Tinta

Great campaign yesterday in Tinta, Peru. Many of the women walked a few hours to come to the town which not only had our clinic but also a pediatrician, dentist and opthtalmologist. On the way home I taped my camera to to roof of the bus and shot a timelapse of the beautiful country we drove through. Luckily, there was no rain and big bumps to leave me without an iphone after the trip. Now, off to Ausungate in an hour for some good ole trekking!!

Trek Anticipation

Taken from the roof of the clinic. Where we are headed Friday...Brrrrrrr

        Getting prepared for Friday's trek to Ausungate! We are going to head out for 5 days and will be getting back just in time to celebrate July 4th. Gonna have some cold nights and could be camping at over 15,000 ft.. I'm excited to head out of town for a couple of days but we got a campaign on Thursday which is supposed to have a lot of women.

Islas Flotantes & Amantani

Early Mornin

*extremely long post, sorry for any errors

We left the bus station around 10:30 p.m. for Lake Titicaca. Having heard horror stories about bus crashes in South America I admit that I was a little nervous about the bus ride. Luckily, Tim and I had booked a “sleeper” bus (sleeper meaning if your 5’6” and Peruvian build) so we could at least get a few hours of semi-reclined rest before the arrival in the town of Puno. After chatting it up with the Canadians in front of us and taking a Benadryl we both were asleep before midnight. I only woke up a few times with the sensation of free falling, thinking that I was surely plummeting to my death with a bus full of twenty other people.

At 5:30 a.m. the next day we arrived in Puno. The air was much colder than in Cusco and I was met with a shock to the system no only by the frigid temperatures but also by the sunrise coming over the lake. We stood awestruck for a few minutes before trying to find our taxi. We managed to find our ride and as we were putting our bags in the car a girl approached us. She was wrapped in a blanket and had some crazy gypsy pants on. After less than 10 seconds of chatting with our driver it looked like there would be three of us along for the ride. We got dropped off at a two-room hostel that wasn’t much warmer than outside. Starving, we ordered bread and coffee in hopes that it would suffice until lunch. After breakfast a bus picked us up (including our new friend Segorlene) and drove us to the port to meet the boat. Before leaving port we bought a few gift of notebooks, pencils and oranges for the family we would be staying with on the island. I read in Lonely Planet that it is nice to bring the family gifts that are sometimes hard to acquire on the island.

In less than ten hours after leaving we were on our way to the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. Our tour group consisted of people from all over the globe including the typical Japanese travelers that continually gave us a laugh while living up to their stereotypes and a group of Spaniards that smoked and drank beer constantly.  We first stopped at the Islas Flotantes (floating islands), getting an introduction from the President of the island on how these islands were built from the roots of reed plants. The islands were pretty impressive and each one contained about 5 families. The introduction and tour kind of felt like a show at Disney World but for the most part is was really interesting. After the Europeans bought all their souvenirs we left the island, leaving the locals to entertain another group of travelers.

Our next stop was at least a three hour boat ride so Tim, Segor and I soaked up the sun on the top deck, chatting about all sorts of things, all the while my Spanish was getting tested by our new amiga’s lack of English. On the way we had great views of the snow-capped peaks of Bolivia and Tim and I wondered how great it would be to extend our two-day trip into a few weeks of travel into Bolivia. Once we made it to the island of Amantani we were greeted by a group of locals, each of who we would get paired up with for meals and a warm bed.  We took Segor under our wing and decided to have all three of us with the same family. We were introduced to Irma, the mother of the house that we were to stay. We followed her up the steep slopes made of old stones to her house, with her not breaking stride while she was knitting and talking. As we approached her house we saw the view of huge lake and high mountains. Irma showed us our rooms and introduced us to her husband Bautista and two sons’ Juan Jose and Peter. We ate our lunch of soup and vegetable then headed to the town center to start our hike to the highest point on the island to watch the sunset.

The climb took about an hour to get to the top as we passed farmers and herders along the way. We decided to take the lesser traveled of two routes to watch the sun go down. Each of us found a spot to watch the sunset and we sat perched looking over the water as the sun painted the sky a deep orange and dipped below the mountains. I decided to put down my camera after realizing no one could really understand the beauty of this place without seeing it themselves. The three of us all sat quiet without speaking until the cold wind, darkness and hunger forced us back down into town.

