cetanner's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member cetanner on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/cetanner en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:07:02 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com Rural Doctoring — Cancha Cancha, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1189807020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1189807020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1189807020/tpod.html Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:07:02 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Cancha Cancha, Peru

This entry will describe our little adventure that was Cancha Cancha. Actually we didn't end up in Cancha Cancha, we went significantly further up the mountain than that. The aim of this trip was to visit this small community that is very isolated as they live a 3 hour trek up a mountain from the nearest village. We were to give the women there contraceptive injections as there was a very high teenage pregnancy rate. We would also give some basic first aid or health care that they needed. We had the local health visitor and a couple of nurses with us. We had to leave the house at 4am (not a pleasant experience, we were all sat in the kitchen looking very depressed and drinking lots of coffee). Anyway Fiona and the others turned up in the minibus at 430am (curses, half an hour sleep lost) and we drove for 2 odd hours to this really random village that mostly consisted of (seemingly) abandoned houses and chickens. This is where the fun started. The bus was too big to fit under this low archway, so we tired taking all the gear off the roof, but it still wouldnt fit, so we had to drive around the long way, and then the driver didnt want to drive over this rickety bridge so we all had to get out, then all get back in again and we started off down this dirt track. The driver was very worried about his nearly new bus, and kept getting out to hack at nearby (or even no where near) branches in case they scratched his paintwork. It was so funny he was getting ones 10yards from the road, just in case they like fell on the bus or something! Fiona was getting so pissed off with him, as we were already late. Eventually he refused to go any further and made us all get out. It turned out that this meant we had to walk for 40 minutes further up the mountain, we were not impressed. We had some breakfast (another surreal peruvian experience, they bought out a fold up picnic table ad we had bread and jam and hardboiled eggs...) then started walking. Oh joy another mountain for Clare to hike up! It took 3 hours or so I think to get to the top, there were some lovely views along the way.

We got to the top and were presented with this tiny little collection of houses surrounded by fences that kind of made it look like a mediaevil place. We toddled over to the school which is where we were to set up. It turned out that we were over 2 hours late (god knows how we were supposed to make it there by 8am when it was 2 hours by bus then a 3 hour walk and we left at 4am...) so none of the woman who were supposed to get injections were there. They were going to come back at lunch time. Our group got split up during the hike up and while we waited for the others we played with the kids from the school. There were about 20 of them, apparently they were all from just 2 families, yet they all looked about the same age. Most of the local kids dont go to school, they have to work farming with their families. The kids were all really cute, we gave them some of the snacks we'd bought as they all looked like they never ate a square meal in their lives. We also blew up medical gloves to give them as toys, they loved that! When the otehrs got there we started doing health checks on the kids. It was not easy as the kids only spoke Quecha. i had bought a Quecha phrasebook (ironic as quecha is an unwritten language) but eitehr i was hopeless at the phonetic pronunciation or they were too shy to answer me. We just checked them over and tried to persuade them to tell us if they had a cough, or diarrhoea or something, then dished out whatever meds seemed most suitable. Since we only had cirprofloxacin (for urine infeections or gastrointestinal infections) and amoxicillin (for everything else) there want much choice really. We guessed that all the kids had parasites (nearly everone in Peru does) so we formed them in a line and poured antiparastic medicine down their throats. The kids were not particularly keen to drink it (unsurprisingly) and had to be coaxed into swallowing it. I dont even know the spanish for swallow it please let alone in qechua.

Eventually we worked our way through all the kids. It got a bit scary when we found a kid with signs suggestive of hepatitis or something equally serious. We decided that we had no idea what to do with him, so we gave him some antibiotics and antiparastics and said if he wasnt better soon that his parents should take him to hospital. That is not something to be said lightly as it would take hours and cost them an awful lot of money they clearly didnt have (these people lived on potatoes and fish and reared llamas and alpacas..thats it).

After doing the kids we went on to the women who had been gradually wandering down from the surrounding hillsides. Nearly all of them had signs suggestive of severe urinary infections so we gave them all the cipro we had. Clare and Helen helped one of the nurses do smears on some of the women in another room, on school tables, with kids wandering in and out). We then stopped for lunch (those most of it went to the kids) then the teacher presented us with freshly caught trout from the river that runs through the village and boiled potatoes. It was very nice, but we'd just eaten so we had a bit then shared out the rest among the kids. It was then time to go, as we had another 3 hour walk back down the mountain and then the drive back. It turned out we werent to give the contraceptive injections as they wouldnt be able to co-ordiante getting back to the village 3 months on to get the next doses.

