what can I say?  I was in to buying things, almighty stuff!  My vice...movies, DVD's and Blu-Ray hundreds of them.  May seem small but those 4 for $20 stops at Blockbuster add up.  I may also have a small addiction to the Apple product line.  That reallly adds up.  I also was in the 'we need full time employment, we need benefits' mindset.  This is obviously not a bad thing as these things help sustain us as viable human beings. 

So the first thing to change was my mentality about work and benefits.  We ended up pairing our initial investment of time and money into a 4 month world adventure as opposed to a year.  This sat well better with me, and as far as work went, I hoped that my request to leave for 4 months would be more easily received by my employer, and make me more viable for future opportunities.  This allowed the peace of mind I needed to begin to see this as a definite possibility!

**Side note: We also have basic health insurance built into our airline ticket price purchased through Airtreks.  Bonus!

Next we had to somewhat revamp our budget.  We cut out a lot of fluff, not eating out so often, fewer trips to Starbucks, and of course my movie collecting came to a sudden halt.  At first I couldn’t dare to think of not being able to buy what I wanted when I wanted it, but now I do not miss it one bit.  We shifted a lot of things around and began jamming as much extra income as possible into our Trip Fund.  In addition I picked up a couple of residential design jobs on the side, we had a garage sale netting us a cool $600 beans and my wife and I let go of several things on eBay and Craigslist for even more money!  It all adds up.

Finally we had to think what we need to cover:

-          Expenses at home while gone

-          Flights

-          Overland Travel

-          Visas

-          Places to stay

-          Food

-          Souvenirs

-          ALL THAT GEAR!

We created our budget, saw what we still needed and worked very hard to ensure that we would be able to have the required funds, prior to departure.  We have done very well on this goal and come February the sacrifices will be so so worth it. 

A trip like this may cause some to think we are rich, or spoiled or just lucky.  I disagree, anyone can do this.  It is a simple goal.  You want to be a doctor, go to school, do well, study hard, and become a doctor.  You would like to go to an Ivy League College, apply yourself in High School, work hard, study harder, and go to that Ivy League.  This adventure is no different.  We decided we wanted to do it, made up our minds that it was important and have now put all of the pieces together to make it happen!

In a future post I will highlight some of the extremely helpful entities that have helped us save money along the way to allow us to experience as much as possible while still exploring within our financial mean$!  Cheers!

Flights are Booked and The Word is Out!!!

Thursday night we spent an hour on the phone with our rep at Airtreks and made, quite possibly, the most important purchase of out trip. We booked all but one of our flights for our 4 month sojourn around the world!! A huge step for us, but still loads more to do.

In addition I broke the news to my company on Friday! Our world adventure is now public knowledge! I was incredibly nervous to tell them as I had no idea how the news would be received. Would they be mad, would they be glad, would they be bummed out, or would they tell me to pack up and head out? All possibilities that I tried to mentally prepare for. I was also a bit bummed about the timing due to some great projects that will just begin to ramp up after the first of the year. However, as the old adage states...there will always be a million reasons not to do something.

Anywho, I met with my boss in the morning and told him about our plans, and my last day being January 25th. He was genuinely happy for me! He was envious of the experience that our around the world trip is sure to bring! The icing on the cake...he spoke very highly of potential of continuing to work there after we returned from the trip! Truly a great gift to work at a place that would even entertain the possibility of a position in the future. In the event of the trip lasting longer than 4 months or something else happening the company would obviously do what they need to do keep on going.

I couldn't have asked for it to go better!

2013 will surely be an amazing year! Lots of excitement, adventure and changes!

Champagne to Celebrate Our Flights!