I happened to do a "google" search of my name (looking for anything suspicious that I would want to remove!) and found this!! I remember interviewing for it, but never heard anything about a final draft or publication.
Education Anywhere
Showing posts with label san juan del sur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label san juan del sur. Show all posts
February 29, 2012
January 27, 2010
I ask for so little.... (maybe an elevator??)
After a very restful night of sleep (Lo siento to MC for locking him out of the house last night - but he should have knocked louder ;-) we had a brief breakfast at the corner pastry shop and did a bit of shopping in downtown San Juan del Sur. We met up with Katie at 11 to go sailing.
I have never been sailing before (been on lots of boats, but usually motorized ones) and I was NOT excited to go once I saw the rest of our "crew" - remember my thoughts on ignorant gringos? Welcome aboard the S.S. Obnoxiousness, packed full of drunk, whorish 20-somethings from Canada and Australia.
The ONLY good thing about the trip (from my perspective) was the sea turtle sighting about 30 minutes from port. I think MC enjoyed meeting the Washington state boys en route to India for a pimped out TukTuk race (which I think is a future WV trip in the making??). And KH just enjoyed getting back on dry land (after a few hours of vomiting... poor girl :-( boat sickness sucks)
Thank god the "sunset" tour turned into a 3 hour out-and-back fight with nasty winds, and we were on dry land by 2pm. After regaining our balance on dry land, we went back to Stones & Waves (to check on the monkeys... again... and they were fine... again) and then climbed those god-forsaken steps once again.
Have I mentioned the steps? We are at the best casa in all of Las Piedras y Olas, however, it is about a 15min hike up the winding resort stairs. The whole thing is built into the side of a mountain, which makes for great views, but horrific leg pains. Similar to the 80s classic movie "The Labyrinth" - minus David Bowie in Lycra pants, and substitute spiders and geckos for the traditional muppets. In the 7 days we've been here, I don't think we've gone up or down the same path twice ← no way is the same ↑ just a TON of steps → followed by MORE steps ↓
It might be nice to have a David Bowie sighting instead of a cabana boy??
"I ask for so little... Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."
Yes David Bowie, whatever you want... God I ♥ that movie ;-) Ok... enough of I ♥ the 80s - back to reality ;-)
We had a great light dinner by the pool then watched the sunset (for the last time :-( sad) over San Juan del Sur from the patio outside the casa. Lots of talk about the fun time had and potential trips for the future. Maybe no more monkeys? I haven't been bit by any reptiles yet... how about a sea turtle adventure?
Wish you were there (wherever it will be!)
I have never been sailing before (been on lots of boats, but usually motorized ones) and I was NOT excited to go once I saw the rest of our "crew" - remember my thoughts on ignorant gringos? Welcome aboard the S.S. Obnoxiousness, packed full of drunk, whorish 20-somethings from Canada and Australia.
The ONLY good thing about the trip (from my perspective) was the sea turtle sighting about 30 minutes from port. I think MC enjoyed meeting the Washington state boys en route to India for a pimped out TukTuk race (which I think is a future WV trip in the making??). And KH just enjoyed getting back on dry land (after a few hours of vomiting... poor girl :-( boat sickness sucks)
Thank god the "sunset" tour turned into a 3 hour out-and-back fight with nasty winds, and we were on dry land by 2pm. After regaining our balance on dry land, we went back to Stones & Waves (to check on the monkeys... again... and they were fine... again) and then climbed those god-forsaken steps once again.
Have I mentioned the steps? We are at the best casa in all of Las Piedras y Olas, however, it is about a 15min hike up the winding resort stairs. The whole thing is built into the side of a mountain, which makes for great views, but horrific leg pains. Similar to the 80s classic movie "The Labyrinth" - minus David Bowie in Lycra pants, and substitute spiders and geckos for the traditional muppets. In the 7 days we've been here, I don't think we've gone up or down the same path twice ← no way is the same ↑ just a TON of steps → followed by MORE steps ↓
It might be nice to have a David Bowie sighting instead of a cabana boy??
