South Quito

Quito is a long city, to say the least. Hemmed in by steep valley sides it has had to grow almost exclusively longitudinally, making it incredibly long compared to wide. I live in the center section and have almost never ventured south of Panecillo (“little bread” in Spanish) with its giant angel statue towering over the city from its hilltop perch. Almost every guard, taxi driver, or housemaid I have ever talked to has told me they live “in the south.” It is the district of Quito’s working class, nothing touristy to be found, a place where ordinary people live and work. And it was high time I went to explore.

But why go alone when I had an offer to visit Douglas (one of my guard friends I’ve known virtually my entire time here) and his family? So, last Saturday I met him at 6:30am and we caught the bus for the hour commute south.

After breakfast they took me up to an overlook near the house to get a view of their part of the city.




(Douglas on the right with his two daughters (he has three older sons too), two grandsons, and a nephew with South Quito spreading out behind them.)




(We next headed to a local park and after playing on the big toys I busted out my Frisbee. Like every other time it was a big hit☺)




(Back at the house we decided to do a group pic. I don’t have all the names, especially of the little guys, but everyone was related to some extent. Douglas’ wife is on the left. I’m awful with names but her kindness and instant welcome will stay with me for a very long.)




(After this I taught them how to play spoons and although we used lego blocks it didn’t matter. I think they would have kept playing till nightfall but Douglas and I had to leave at 3:30 (for him to work his next shift and me to get home) so we had stop, to many calls of “one more game!” After we had already played 3 “last games.” ☺)


I have been bombarded since my arrival with descriptions of how filthy and dangerous the south is; “you don’t want to go there” was a comment I frequently heard. However, after my recent visit, I couldn’t disagree more. It may not have the high-rises of the central districts and it is more rundown, but the people make the place for me, and I’ve been fortunate to meet some amazing ones.

A Visitor

For the first part of this month my good friend Russell Carroll was in Ecuador (on vacation from Nicaragua where he is working for a year) and we had the chance to go on a number of adventures. I’ve known Russell since 6th grade (11 years now!) and having him here in Ecuador was great fun.

We started off with some time in Quito; my family let him stay at our place for a small fee and even though it was cramped (we shared my bed for example) it was much better than if he’d been at a hostel. One highlight for me was finally having someone who could share in my urban bike adventuring. Most Ecuadorians seem to think I’m a bit crazy biking around the city but I’ve found some sweet lines and having someone to share in these delights was priceless:) We also spent some time in the children’s hospital I have been volunteering at, which as Russell speaks Spanish very well he fit right in with the kids. I was a little worried we’d have trouble entering as it was getting on in the evening but like every other time they didn’t even ask a single question. Somehow I think if I were dark-skinned this wouldn’t be the case. Racism here can be subtle but it is ever-present.

Next up we headed for Baños, a perennial favorite destination of mine. We rented some bikes and ventured out along the valley road. This all sounds pretty tranquil, but throw in almost all uphill for the return, huge muddy swaths, pouring rain, and the necessity to share a 300m + long, pitch-black tunnel with speeding buses and it quickly turned into a venture we won’t soon forget! The tunnel was especially hairy, we got off to run our bikes (have you ever tried riding a bike in a dark tunnel? It’s hard to say the least) and would have to jump into the water-filled ditch ever 30 seconds or so to avoid vehicles speeding by. The next day we both participated in a cayoning tour, which basically consists of rappelling down waterfalls.




(Me descending the warm-up fall.)




(Russell on the same one.)




(Me in the middle of the finale, a 46-meter descent.)


From Baños we bused down to Tena, a 4-hour trip down into the beginnings of the rainforest. The bus we hopped on was packed full and so we spent the first 1.5 hours standing until a few seats opened up. Not getting a seat in buses is actually pretty common here but until that voyage I had been pretty lucky in avoiding standing for long periods of time. The next day we signed on for a rafting tour with an agency run by British ex-pats (a shock at first, I asked a white guy I thought was going on the tour who we needed to pay and he replied “me, I work here”!). The tour itself was great, good rapids, beautiful day, fun side trips, and arguably the greatest lunch I’ve ever had on a trip of this nature (make your own burritos with tons of ingredients, fresh fruits, and homemade chocolate cake for dessert!).




(A view back towards the mountains where we started at.)




(Russell with a small monkey-like creature we were introduced to at lunch by a local boy.)




(Me with said creature and boy to boot!)




(Russell exiting a narrow ravine we walked up a ways to find special mud they use for facials. Seemed just like mud to me. Cool lighting for the pic though.)




(Our boat at the day’s end: Russell, myself, two British girls, and our guide – who was quite the jokester if the picture doesn’t give it away☺)


We took a night bus from Tena to Quito, amazing how in a few hours one can go from lush tropical rainforest surroundings to the arid mountains of the sierra. At about the midway point the bus stopped. This is actually quite common and I often never figure out why. This time though things were more obvious. A policeman boarded and ordered everyone off the bus. We lined up to present our identification and have our belongings checked (for drugs). Russell had his real passport and got right through the check while I only had a copy (I never carry the real thing). This normally is fine but this particular officer seemed to have it in for me. He asked for more ID so I pulled out my bankcard and a worthless international student ID card I paid for at the Fulbright’s urging. Still not enough. He called over his supervisor who began interrogating me, what was I doing in this area, where was I from etc.

