Fulbright Opportunity in Ecuador

I have had the good fortune of traveling to Latin America on a number of different occasions (Nicaragua, Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador) to temporarily staff health clinics in impoverished areas and/or give university lectures on topics of nutrition and health. I have also enjoyed a number of mountain climbing excursions to the Andes in Peru and Ecuador. When considering whether or not to apply for a Fulbright Fellowship in Latin America, I was excited to see an opportunity in Ecuador in my area of research and teaching interest: ‘Obesity and Cardio-metabolic Diseases’. I have become increasingly concerned with aspects of the 'Nutrition Transition" in Latin America, in which undernourishment, characterized by micro-nutrient deficiencies, exists side-by-side with dramatically increasing prevalence rates of obesity and diabetes.  Especially problematic, in my opinion, is the widespread use of sugar-sweetened beverages that are heavily marketed world-wide by U.S. based beverage companies.  Although my efforts will be but a drop in a bucket, I have a keen desire to help nutritionists, dietitians, exercise specialists and medical professionals in Ecuador gain a better understanding of the complex metabolic issues involving lifestyle and health with the ultimate goal of  less individual and societal burden of cardiometabolic disease. I also have much to learn by interacting with Latin America colleagues as they focus on public health issues aimed at improving the quality of life in their countries.  Having been awarded a 5-month Fulbright Teaching and Research Fellowship to Ecuador, I will travel to Quito with a sense of anticipation of what I can contribute and what I can learn. I will be working at two different universities--one private, La Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), and one public, La Escuela Superior Polytecnica Chimborazo (ESPOCH), which is located 180 km to the south of Quito in Riobamba. My responsibilities at these universities, while well-identified on paper, in reality are less well established and decidedly more fluid, i.e. somewhat out of my control.  Flexibility and adaptability will be critical to my work here.



I start at the USFQ on January 12th, one week before the semester begins. I have decided to arrive on January 4th to give myself adequate time for orientation, locate my housing, figure out the bus system in Quito, and after a few Fulbright orientation meetings, spend several days in the Andes attempting to climb a few peaks before the work begins in earnest.  Kyle Sevits and Jessie Wilburn, two graduate students from my department at CSU have decided to join me, which I am quite excited about.  I necessarily have made it very clear this is not a trip sponsored or sanctioned by CSU and that they have to recognize the risk and take responsibility for their own safety.  That said, I have located accomplished mountain guides for our climbs, who are well acquainted with the mountains we will attempt to summit.  Importantly, both Kyle and Jessie are highly fit and experienced in climbing peaks in Colorado.



January 5,6- On Monday, Kyle, Jessie, and I hiked to the top of Ruccu Pichincha, a mountain that is 1000 feet higher than any in Colorado, but rarely gets snow owing to its proximity to equator. I had climbed Rucu Pichincha with Hannah (my oldest daughter) when we climbed mountains here 10 years ago.  Jessie and Kyle had arrived in Ecuador a week before me to travel and acclimatize and had already summited a 15,000' peak, Imbabura.  They had an excellent time on Imbabura and reported a few airy spots on the summit ridge that definitely got their full attention.  As expected, Rucu Pichincha was a fairly routine hike, for the three of us, somewhat like hiking a 14'er in Colorado, but the peak was engulfed in clouds and we had no views from its summit. Still, we had fun together!  

I met with the officials from the Ecuador Fulbright Commission for my thorough orientation on Tuesday and things seem to be falling in place nicely. 


Kyle, Jessie, and I at the Summit
of Ruccu Pichincha

Ruccu Pichincha from the trail. Pictures can be enlarged by
clicking on them.



Looking down at a portion of Quito from the trail to Ruccu Pichincha.





A friend who joined us on the summit of the Ruccu.



Not every 15,000 foot peak has a sign at the summit. 


