Day 13: Lake Atitlán

Saturday, July 19th, 2014

                 We designated our last day in Guatemala as a relaxation and celebration day. To celebrate the trip we decided to go to Lake Atitlán with Carlos, head resident Manuel and his girlfriend. If anyone was even the slightest bit hesitent about returning, I’m fairly sure spending a day enjoying the natural beauty of Guatemala acted as a sure-fire way of motivating the group to return.

The group after breakfast 

            Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America and is surrounded by three volcanoes and many villages where Mayan culture is still prevalent. “Atitlan” is a fusion of Nahuatl words that mean “at the water.”  The lake has been labeled the “most beautiful lake in the world” various times and, Aldous Huxley famously compared it to Lake Como of Italy saying, “Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing.” We definitely agreed with Huxley, our last day in Guatemala was full of good things.

View from the road

Carlos picked us up at 7AM and we started the drive to the lake. The drive itself was absolutely gorgeous and we passed a lot of typical Mayan villages we hadn’t seen as a result of working in the city. We passed Chimaltenango, San Lucas, and Sololá until we reached our final destination of Panajachel. We took advantage of ourfinal opportunity to go shopping in the market places and then hopped on a little motor boat to sail across the lake to visit San Pedro (La Laguna).

The boat ride got a little wet

The view of San Pedro from the boat

We had been warned that a lot of tourists have been known for going to San Pedro and never leaving. Within minutes of just standing on the dock, we understood why. San Pedro is a little paradise on the southwestern shore of the lake. The town is packed with little shops, colorful clothing, tropical plants, and, of course signs advertising Gallo everywhere. We started off the most logical way, testing just how warm the water was-after all we were all a little wet from the boat ride anyway! We then went to a little restaurant recommended by a different resident for lunch and by the time we’d finished our smoothies and sandwiches it was time to head back across the lake, and head back towards Guatemala City only stopping to look at the waterfall and for dinner in Antigua on the way. It was a perfect way to spend our last full day in Guatemala.

Waterfall on the way to the lake

Day 10: What a wonderful Wednesday

We had another day full of success! We arrived at the hospital as usual in the morning and continued to work on the ventilators and other equipment. The most exciting part of the morning was fixing another ventilator, especially after we thought that the particular machine we were working on was a lost cause. This ventilator in question originally wouldn't even turn on. 

The screen wouldn't light up, no buttons functioned and the shrill alarm that always sounds whenever a broken vent is turned on didn't even sound. We started with looking at the CPU disk, a part of the circuit board. Knowing a different vent was a lost cause as a result of an internal leak we got out our tools and opened them both up. We took the circuit board from the one vent to exchange with the other and gained functionality of the buttons and alarm and, using typical troubleshooting skills we switched different screens and, after dozens of screws, loose wires, matching and reseding connectors the vent came to life. Just to make sure, we got it approved by Mainor, the respiratory therapist, who was likewise excited to see the progress we had made. There is literally nothing better than knowing you have brought what was essentially a broken and dead piece of equipment back to life. 

Mission accomplished

Feeling great after taping yet another "funciona" sign on the newly working vent, we moved on to sort through yet another pile of broken machinery. We explored the mystery that is the broken equipment room in the corner of the new ICU.  From it, we salvaged another pulse oximeter, and also managed to find the missing part that was the only reason that it was not working, so we got that machine working too.

A lot of the equipment we've found is in extremely bad shape. It's clear someone else attempted to repair it or mettled with it the past

Our guinea pig

A nurse brought us three more ECG's today as well, but we weren't quite as successful with those.  Unfortunately, two of them were missing parts from their printing mechanism. It is completely possible that the devices themselves were functioning fine, however there's no way of knowing because they don't have the capabilities to print the output information.  We used Huy as our guinea pig to test the last one, but still could not figure out what was wrong with it.  Regardless, we are optimistic about the other successes.

After our day at the hospital, Andres, one of the residents, was going to take us to Antigua Guatemala to sightsee. However, Andres is now also sick.  He looked pale and exhausted, but despite that, walked all the way to the ICU to tell us personally that he could no longer take us to Antigua but that Carlos (Dr. Morales) and Daniel (a doctor at a different hospital) could take us instead.  We are ever grateful to him  and wishing him a speedy recovery!

Antigua itself was absolutely beautiful.  It used to be the capital of Guatemala, but after a devastating earthquake, the capital was relocated to Guatemala City, where it remains currently. 

A view from the street, if you look closely you'll find a flat area on the mountain with a cross

 Now Antigua is a lovely little town, with gorgeous old churches, colorful, squat little buildings, and amazing restaurants.  It is exactly what it's name indicates; Old Guatemala.  We first stopped by a colorful market, filled with vendors with bright stands of handmade trinkets and souvenirs. We used our bargaining skills and walked away with bags of goodies. 

Mayan craft market

We then went to a traditional Guatemalan restaurant, where they served the dishes directly from large clay pots complimented by homemade tortillas, tamales and, of course, guacamole.

Some of the typical meat-based soups

 On our way back to Guatemala City, we stopped at a placed called El Mirador, situated on a small mountain overlooking the valley of Guatemala City.  The view was gorgeous! The picture certainly does not do justice to the sight of the sprawling city lights surrounded by the night sky and the bright moon.  It was a fantastic way to end an already amazing day.