Thats about it for what we did in the random little village near Cancha Cancha. We stopped there on the way back to see anotehr couple of kids, and I had to put my patchy dermatology knowledge to the test (luckily we had a cream that will treat any dermatology condition so it was all good). It was an amazing experience, we really were making a difference to these people, even if it was just giving them something to eat. We were quite a way outof our depth a lot of the time, but together we muddled through and hopefully helped out, at least for a little while, as the kids will no doubt get their parasties back, the women will get their infections back from their husbands and everyone is so malnourished they have no immune system and will catch all sorts from us. It was fun to be a real doctor for a day too!
]]> Kiteni? Where is that? — Kiteni, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1190386920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1190386920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1190386920/tpod.html Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:15:18 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Kiteni, Peru

Today Tom Lucy and I toddled off to the office at the hospital to ask if we could all go to this random little village 8 hours bus ride away from Quillabamba called Ivochote. Fiona (our rep) had given us a box of medication to take to them, except for some reason she said only Tom could go. We all wanted to go, as Tom didn't want to go by himself and we thought it would be interesting, as being very deep in the jungle they have very limited supplies and lots of freaky tropical diseases you just don't see in towns and cities. Well the guys in the office were like sure you can all go, but wouldn't you rather go to Kiteni, its a bit bigger and they have more patients, Ivochote only gets 4 a day. So we said sure. they said Ok but you have to go tonight otherwise you wont get the benefit. Right...we had 4 hours to get ready, including going to buy bus tickets. Luckily this nurse called Sabina was from Kiteni and was going there that evening so she took us to buy our tickets, then we rushed back to the hostal to pack. We made it to the bus on time, and settled down for a nice 6 hour journey. The bus was lovely...i say that in a sarcastic way. It was very funny, at the bus station all these kids were like ooh gringos! (white people, a novelty to jungle people) and they kept asking us what various things were in english, like manzana (apple) it was very cute. Behind us on the bus was a rather drunk chap who smelt like hed never been anywhere near a source of water, and he had a radio that he played very annoying and loud music on..Also an hour in this dog had a rather voluminous attack of diarrhoea next to me, so they stopped the bus and threw it off...peruvian buses are certainly an experience!

We arrived to Kiteni at about 12.30am, and went to look for a hostal. The one Sabina tried first was full, so we ended up in a dump of a place. Luckily we were so tired we didnt care what it was, but int he morning we werent thrilled. Each room was the size of a cupboard, mine had a bed, a window that overlooked the main road out of the place, and a small stool. The bed had ants in it. The mosquito netting was worse than useless. There was no water in the hostal at all. We were up on the roof. It was not a pleasant place.

We went to get breakfast, then to the hospital (please bear in mind this was by now a saturday morning...I dont think ive ever been to a placement on a saturday before). It was easy to find since the whole town was made up of one street. The hospital is only a year old, and it is rather large for such a small place. It has a few consulting rooms, 2 wards, a treatment room, an labour suite, a dental room (but no dentist at the moment) a pharmaacy and a nurses consulting room, plus a little lab and some offices out the back. We met all the staff, they were lovely, very welcoming, but rather depsairing at particularly Tom and my lack of comprhension of there rapid spanish. (its not my fault, they all speak sooo fast and at a whisper, I wouldnt get it if they spoke like that in English). Its amazing, all the health posts around theri communicate by CB radio...even though you can get internet there let alone phone lines...We had a look around the lab, and were shown how they test for various nasties like malaria, yellow fever and bartonellosis. All these test are free to anyone as they health ministry is very focused on trying to prevent them. They publish leaflets, do free vaccines for yellow fever if you are from the right areas and get the staff to do very comprehensive recording of cases etc. I was very impressed. they then said go with this guy, who i thought was a doctor but it turns out he was an insect specialist..odd. He took us to this tiny place called Selva Alegre (happy jungle!) where we had to run the health clinic. Luckily there were only a few patients, but one of them made us look stupid by lying about his sypmtoms to us so we thought he was dying of tuberculosis or god knows what, and hed acutally pulled a muscle. We were hanging around waiting for a taxi, when the teacher of the school came over (it was next to the health centre) and said come and judge this competition for us. It turned out to be the miss primavera (spring) beauty contest for the girls, and as we were such a novelty we were to be the judges. We managed topick the only girls whos parent s had turned up as the winner which was nice. A very random experinece, sitting in our white coats on kids chairs in the jungle eating cups of jelly and judging a kids beauty contest...

