Hello Cuenca, Goodbye Appendix

After a night of stomach pains and shivering (duh, a fever, how did I not realize that) we decided maybe my stomach pains were gastritis so we went to the pharmacy and picked up some medicine then headed off to explore Cuenca, determined that the medicine would heal me. First we went to Parque Calderon which has their "new" cathedral, which was actually built in 1885. It was a pretty dazzling site, especially the gold structure built over the sanctuary- incredible! It also has huge blue domes which are lit up at night- beautiful although a bit out of place. We also got to see a parade on our way over to the "old" cathedral, it was a bunch of schools- some had bands, some have baton twirlers, and some were little kids dressed up as saints, priests, and angels- apparently they are very serious about their parades in Ecuador. We were told that the parade was for the baby Jesus and that they had similar parades everyday of December!

Next we went to the "old" cathedral, El Sagrario, which was built in 1557. In this cathedral we got a great tour- it was particularly interesting because even in its construction you can see the fusion of cultures, Spanish, Incan, and the local indigenous group. There were shrines built by local wealthy families that displayed some incredible old vestments. One of the shrines was particularly interesting because it was done in the Spanish style that incorporates Christian, Jewish, and Muslim symbols which is interesting and rather odd to see in Latin America. On the alter of the cathedral there were figures of the apostles- life size figures! There was also an incredible organ that took 5 people to play! There were 4 accordion things that people had to open and close to get sound, they were about a meter and a half by half a meter- huge. Then the 5th person would actually play the organ. At the moment though, it can't be played because it needs 1/2 million usd in repairs- the pipes were clearly worn and falling apart but it was impressive none the less. In the adjacent galleries they had pictures of Cuenca throughout that past century-ish.

Next, we walked to the river- Rio Tomebamba and stopped into the Museo Medico, which was a pleasant surprise. It was just a bunch of old medical equipment, medicines, and a pretty incredible collection of old medical literature. We were some of the very few Americans who had visited judging by the guest book so that was cool to see!

Next we headed to some ruins a little farther down the river, we had a lovely tour but I was having trouble focusing- I wasn't in a huge amount of pain but I was so exhausted, I could barely put one foot in front of the other. After the tour we headed to lunch at which point Linnea and I decided that I needed to go to the hospital. Luckily our Lonely Planet guide had a clinic listed so we headed there.

The clinic ended up being a medical office building but luckily there was a hospital next door!! So we went over to the hospital but were continually redirected to different places because at that point we didn't know I had appendicitis so when people asked if it was an emergency we said no. Well, saying you don't have an emergency in a latin american hospital during lunch time is no way to get seen. Finally we made our way to the emergency room and they agreed to see me despite the fact that it was lunch time :) It ended up working out well though because apparently patients don't come to the hospital during lunch time either- I was one of maybe 3 patients there!

They ran a lot of tests but I was assuming that I had some sort of parasite so when they suggested that I have an ultra sound I asked how expensive it would be first, thinking that wasn't a valuable test. Much to my surprise the ultrasound was in fact the exact test that needed to be done- I have to say it was quite a shock to hear spanish, spanish, spanish I don't understand, APENDICITIS, that's the same in Spanish.

Immediately I asked how I could fly back to the states- no time. Ok, how about Bogota, get me back to Bogota- no time. That's when it began to sink in that I was having surgery in Cuenca, Ecuador....