For dinner we ate another traditional meal prepared by Irma and we sat and talked with Bautista about the history of the island and his family that lives there. It was amazing to sit and listen to him speak about growing up on the island. He was a great host and made sure to speak slowly to those of us who were new to Spanish (only me, really). I was tired after dinner and was ready to look at the stars and go to bed but Bautista informed us we would be attending a festival near the town center. We got dressed in traditional hats and ponchos for the festivities and headed out. When we walked in the large room, lite by only two bright lights, we saw the other people of the tour were all dressed in similar traditional clothes. The festival reminded me of the middle school dances at First Methodist Church after football games in that people were awkwardly dancing and were being forced to get up and participate. The live band was made up of local students playing churanga’s, guitars, flutes and drums and as they played the local families tried to get everyone to dance. The fact was that everyone was tired and no one really wanted to dance. We bought a beer and tried to make the best of the situation. After putting up a good effort we made the signal to head back to the house. Back at the house we sat on the deck looking up at some of the best stars I’ve seen (possibly better than Moab).

The next day we woke up and had a great breakfast looking out over the lake and said our goodbyes to the family. We hopped back on the boat and headed to Tranquille Island. We climbed to the center of the town looking over terraced plots of corn and potatoes. In the center we looked at the local artwork and great views while the local kids begged to take a picture with the tourist for a sol each. We ate a lunch of fish with another great view of the lake before getting on the boat to head on a three-hour ride back to Puno. I did some great reading on the boat and we made it to Puno with the engine only giving out two times.

Back at the port we found a ride back to the hostel to grab our things and eat dinner. We explored Puno for a few hours before finding the bus station to head back home. Segor managed to get a bus ticket for 1/3 of the price that we paid and we said goodbye to our traveling friend. I took another Benadryl and woke up at 5 a.m. the next morning safely in Cusco (only one flying dream). I haggled a taxi for 8 soles and we made our way back to the clinic. 

Desayuno: coca tea, pan & jam

Segor and her blanky

Islas Flotantes

Timoteo

Terrible View

Favorite picture of the trip?

Family, Bull & Barley

Not the UGA arches

Segor Meditation

Mmmmmmm

7th Grade Dance

Juan Jose and his brother

Had to pay for this

Lake Titicaca

Link to a short video from Lake Titicaca. Blog is coming soon..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJsZJ2ApaY

feliz cumpleaños

Nice lady, Alina

Yum!

A relaxing 26th birthday! Had a great Skype coffee date this morning and got to eat my at my favorite place we call "quatro soles" for dinner with friends from the clinic. One of the local obstetricians Alina came over and surprised me with a tradition torta (cake) and the best homemade hot chocolate I've ever had. I ended the night  playing Mexican Train dominoes with the roomies and two newcomers from UGA who will be here for 5 weeks or so. I will say it wasn't the craziest birthday but it's the only one I've had south of the equator! Twenty-six isn't old my any means but if I have the pleasure of many more years to come I hope I can still act and feel young...

Domingo

                   Had a beautiful Sunday hike today with some friends. We took a bus for half an hour to Chincero where we then walked to Uruquillo. The hike itself was just under three hours (mostly downhill) and we celebrated the end with a little cerveza at a local tienda. Little did we know we would extend our trip an extra hour or so by getting a tour of the nicest hotel I’ve seen thus far in Peru or probably my whole life. The place was somewhat of an oasis as it was right in the middle of farmland and mountains. We all looked out of place in our dusty hiking clothes and boots walking around in this perfectly kept hotel equipped with two museums, spa, church and whatever else you can imagine. We caught two busses back to town and finished the day with a cinco soles meal of soup, meat and hot tea. The people I was with probably got tired of me saying how gorgeous it was outside and how much I love Peru and of course the usual, “we live a good life.” 

Cacti grafitti

Agua

Golden

Crack kills

Corn dry

Had to pay 2 soles for this picture

Caminando

Nice folks

Beer stop

ninos

Some photogenic kids.

Doing homework

Happy kid

Sombrero

Amigos

Short kid, tall shadow

Hermanos

Cuna

Peru was true to form yesterday, encompassing all things that make this country both unpredictable and exciting. I started the day thinking I would be shuffling my feet in the clinic, going for a hike or brushing up on my Spanish lessons, but ended the day feeling both satisfied and worn out. After my morning coffee, Carla (resident obstetrician/ cook) came upstairs with arms full of groceries ready to start cooking for the days’ lunch. I was kind of confused since the clinic was supposed to be open and who would be making things run downstairs with Carla in the kitchen? One thing that I’ve come to realize here in Peru that there are plenty of things that prevent people from working including, festivals, birthdays and cooking, with all of them seeming to happen multiple times a week.

Carla proceeded to cook some of the best food I’ve had since being here, making a shrimp soup with potatoes, corn, squash, rice and spices that I can’t name. I’m not entirely sure of the occasion for the large meal but I think it was in a late birthday celebration for the dentist who works upstairs. During the middle of eating we were told we would be leaving in an hour to go on a campaign somewhere on the outskirts of the city. Before this time I had no previous knowledge that we had a campaign that day. I asked a couple of times about where exactly we would be going and no one seemed to know or want to tell me where we were headed. Not five minutes after finishing the meal, I was packing my bag with the essentials of a headlamp, rubber gloves and white coat to meet the taxi downstairs. The four of us students jammed into the small taxi with a suitcase full of supplies, two “exam” tables and no idea where we were going. We had been informed to get dropped off downtown and wait for a lady in a black jacket to meet us and give us further directions. We had been given the lady’s cell phone number but it proved to be no use to us as we forgot both the sheet of paper with her number and our personal cell phone.