Whe we got back we moved hostals to one immediatly opposite the hospital (the other was 2 mins walk away, so far!) the cheeky bastard running the shite one charged us 15soles instead of 10 like hed said when the Peruvian was with us...anyway the new hostal was not great, but at least it had water. We were all sharing a room which was ok. I managed to elctrocute myself on the light switch that was hagning off the wall. The showers were in the toilet room, and were cold (naturally) and just taps but we were digusitng after 2 days in the jungle with now washing so we didnt care. Every bloke there (it was all blokes who work at the gas works nearby) was revolting, never flushed the loo and hacked plhegm all the time, repulsive. Oh well it was only for a few days. Also the whole town was grubby, including the restaurants. We ate out a few times (you dont get a choice, they have a set 2 courses and you eat that or go hungry) and the food was not great. it was always meat and rice, often with fried plantain which i hate. And soup with odd bits of meat floating in it. It amazing what i can put up with and be relatively content...acutally it was fun being the only gringos to have visited the town in over a year. People pointed to us in the street, and followed us, and one mum tried to get her kid to stop crying by telling her to look at the gringos! We quickly swapped ot this ladys house where shed cook us whatever we wanted, but it always came with plain white rice and fried plantains, yummy!

Other stuff we did - saw a guy who'd been bitten by a vampire bat in his kitchen (mum you were right about the rabies jabs), saw a lady give birth (she'd been rushed by ambulance from ivochote 2 hours away as shed had prolonged labour) the baby was a little girl she was very cute, met a french doctor from Medicos del mundio (the spanish version of medicins sans frontiers), it was funny i tried to speak to her in french, but neither of us could remember any so we spoke in Spanglish instead and we all went in their truck to some random places to look at their health centres. the driver got lost and we nearly drove off the side of a cliff a few times...fun though! We saw lots of different illness, from typhoid fever to leishmaniasis (that evetually makes your nose collapse). One chap with that also couldnt move his arm. the nusre said it was because hed been bitten by a donkey, we didnt have the heart to explain it was becuase hed had a stroke...

Thats quite enough about Kiteni...I shall now go back and write about Quillabamba...
]]> Gosh it's been a while hasn't it! — Cusco, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1191423180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1191423180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1191423180/tpod.html Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:02:33 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Cusco, Peru

As the title says it has been a while hasn't it? Well I have excuses I'm sure, I've been all over the place, often without a computer or with one that goes at a similar pace to a snail, so it's been difficult to get on here. I'm going to back-write all the entires I haven't put in yet, but I thought i'd update on my current situation. i am only on here at the moment as I am sick (I should be at the hospital). I am rather fed up of being sick, I have been on and off for 3 weeks or more now and its very irritating. Its all been lovely upset stomach type things, and Im running out of antibiotics. Its hardly surprising Ive had these things if you could have seen the hygiene levels of some of the places ive been. Ive tried to be careful but its impossible if you want to eat...

Anyway enough of that! ive only got a week and a half left now thats a bit scary where has all the time gone...Its just me and Jonny in the house now, the last 2 (Lucy, my friend from med school, and Tom) left yesterday as they were going to lake titikaka (im not sure how you spell it...), then Tom is off on his trek and Lucy is going to Arequipa and somewhere else. I think Jonny maybe going somewhere too next week so it will just be me. Oh well i don't mind Ive got 4000 odd dvds to keep me occupied!!

