Hospital Nacional de Niños

The National Children´s Hospital has 325 beds, six operating rooms, an emergency department, neonatal ICU and a host of other facilities. During our visit, the hospital was only at 70% of its capacity. The hospital was spotless and appeared to run extremely efficiently; the electrical technition who gave us our tour claimed that it was the best hospital of Latin America.

As the United States largely designed, funded, and organized the hospital, we were very well accepted. I got a few pictures of some of the highlights for me. For Ned and Steve, I snapped a picture of the ultrasound scanner in use. I wasn´t quite sure how to ask if the transducers were wobblers or phased-array but I think they look like wobblers, clarify? For Dr. Stouffer, a picture of the Cath Lab. Can you believe they let 17 of us into the lab to check it out?

Costa Rica’s Namesake

The latest weekend trip brought me to Manuel Antonio, a beautiful beach southwest of San Jose with a national park. After last weekend’s intense hike into the clouds, the relaxing beach scene was a welcome one. Two days of fun in the sun left us all relaxed, refreshed, and reddened. I practiced some surfing and we played some beach soccer. For old time’s sake we played some Four Square. Much to our chagrin, the apparent All-American Four Square Champion, Sean, posted himself in the King square and could not be defeated by anyone on the beach.

We didn’t even need to go to the national park to see wildlife; the hostel was teeming with exotic animals. Large iguanas kept vigil on the roofs and happily took apple chunks for tips. I made good friends with a tree frog who joined us for our evening soirée.

Engineers Can Party Too

After long days of classroom learning (see: the fascinating lecture on the finer points of ventilators and anesthesia machines), the group had a barbecue to celebrate surviving the first half of Spanish classes.

Gladys, our host and the Spanish school owner, cooked for the entire group behind her classy house and we entertained ourselves with some good conversation. Later on in the night, after some of Costa Rica’s finest Imperial, we danced to some salsa and reggaeton. Any sociable non-engineer would be proud!

Team EWH

Fortunately for those of you still reading my blog, I have no pride so I admit to defeat against a handful of five-foot Costa Rican friends. We played 5 on 5 indoor soccer (´futbol cinco´) on Monday with our makeshift EWH soccer team. Fortunately, the program supplied us with our incredible soccer jerseys (see picture), so we looked legitimate. If only we didn´t have to touch the soccer ball no one would ever know...

First half, we held our ground and conceded 5 goals to our 6 but shortly after, we lost our legs and they ran the score up to 15. My excuse is the mountain we climbed the day before, to which I hold unless our rematch next Monday embarasses us again!

Cerro Chato

La Catarata de la Fortuna, a fifty six foot high waterfall, plummets through a crevice in the wall into a deep but narrow pool of crystal blue water. The force of the cascade on the surface of the pool creates an outward surface flow similar to what it felt like in the rapids in el Rio Pacuare. We tried to swim directly at the water column but were slowed exponentially and tossed back like drift wood; it was a natural safety design that kept us from swimming under the crashing pillar.

After relaxing on the sunbathed rocks around the picturesque waterfall, we got up to go on what we expected to be a “jog” up the trail to the crater lake and onward to the national park. After hitting the cloud line and the 50 degree incline, the idea of running the trail was abandoned quickly and we continued trudging up the slope. We couldn’t see more than 20 yards ahead of us through the eerie haze. Before too long, we entered the dense forest that surrounded the top of the dormant volcano. The broad leaves and mossy stalks dripped with condensation from the clouds squeezing through the cracks. Our hike thus turned into a climb when the trail fell away and exposed soggy roots became the path markers.

Another hour passed before the clouds began to replace overhead foliage and the trail quickly made its summit and begin a comparable decline. Soon the green wall of vegetation fell away and was replaced by an endless expanse of whiteness that faded into a jade mirror-like surface. It looked like we had reached the boundary of a dream between what had been constructed by the mind and what had not yet been imagined. We descended to the shore side and as we looked across the water the surrounding crest of the crater loomed warily behind a wet veil. It silently exposed itself as the clouds were whisked upward and we could see the full expanse of the lake. Its mysterious untouched beauty gave us all a profound sense of discovery. I tried to take as much of the experience in before I had to peel myself away and head back down the mountain. I hope my description and the visual aids can help you know the feeling!

¡Que Fortuna!

The weekend trip to Arenal will be hard to top I´m afraid. Such an awesome trip, that two posts are necessary to do it justice. La Fortuna is a small town at the base of Arenal (Sandy) Volcano. Arenal is one of the five active Volcanoes and is in the top 3 most visited tourist destinations in Costa Rica. Saturday´s goals were to see the volcano and (hopefully) some lava, and then to go to the Baldi hot springs in the evening. The group as a whole chose to buy the “complete package” from the hotel which included a nature walk, a tour of the volcano, dinner, and then admission to the hot springs. For a group rate of $52 dollars per person, I expected to see a few trees, a large smoky rock, large quantities of rice and beans, and some sulfurous, lukewarm, overcrowded baths. But, four howler monkeys, three spider monkeys, two venomous snakes, two lava chutes, an expansive smorgasbord, and a 310,000 square foot five star watery fantasy land later- I was satisfied with my purchase.
Pictures to come!

Clear!

Thursday´s engineering class ended with the construction of a defibrillator tester. As much as I wished it were a more exciting show, it was cool to know the barely audible “click” and the small LED that lit up when triggered was enough energy (360 J) to kill (and then revive?) me.

That night, after some salsa lessons, I met up with a high school friend, Fallon, who was in town on vacation. Against incredible odds, she was able to make her way to “the bar next to the pink house 600 meters north of the market nearest the University.” It sure takes some guts for someone, especially an attractive young woman, to travel across San Jose alone with no Spanish knowledge to an unknown destination. Bravo.



Friday I met up with another friend in downtown San Jose at the fancy Aurora Hotel. Lauren Marx, a fellow Duke student, and her family took me in and fed me an amazing meal. I was worried I might embarrass myself by eating rapaciously but fortunately my stomach had already atrophied.