Officer: “The USA huh, I hear you guys have lots of hot girls, right?”
Me: “Umm, yeah, that's right.”
Officer: “Man, I’d like to meet some American girls; what do you think of the Ecuadorian gals?”
Me: “They seem nice…”
Officer: “What color do you like ‘em?”
Me: “That really isn’t a factor for me.”

My “interrogation” continued in this vein for another few minutes with several of the other nearby officers leaning in to hear. At the conversation’s end I left with their best wishes, my lack of documents and the search of my possessions well forgotten:) Times such as this make me glad I can speak Spanish.

Next up was a day trip to the famous Papallacta thermal baths with my lab compatriot Yosselin, her sister, and one of their friends.




(A view of the valley in which the springs enter.)




(We took a small hike before hitting the pools. This is a picture of one of the unique plants we found.)




(An old couple crossing a field.)




(Relaxing in the pools. L-R Russell, Yosselin, her sister Karla, and their friend Javier. The place had hot 10 pools feed by nearby hotsprings (several of them huge, as in 50 people could fit in easily!), 2 cold ones and even a small freezing river could be accessed for the brave. As we went on a Wednesday there may have been 10 other people in total. We pretty much had the place to ourselves!)


Only a little over 1.5 months left and so much I want to fit in. Just have to do my best:) Hope you’re all well.

Trypanosoma cruzi

Judging by the number of blog entries I have dedicated to what I am doing in the lab one would think I really never do anything there. This would be what we call, “incorrect.” It is true that recently much of my time previously devoted to pure technical work has been taken over by helping plan and coordinate our upcoming project on Chagas/leishmaniasis in the oriente but we have still been progressing in the lab. One of the main reasons I haven’t posted as much is that in the monthly Fulbright updates I write to my program coordinators I discuss in-depth all things concerning the lab – however, I’ve been writing them in Spanish since month 3 and this wouldn’t help out the majority of people who actually read this thing. So, this entry is an attempt balance things out.

We recently procured a live Trypanosoma cruzi culture; this is the parasite responsible for Chagas disease for those of you who didn’t know. We have been growing it for several weeks know and boy have all those little parasites been asexually reproducing like mad!




(Parasite video, 40X power with zoom from my camera added in. Watch ‘em squirm! This is a good sign, growing well.)


Every couple of days we withdraw 80% of the medium (and parasites), which we spin out with a centrifuge and store the resultant pellet. The remaining sample has more medium added (medium is basically a super parasite food) and is placed back in the incubator at 28-30°C to continue growing. Now, why are we building up a huge stock of parasite bodies? So we can later use (after a series of more complicated steps that I won’t go into here) key T. cruzi surface proteins in an in-house ELISA procedure to test for the antibodies against the parasite (thus determining if a person is infected – although confirmatory tests are always carried out). This in-house ELISA, when dialed in, can be more effective and cost waaaay less than buying commercial kits.




(Manuel withdrawing parasites for examination under the microscope. Based on their shape and motility we can determine which phase of growth they are in and if it is the right time to harvest them. Note the small alcohol burner; everything must be passed through the flame to avoid contamination.)


Another in-house test we are preparing (once again using the parasites) is involves a process known as immunofluorescence. The test is actually quite straightforward and involves putting a known quantity (I will explain in a bit how we determined this) of parasites in a small well of a modified microscope slide. They are allowed to dry on the slide overnight and stored until use at -20°C. To run the test a small quantity of an individual’s serum is placed on the well and left for a time. If they have been infected with T. cruzi they will have antibodies to the parasite, which will bind to specific proteins on the parasites previously bound to the slide. A specific conjugate is then added which binds to the other end of the antibody and the slides are then washed, removing excess conjugate. The conjugate contains a compound that fluoresces under UV light and this can be observed with a fluorescence microscope. Thus, if fluorescence is observed it indicates T. cruzi infection. At this point we have only reached the prepared slide step; I will explain how we determined the parasite concentration.




(This tiny device, known as a Chamber of Neubauer, lets us count parasites. A drop of medium filled with parasites is placed in the middle of one of the metal looking middle sections and a cover slip is applied. The contraption is then placed under the microscope.)




(This is what you see at 20X, we used 40X to count. Zoom in to see the parasites. Each square surrounded by 3 lines is counted, there are 25 in total (a 5x5 square), which are all screened and then totaled. This box of 25 squares corresponds to a volume of 1mm x 1mm x 0.1mm and using this volume and the number of parasites we can calculate our parasite concentration per milliliter. One wants around 1-2 million/milliliter in order to have a sufficient number to make a useful slide for the immunofluorescence test.)




(Me counting parasites, oh yeah!)


During free time Theo (a lab compatriot) and I like practicing various techniques useful for working with infectious diseases. We’ve done a fair amount of blood draws after which we’ve centrifuged our own blood to get the serum, which we have used as negative controls in several Chagas tests in the lab! We’ve also learned how to do a finger prick and use the drop of blood to make a blood smear on a glass slide and then stain it. This may sound easy, and it is pretty easy, but there is a great trick Manuel showed us for getting just the right thickness. Too thin and you don’t have enough to examine, too thick and the red blood cells (RBCs) pile up making it easy to miss anything abnormal. This basic test can detect acute stage Chagas disease and malaria among others.




(Some of our blood (stained). The numerous cells are RBCs and the big purple guy is a white blood cell or WBC. This one happens to be an eosinophil, which if detected in elevated levels can indicate a parasitic worm infection, such as gnathostomiasis. The really purple part is a multi-lobed nucleus while the little reddish granules contain powerful enzymes.)