Jan 7-11.  Rucu Pichincha was then followed by a trip south of Quito to climb the Ilinizas and then Cotopaxi.  Kyle and I climbed Sur and Jessie climbed Norte. Sur is a mixed rock, snow and ice climb and at 17,400 feet was higher than Kyle had ever been. It is considered one of the more technically difficult peaks in Ecuador because of its steep icy glacier. Norte sits across the saddle from Sur, is slightly lower, and usually has little snow.  Notwithstanding a few issues (GI distress for me, and a blow to Jessie's shoulder from a falling rock), the three of us reached our respective summits for which we were grateful.  The weather again was poor and we could see little from the top.

Toward the summit of Illiniza Sur.  This is a steep, gnarly mountain
that is considered one of the more technical and dangerous mountains in Ecuador.



Kyle cautiously down-climbing a steep section on Illiniza Sur while being
belayed by Ivan.  Ecuador now mandates using an accredited mountain guide on all glacier-covered mountains, owing to tragic deaths on this mountain in 2012.







Kyle and I near the summit of Illiniza Sur.
After down-climbing the 5000 vertical feet on the Ilinizas, we rested for a day and a-half in Machachi.  Our hostel is a bit more expensive than we anticipated, but the meals are great! Jessie's shoulder remains quite swollen and is starting to turn a nasty shade of purple, but she remains undaunted.  I couldn't ask for better climbing companions.

January 10-11: We had dinner at 5pm on Saturday, tried to sleep (Kyle and Jessie got a few hours but I could not sleep a wink) and took off for our climb of Cotopaxi at 11:00PM that same night.  Climbing glacier-laden mountains requires an alpine start, i.e. at night when the glacier is firm and risk of avalanches and soft snow are minimized.  Cotopaxi, while not the highest mountain in Ecuador is arguably its most famous.  It is 19,300 feet in altitude, and on clear days can be seen from Quito.  This climb turned out to be one of the more grueling and memorable climbs I have ever done. The weather was horrible--like nothing I have ever experienced in my years of climbing.  From the very start we fought a 35-50 mph headwind in a nasty ice storm. Out of the 50 or so climbers attempting to climb Cotopaxi that day, a number called it quits at the trailhead and quite a few others at the level of the refugio, which was closed. Our threesome and guides huddled outside the refugio and we all agreed to continue our ascent to see if the wind would die down a bit. At the bottom of the glacier we donned our crampons and roped up,  Kyle and I rope with our guide, Ivan, and Jessie with another climber from India on a rope with Raul as the guide.  
The wind and icy conditions prevailed but we were determined to give the mountain our best shot.  Unfortunately for Jessie, her rope mate bailed after only an hour on the glacier, so she necessarily had to go down with him.  Kyle and I were ahead of Jessie, so we did not know this until later in the night. After Ivan, Kyle and I roped up to go higher, we gradually passed  the other  roped teams on the way up, mostly because Ivan set a fairly fast pace compared ot the others and we were too cold to stop moving.  At about 17,800 we di stop for a 15-minute breather and we considered a retreat due to the cold, ice storm, and especially the wind. After a discussion we agreed that we were cold primarily because we weren’t moving, so we resumed our effort to reach the summit, with Kyle now wearing his down jacket. The route was virtually straight toward the top, with very little criss-crossing except to go around crevasses. I was feeling well enough that I was confident we could reach the summit.  However, when we got to 18,700 the wind was so strong we were literally blown off our feet, a disconcerting experience when there are numerous crevasses in which to fall. This same thing happened at other spots on the way up, but because the most treacherous part was ahead, all three of us looked at each other through our balaclavas and simultaneously motioned that we should turn back knowing the summit was virtually impossible that day.  As we down climbed we passed 4 other teams on their way up and they seemed a bit surprised that we were turning back. That is, until they reached the spot where we encountered the most treacherous conditions and made our decision to retreat.  Then they all turned around at that same spot as well.  No one reached the summit that day. We took very few pictures because of the darkness, wind, and ice.   Not surprisingly, Ivan, Kyle and I were coated with ice from head to toe.  Strangely enough, I was never really very cold on the inside, probably because we were forced to work so hard.  We were bitterly disappointed to not reach the summit, but such is life in these mountains.  We returned to Quito that afternoon and on Monday the weather cleared and we heard the conditions on Cotopaxi were much improved. Bad timing but no opportunity to try again as its time to start work for me and time for Jessie and Kyle to return to Fort Collins!  Kyle and Jessie were great climbing companions and I think they got the bug to return some day and give Cotopaxi another try!