"I ask for so little... Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."
Yes David Bowie, whatever you want... God I ♥ that movie ;-) Ok... enough of I ♥ the 80s - back to reality ;-)We had a great light dinner by the pool then watched the sunset (for the last time :-( sad) over San Juan del Sur from the patio outside the casa. Lots of talk about the fun time had and potential trips for the future. Maybe no more monkeys? I haven't been bit by any reptiles yet... how about a sea turtle adventure?
Wish you were there (wherever it will be!)
January 26, 2010
Conquering fears one wave at a time
Last night we went for MUCH NEEDED massages at the hotel spa then dinner on the beach. I wish I had a photo (or even better, a VIDEO!) of this couple at the restaurant. We went back to El Timon for some awesome seafood, and there were 2 gringos "dancing" to the salsa-esque music in the restaurant. I have NEVER seen anything less sexy or as uncomfortable as these 2 people. I'm not a very talented salsa dancer, but I know it's NOT supposed to look like THAT. Downright painful. Mike swore he could see the guy counting "one two three four... one two three four" as he mechanically went through the steps.
After dinner we got ice cream from a little shop down the street and I ran with some beach dogs behind the store. I think that is probably the best pastime ever - beach dogs are a breed in-and-of themselves, and I think if I had to be a dog, I would want to be a beach dog too. Aside from the sand fleas and transmissible venereal tumors, beach dogs have it made. They are skinny, homeless and itchy, but they have so much fun playing in the sand, barking at the waves, chasing coconuts and getting scraps from the beach goers.
Today we went SURFING!! After breaking my back on a surf board in 2005, I have not tried to surf again. Obviously, I don't surf WELL or else I wouldn't have broken my back in the first place. But the waves off Long Island are different than those off the coast of Nicaragua, so I figured a lesson (with a semi-English speaking teacher) couldn't hurt. Surfing (actually, falling and injuring myself while surfing) is one of my top 3 fears (along with primates and jellyfish) I didn't do anything crazy or exciting, but I survived almost an hour in the water and actually got up on the board once! Knowledge is power, and now I know that you don't dive under a wave with a long board ;-)
Muscles I didn't even know I had are screaming for Advil, so it's time for a nap then some dinner :-)
After dinner we got ice cream from a little shop down the street and I ran with some beach dogs behind the store. I think that is probably the best pastime ever - beach dogs are a breed in-and-of themselves, and I think if I had to be a dog, I would want to be a beach dog too. Aside from the sand fleas and transmissible venereal tumors, beach dogs have it made. They are skinny, homeless and itchy, but they have so much fun playing in the sand, barking at the waves, chasing coconuts and getting scraps from the beach goers.
Today we went SURFING!! After breaking my back on a surf board in 2005, I have not tried to surf again. Obviously, I don't surf WELL or else I wouldn't have broken my back in the first place. But the waves off Long Island are different than those off the coast of Nicaragua, so I figured a lesson (with a semi-English speaking teacher) couldn't hurt. Surfing (actually, falling and injuring myself while surfing) is one of my top 3 fears (along with primates and jellyfish) I didn't do anything crazy or exciting, but I survived almost an hour in the water and actually got up on the board once! Knowledge is power, and now I know that you don't dive under a wave with a long board ;-)
Muscles I didn't even know I had are screaming for Advil, so it's time for a nap then some dinner :-)
January 24, 2010
You can teach a gringa, but you can't teach 'em much....
3 more monkey surgeries today, and an interesting "incident" when I tried to give the spays from Friday (Lucy and Veronica) their morning Tramadol and banana treat. Lucy (who was previously a pet and as such, is much more affectionate than the others) was more than happy to have her narcotic banana, but Veronica flat out attacked me, bit my arm, and held on like it was her job. I managed to throw her off me before she did any real damage, but of course, there were 2 maintenance men there to watch/laugh/offer help to the gringa in the monkey pit.