Not a lot else to report at the moment. Im supposed to be going to a little town a few hours drive away tomorrow to help with a health promotion campaign, but I havent heard anything about it and if im still not very well i think ill stay here...i promise Ill update this more now, except I havent got anything exciting planned really from now on so it will all be a bit dull...
]]> In the jungle the mighty jungle! — Puerto Maldonado, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1188947220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1188947220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1188947220/tpod.html Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:10:52 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Puerto Maldonado, Peru

I know that all I seem to be doing on this elective is jetting off on exciting trips but hey I will go to the hospital manana, after all its the Peruvian way! Well I decided that a real jungle trip was required since Ive always always wanted to go to the Amazon rainforest, so last saturday me and Rich flew to Puerto Maldonado (apparently its a city, and the airport is international but it looks rather like a little shack in someones back garden and the 'city' is more like a shanty town, I liked it though!) We then got a bus to the river (the bus looked like a truck that someone had put some benches in it was very cool, if a little bumpy). We then got on a boat which was a large covered motorised canoe thing. There were 8 others in our group, 2 dutch guys who were very funny, 2 Americans (well a guy who apparently is the world expert on fluoride and tooth helath and his japanese wife), 3 auzzies and a girl from Scotland. They were a good group. Our guide was called Elias and he was lovely and very knowledgable. We took the boat for about an hour along the Madre de Dios (mother of god...) river. It was a beautiful journey we saw lots of birds along the way. It was very random to see parrots flying over head! The heat was intense and it was very humid. We eventually arrived at the lodge where we were staying. It was more like a holiday complex, there were about 20 or 30 lodges (me and rich shared one, it was very comfortable with a private bathroom (no hot water so showering was not much fun!) and hammock room! No windows, just mosquito netting which is a bit odd...) and a communal bar, dining room and pool. Sadly the pool was far far too cold to swim in, you could only jump in then jump out again! The surrounding area was just jungle so there were lots of animals, birds and insects. There was a colony of weaver birds (they make beautiful long woven nests), parrots and lots of other kinds of birds I dont know the names of, and I even saw a Tapir!! Its was amazing it just wandered around happy as can be, totally wild. It came back the next day, it must find some fruit or something lying around.

Anyway we had lunch, chicken and rice cooked in banana leaves which was very nice, and got in another canoe (smaller, not covered. We traveled in these everywhere as its much easier than walking and there are no roads) and went a short distance across the river to Monkey island. This is a small private island owned by the company we travelled with so its exclusive to visit. We thought we might see the odd monkey miles away in the distance up a tree, but then we noticed the guide had brought a lot of bananas with him. Sure enough he used them to attract the monkeys (and by shouting banana monkey and making the males in the group do the same very loudlu!) There are 5 species on the island and we saw 4 of them (black spider monekys, squirrel monekys, white front cappuchins, and brown cappuchins.) They came right up to us and took the bananas, we even got one to sit on my shoulder and eat a banana which was so cool as they are wild monekys, they just have learnt to trust humans. One of the spider monkeys had a little baby with her which was very cute! We also had a nice walk around the island and our guide told us about the plants and animals. He even persuaded us to eat termites to see what it was like (crunchy with no particular flavour). We saw lots of things, including leaf cutter ants which I liked. After evening meals, when it was dark we got in a canoe and went caiman spotting. Elias took a bit spotlight and shined it along the bank. If a caiman is there their eyes reflect back red so you can see them. We saw a few, mostly babys but they disappeared quickly as they are very shy and the canoe motor is loud. It was great fun and beautiful as you could see all the stars very clearly as it was very very dark, and also hear all the birds and insects calling. That was all we did the first day as we didnt arrive til early afternoon. We had an early night as well as wake up for day 2 was 5am!! Plus the lodges only had electricity from 5pm to 10pm, as they only have a generator. When the lights go out it is almost pitch black!

The second day we got up at 5 as i said. It was still pitch balck so I had to shower in cold water by torch light (for some reason i was the only one in the group brave enough to do that!!) We breakfasted then go in a canoe for a short trip along the river. We then walked for a bit, all the time Elias was telling us about the plants and animals, he even lured 2 tarantulas out of their holes! We then came to a swampy area and got in a row boat to row slowly downstream so we could see all the birds more clearly. We saw loads including many types of parrots, kingfishers, hawks, vultures, pigeons, turkeys (i kid you not) and loaeds id never heard of! We then walked a bit more to a giant tree that had steps up and a platform at the top so we could look out over the canopy! That was amazing, most of my group were scared of the height, but I was more worried about the huge ants i nearly put my hand on!! After that we walked along a briged path to another boat. Along the way we saw caiman (only little ones but still exciting) and an Anaconda!! Apparently we are very lucky as most groups dont see either and we saw both! We tehn paddled around a lake and saw lots of turtles sunning themselves. We then had along hike back to the motor canoe. It was only 5k but in the heat of the jungle we almost died. Along the way I had my picture taken with a massive tree, as you will see when i finally get round to loading pics! Yes all in all a fantastic morning, I dont even think I mentioned everything i did, but i cant think of it all, and wed have nothing to talk about when we next meet if i did!