We got dropped off downtown and waited on a set of stairs at a government building for the lady in a black jacket. No one knew her name or what she looked like, but my only guess was that she was short and Peruvian. My intuition proved correct when Alina walked up. We all gave the traditional kiss of the cheek greeting and followed her down the street. Still somewhat confused as to our direction we stopped at two police vehicles and were told to throw our things in the back of the truck and pile in the back. Where the hell are they taking us, I thought?  The officers were nice and told us we were headed to a very poor part of town only fifteen minutes away. As we came to the section of town I agreed with the officers about it being stricken with poverty but it still looked very similar to other places we have been. It took a while for the officers to figure out where we would be setting up the makeshift clinic but after thirty minutes of waiting around we drove across a dusty soccer field and got out. We grabbed our supplies and headed down to the building where we were to set up.

As we approached the building I could hear yelling of little kids and it sounded more like a daycare than a ministry of health and that’s exactly what is was, a daycare. We walked into the small one room building that smelled of urine and dirty diapers and we were greeted kids running around and playing. My first thought was if they want to get local women screened then set the damn thing up where they have to come pick up their children. My next thought was where are we going to perform the Paps? We had two tables but nowhere to set them up with any sort of privacy. I looked up at the low hanging ceiling and realized we could possibly hang sheets creating our exam rooms. I knew that my countless hours of making forts in the basement of my parent’s house had paid off when in a matter of minutes we had two private exam rooms! We made quick work of the twenty or so women who had come to get screened all the while swatting away the little kids trying to get a glimpse of what was going on behind the sheets. The women of the community seemed to greatly appreciate what we were doing for them which is sometimes surprising considering the fact that within a minute of meeting them we make them remove their pants and stick a plastic speculum inside of them.

As we packed up all of things I thought about how great it was to be at that spot and get an even better glimpse of how these people live. I was reminded of how flexible you must be when working in Peru and how rewarding it can be. I also realized how great it was playing with the kids of the daycare and how one day I could come back to help them with the endless coughs and infections they seemed to carry. I do enjoy working with the women but seeing the kids makes me want to work more with them.

After we got dropped back off downtown we decided to relax, grab a beer and play some trivia at one of the local gringo bars. Our team was appropriately named the “Spectaculums”. We probably would have won had one of the final categories not been “famous futbol stadiums around the world”. The team made up of Europeans had a hay day with this topic and they took the win. All in all it was a great day in Peru and right now we are about to head off to another campaign that sounds like it is going to be very similar to the one yesterday...

Best food of the trip cooked by Carlita.

Makeshift exam rooms

Futbol field and surrounding neighborhood

Chicitos of the day care

Todays view from yet another daycare turned clinica

We had to use small tables

Nice folks

Exam room from today, compliments of a tarp and thumbtacks

Corpus Christi

The past two days we have been celebrating Corpus Christi. Yesterday was a parade that carried statues of the Saints to the main cathedral in the square. It was a pretty amazing sight to see these massive statues getting carried down the streets followed by brigades of marching bands playing traditional music. The sights and sounds were great but the most interesting part of yesterday was the food.

As we walked to get lunch we came on upon tents that lined to streets. Underneath the tents, crowds of Peruvian festivarians were housed eating mounds of food. Looking more closely, I realized people were eating an array of things, with the most striking being the local favorite cuy, also known as guinea pig to us in the states. As hungry as I was there was no way in hell I would be going into one of those tents. Almost as soon as that thought went into my mind, we went directly into a tent thanks to our tour guides (nurses as the clinic). There was no turning back, especially seeing how excited they seemed to be about getting to eat. I decided to do my best Anthony Bourdain impression by trying out the local food. I can’t remember the name of the dish, but it is traditional Peruvian festival food consisting of; fish eggs, sea weed, pork sausage, chicken, cuy (guinea pig), cheese, and bread. We sat eating this massive plate of assorted (really salty) meat with about 5,000 other people in crowded tents downtown, all the while drinking the alcoholic beverage of choice, Cusquena. I can honestly say yesterday was the most adventuresome meal of my life. I can thank the nurses that work in the clinic for the experience because had we not gone with them there is no way I would have knowingly sat down at that tent.

After the episode of the food channel, we walked around and took in the sights of the festival. Today was more of the same but I took some time to take more pictures.

 

10 centimos game. I won!

vegetarian