The rest of the surgeries went very well, and MC pulled off a micro-spay on the baby monkey (Francesca, whose father was apparently Italian, or as the story goes...) And when you put an ER vet and a crazy, ER-trained, high-volume tech together, you get a 14 hour spay-a-thon. Today we did 5 dog spays, 2 dog neuters, 3 cat neuters AND the 3 monkey spays. We finished at about 8:30pm, but will be starting the day off on a clean slate tomorrow, with no surgeries held over.
I obviously didn't learn the monkey lesson of morning, so I went into the monkey pit AGAIN and got mauled AGAIN on the way home from dinner by Roberto. They are just so damn cute you want to cuddle them all. Well, that is a very cunning game on their part. MC was trying to look at Lucy and Veronica's incisions and I tried to give Roberto a banana (I think the bananas are just problematic to begin with). He lured me into the monkey pit and then before I knew it, I had a leg and tail wrapped around my knee and Roberto climbed up me like the mountain of a gringa that I am. No sooner did MC say "Hey, looks like you got a cling-on over there..." then Roberto went psycho-monkey on me and attacked my already bandaged arm. MC screamed in "support" - "DON'T MOVE!" and eventually Roberto jumped off my head and I ran for the wall. AGAIN there was a maintenance man there to witness the chaos. He didn't do too much damage since most of my arm was covered with bandages from this morning's incident. He bit/scratched/clawed at my other arm and left a nice bruise there.
Off to wrap my monkey bites... pictures tomorrow after everyone is done laughing at me ;-)
The rest of the surgeries went very well, and MC pulled off a micro-spay on the baby monkey (Francesca, whose father was apparently Italian, or as the story goes...) And when you put an ER vet and a crazy, ER-trained, high-volume tech together, you get a 14 hour spay-a-thon. Today we did 5 dog spays, 2 dog neuters, 3 cat neuters AND the 3 monkey spays. We finished at about 8:30pm, but will be starting the day off on a clean slate tomorrow, with no surgeries held over.
I obviously didn't learn the monkey lesson of morning, so I went into the monkey pit AGAIN and got mauled AGAIN on the way home from dinner by Roberto. They are just so damn cute you want to cuddle them all. Well, that is a very cunning game on their part. MC was trying to look at Lucy and Veronica's incisions and I tried to give Roberto a banana (I think the bananas are just problematic to begin with). He lured me into the monkey pit and then before I knew it, I had a leg and tail wrapped around my knee and Roberto climbed up me like the mountain of a gringa that I am. No sooner did MC say "Hey, looks like you got a cling-on over there..." then Roberto went psycho-monkey on me and attacked my already bandaged arm. MC screamed in "support" - "DON'T MOVE!" and eventually Roberto jumped off my head and I ran for the wall. AGAIN there was a maintenance man there to witness the chaos. He didn't do too much damage since most of my arm was covered with bandages from this morning's incident. He bit/scratched/clawed at my other arm and left a nice bruise there.
Off to wrap my monkey bites... pictures tomorrow after everyone is done laughing at me ;-)
January 23, 2010
Diagnosis Toe Meat
Today was an interesting day fo sho....
Yesterday (Friday) we spayed 2 monkeys (Lucy & Veronica), practiced anesthesia on another monkey and did a TB test (Roberto), and neutered 2 cats. Today (Saturday) we neutered 3 male dogs, spayed 1 female dog, spayed 4 cats and neutered 2 cats (NOT the one we are trying to catch out side the casa).
A sick dog was brought in with a tumor on his head the size of a baseball. He was very old (8, which is like 1,000 in street dog years) and had bad neurological deficits in his back legs. Yet, the most interesting "case" of the day was the sunburned hippie who wanted the vets to look at his foot wound and tell him if "he should seek medical advice" - seriously? If you think you need to have your foot looked at, and are asking a VET to tell you how bad it is, you probably need to just suck it up and go to the doctor. But I humored the guy (for KH's sake - as she gets to deal with them on a daily basis!) and looked at his foot injury. He proudly told me he just got over a case of staph infections on his leg and then he tripped and hurt his foot. He was wiggling his semi-attached toenail and telling me there was "toe meat" sticking out and he was afraid he would get a "toe meat infection". Wish I had a picture of the pre-infection toe meat trauma ;-) There was a guy on the beach last night who appeared to be the "local podiatrist" - inspecting and applying foot creams to random people on the beach. He would probably treat a toe meat infection for the price of a few cold cervazas, so in my non-medical opinion, he should probably get some Tona (Nica ale) and limp on down to the beach...