In the afternoon we just relaxed for a bit, until 4 when we went to look around the botanical gardens. That was really interesting, and Elias made me climb a tree to pick some weird fruit for us to eat. it was not pleasant so i resented bring hoisted up by Rich and Elias (there were no branches to climb on so i jsut had to be pushed an try and drag myself, very undignified i must say!) Rich had to climb one aswell, his fruit tasted better though! I spotted a tarantula in the gardens, which was cool until i remembered there is a tarantula sized hole in the floor of our lodge...we also saw agoutis! (if you dont know about tapirs or agoutis i suggest you look them up they are very interesting) That was it really for that day. Me and rich played chess with a beer or 3 in the bar, then when the lights went out we played cards by torchlight in the hammocks (not that easy).

The 3rd day we had a lie in til 7. had breakfast and went in the canoe for a long time. Then we walked a bit and learnt more about the plants in the jungle. then we meet the boat again further upstream and went fishing with sticks and bits of beef! If was fun, but only elias caught anything (2 tiny fish) appartently as its the dry season there arent many fish around, but it kind of reminded me of fishing with dad!! We then went swimming in the river, well me and the guide and 2 of the guys did, everyone else wimped out as we arent sure how safe the water is (parasites, bacteria, who knows what, watch this space and find out what i get!!) It was great fun as there was a rope swing into the water, and it was lovely and cool! We then played in the mud, covering ourselves in it as apparently its very good for your skin! Took a lot of washing off though...Me and Rich were tired so we had a lazy afternoon, playing pool, tabel football, table tennis, chess then having a sleep until dinner! In the evening we played games with the Dutch guys until the lights went out then played by torch light! It was fun, and we had quite a lot of beer!

Tha was the trip really, today was just getting the plane back. Lots of hanging around at the airport as our plane was lunchtime but they had to take us all the airport in time for the earlier ones. It was cold and raining in Cusco, what a welcome back! Plus the altitude is getting me now, as we were basically at sea level and we flew back up here. I feel really dizzy and short of breath, and my heartbeat is even more irregular than usual, Oh well. Hopefully it will pass soon. Rich is worse than me, I think his stomach is playing up aswell so hes started on my ciprofloxacin (antibiotic thats good for stomach infections).

So that was my trip in as much as i can remember/be bothered to type! I had an amazing time, but now i have to do some work...last spanish tomorrow, and i will go to the hospital (i bought scrubs and my bloods are back sop i can go to anaesthetics now). Rich is off on sunday. next week lots of us are going to some clinic to give contraceptives to teenage girls as there is a really high level of teenage pregnancy. That will be good. Then on the 17th im off to Quillabamba, which is a health clinic in the jungle. I was going to Lares for 2 weeks, but our rep wants us to all go to the same place for saftey. That will be good though we should be able to see lots of infections and stuff, and it will be nice to be with a group of friends. I will update soon, but im hungry so ill be off now!
]]> Andes to Amazon - the Salkantay trek! — Machu Picchu, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1188227820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1188227820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1188227820/tpod.html Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:15:50 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Machu Picchu, Peru

Warning - this entry will be a marathon I suggest a few readings or you may die from info overload!!

Welocme to the story of my Salkantay trek. I apologise in adavance for the poor spelling and perhaps wrong place names, I may need to get the Tshirt I bought with the map of my route on to help! Anyway the gist of this story is that as part of my elective I got a trek around the sacred valley and to Machu Picchu included. It was 5 days and 4 nights long, and we had a guide called Armando (I called him Hernando most of the time by mistake and he called me either Clara or sometime Clerk, but he was lovely anyway!), horses and porters and 2 chefs so it wasnt exactly roughing it all the way!