The weather was consistently overcast, but we caught a very brief glimpse of Cotopaxi from our
Hostel in Machachi as we rested prior to attempting to climb this (19,300 f.t) peak. Unfortunately,
this is the only time we ever saw the cumbre, including the day we attempted to summit.



Jessie and Kyle out for a leisurely stroll as we rest prior to an 11PM departure to climb Cotopaxi.
 

Pausing for a rest at 18,000 feet during the night-time attempt to summit Cotopaxi.  Rest periods were short as it was
too cold to stay inactive for more than a few minutes. 



A crevasse at about 18,300 feet that we had to negotiate.  Our boot prints can be seen crossing the snow bridge.



My helmet after the descent from Cotopaxi.  About 5 hours into the climb, my headlamp was so dim I needed to
change the batteries.  However, the headlamp was frozen so  that I could neither open the battery compartment
or disengage the lamp from my helmet.  I had to attach a secondary headlamp with the first still in place.




Kyle and I on the descent after a long, cold night in our futile attempt to reach the summit of Cotopaxi. 
After our climbing excursion and no sleep on Saturday into Sunday, I started work at USFQ on Monday.  I was dragging quite a bit after our previous days effort. This was not very good planning on my part. On Wednesday I had my security briefing at the Embassy.  Wow, what a formality with lots of security checks.  The embassy is in north Quito, quite a ways from Cumbaya where the Universidad San Francisco de Quito is located.  I was told by the Fulbright officials to not be late. I found the bus routes I needed to take and left very early to make sure I got there on time in the face of lots of early morning traffic.  I ended up taking only a single bus and then decided against taking the second bus because I had so much time.  I walked a couple of miles to the embassy and still managed to be there an hour and a-half early.  I was briefed, met a few officials, and then headed back to Cumbaya.  They necessarily paint a worst case scenario regarding armed robberies, kidnapping, etc, but I suppose they have to do that.   


January 13:  I took a Spanish placement test on Tuesday and after the hour-long exam, I was pretty sure they would put me in a beginners class. I was wiped out and felt like all my time listening to tapes in the past 6 months was to no avail.  I found out yesterday that I will be in an intermediate class, which means they took pity on me or I must have been a good guesser. 
  
January 12-25.  I have now finished two weeks of work and things have gotten very busy. I have been swamped with a variety of responsibilities here, and they seem to just keep increasing. At the USFQ I am teaching the metabolic aspects of Therapeutic Nutrition (6 contact hours per week, 7-10AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays), and will be teaching nutrition metabolism at the medical school, as well as taking a Spanish class.  In Riobamba, in addition to setting up a research project to examine urban vs rural dietary differences, I have been asked to teach a 40-hour course on nutrition and cardiometabolic disease in the nutrition department and the medical school.  So, things are no different here than at CSU, other than the language barrier. I have probably signed on to do more than I should, but it is definitely a good kind of busy. 
My recent trip to the university in Riobamba was a bit comical.  I went to meet with colleagues there to continue work on setting up a research project to examine urban vs rural dietary patterns.  There was not a word of English spoken by the two professors I am working with there, and when I would let them know I couldn’t understand all that they were saying, they would just repeat the information, but as fast as ever.  I resorted to diagramming changes in our research study just to be able to communicate a little more accurately. I am a bit overwhelmed with the language and am beginning to wonder if I can learn to communicate effectively at my age. The professor for my Spanish class at USFQ chooses not to speak a word of English in class and even if we don’t understand the meaning of something, she explains it in Spanish.  My classmates are all young college students, so I stick out like a sore thumb!  And I am NOT used to having homework, which I am trying to get done this weekend.  The pictures below are of the USFQ, which is a very beautiful campus.  More later... 








The student in the middle of the picture is actually Barb, my wife, who was with me when we visited
the Universidad San Francisco de Quito last August to work on setting up a research project.