Wish I had a picture... you just had to be there ;-)
Yesterday (Friday) we spayed 2 monkeys (Lucy & Veronica), practiced anesthesia on another monkey and did a TB test (Roberto), and neutered 2 cats. Today (Saturday) we neutered 3 male dogs, spayed 1 female dog, spayed 4 cats and neutered 2 cats (NOT the one we are trying to catch out side the casa).
A sick dog was brought in with a tumor on his head the size of a baseball. He was very old (8, which is like 1,000 in street dog years) and had bad neurological deficits in his back legs. Yet, the most interesting "case" of the day was the sunburned hippie who wanted the vets to look at his foot wound and tell him if "he should seek medical advice" - seriously? If you think you need to have your foot looked at, and are asking a VET to tell you how bad it is, you probably need to just suck it up and go to the doctor. But I humored the guy (for KH's sake - as she gets to deal with them on a daily basis!) and looked at his foot injury. He proudly told me he just got over a case of staph infections on his leg and then he tripped and hurt his foot. He was wiggling his semi-attached toenail and telling me there was "toe meat" sticking out and he was afraid he would get a "toe meat infection". Wish I had a picture of the pre-infection toe meat trauma ;-) There was a guy on the beach last night who appeared to be the "local podiatrist" - inspecting and applying foot creams to random people on the beach. He would probably treat a toe meat infection for the price of a few cold cervazas, so in my non-medical opinion, he should probably get some Tona (Nica ale) and limp on down to the beach...
Wish I had a picture... you just had to be there ;-)
Pelican Eyes, Spider Monkeys
We arrived at the Pelican Eyes resort in San Juan del Sur late Thursday night - and when I say "resort" I mean RESORT! I am used to sleeping on gym floors, no hot water, blistering heat... you know, the usual. This is a picture from our front door:
Yesterday was the first (unofficial) day of clinic work. We spayed 2 spider monkeys - Lucy and Veronica - and sedated Roberto (the male) to give him a TB test and draw blood. Not a huge fan of primates going into this trip (because of this and also the capuchin monkey that bit me in Ecuador)
but these guys seem OK so far. No bites and very manageable when sedated.
Primate venapuncture is a lot easier than I thought but also very unlike anything I've ever done. It felt sort of like putting a catheter in a person - a very small, hairy, thumbless person. I've learned a lot of very cool tricks about primate medicine - like putting very bright, tacky colored nail polish on their fingernails so they would have something to distract them from picking at their surgical incisions. So now I am an official primate manicure aesthetician. You pick color! More pictures of that soon :-)
Our hotel casa is at the VERY top of a very big hill. Lots of steps. I want to venture off into town and see the beach and get some good seafood, but I dread the long walk back. It's the price you pay for the view ;-)
Yesterday was the first (unofficial) day of clinic work. We spayed 2 spider monkeys - Lucy and Veronica - and sedated Roberto (the male) to give him a TB test and draw blood. Not a huge fan of primates going into this trip (because of this and also the capuchin monkey that bit me in Ecuador)
but these guys seem OK so far. No bites and very manageable when sedated. Primate venapuncture is a lot easier than I thought but also very unlike anything I've ever done. It felt sort of like putting a catheter in a person - a very small, hairy, thumbless person. I've learned a lot of very cool tricks about primate medicine - like putting very bright, tacky colored nail polish on their fingernails so they would have something to distract them from picking at their surgical incisions. So now I am an official primate manicure aesthetician. You pick color! More pictures of that soon :-)
Our hotel casa is at the VERY top of a very big hill. Lots of steps. I want to venture off into town and see the beach and get some good seafood, but I dread the long walk back. It's the price you pay for the view ;-)
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