Day 1 - We left the hosue at 6am. There were 5 of us, me and Rich, 2 other medicsaway students called Chris and Laura who are in our house and a Cardiologist from USA called Ricky who was really nice and just happened to have booked the trek at the same time. We got on a minibus and drove for 2 hours along a nice paved road, then an hour along a dirt track dotted with random boulders and rivers and stuff. Eventually we arrived in a village called Molepata I think where we had breakfast. (and used a flsuh toilet for the last time in a while!) We then piled back on the bus for another hour along this dirt track) it was going up a mountain ratehr close to the edge at times! We then arrived at this random little collection of houses and drinks stands and started the walk. We were given excessive volumes of food the whole time but my favourite we were given as a snack here it was a fruit called granadilla that you crack open like an egg then suck out the goo and seeds. It look revolting and is related to a passionfruit but tastes wonderful. They are grown everywhere near where we were and I bought quite a few along the way at 1sol (17p) for 8 or 9! We set of about 11pm and walked for 3 hours along a rather decent path on the fairly flat. We had bought walking sticks (wood poles with fabric grips and handles) and had great fun playing star wars with them! it was really hot and we stopped regularly to refresh at streams and to cool outr water bottles in them. they were from glaciers so were ice cold, lovely! We were headed towards a mountain called umantay (god head in Quechua) which was snow capped and you could see along the path. Ill add photos soon! We stopped for lunch and to let the horses rest, and Felix our chef cooked us the most amazing spinach soup (sounds revolting but was the best soup ever except mums home made of course) garlic bread and chicken with yucca root (rather like potato when cooked). Lovely food. We kept walking and eventually after another 3 or 4 hours having passed Umantay (its looked so far away when we started) and arrived basically at the foot of Salkatay mountain which was even more impressive and covered in glaciers and snow. We saw humming birds during the days as it was warm and kind of jungly but ended up much higher (4200m) and it was freezing cold. It was really windy as were were camping in a valley beneath massive mountains and i put all my warm clothes on and was still freezing (i bought a thermal jumper and a hot water bottle in preparation, with wind chill it must have been -10degC or lower. As soon as the porets put up our tents we ran in to sheleter from the wind emerging only for more food (soup and fried trout yummy!) and to use the toilet tent (literally a small hole in the ground surround by what appeared to be a plastic zip up wardrobe, when youve squatted in one of those in freezing temperatures nothing fazes you any more!) Our tents were quite warm in the end we had very good roll mats and sleeping bags plus lots of clothes hot water bottles and my alpaca blanket!

#at this point the computer crashed and i cant remember what i wrote so forgive me if i repeat or miss out interesting points!#

Day 2 - today we were woken at 630am with a cup of tea in our tent, lovely! Loads of food for breakfast, not that id expect any less given how much wed had til now...we knew that today would be the hardest day, we could see that from the f###ing mountain that the path started up! Also we could see that the flowing river had frozen in places, thats how cold it was...Oh well we were promised that the campsite was in the jungle and would be warm and there would be beer there so that helped us focus! We started by walking up another 400m to the top of the mountain (it might have been umantay im not sure) the path wasnt great and i got exhausted after a few meters due to the fact that it was walking up a mountain and there was no oxygen at that altitude. We walked really slowly but it took us 21/2 hours to get to the top! the view at the top was amazing so it was worth it but it was hard work. it was customary to build a small pile of rocks at the top to celebrate i dont know what so i did. We then began the laborious task of walking down again the otehr way. Oh my god im sorry if i go on but it was awful!!! The path was very steep, you had to climb in places, and slippery coz it was made of thick loose dust and rocks so every few steps you skidded. without my stick i would have died many times im sure. It took ages to reach the lunch breakpoint, which was on grassy plains, quite a transition from snowy mountains! We kept walking down into the jungle which was in the valley below the mountain we had climbed that morning. It was hard going all the way, and bless him if armando didnt get the timings wrong and tell us the campsite was only 20 mins away at one point (when we were all nearly dying of exhaustion) when it was in fact 11/2 hours. We were rather dispiritied when we eventually arrived but a cold beer and food soon helped! The campsite was kind of a tiny village really with lots of other campers. It was in the outskirts of the jungle and was much warmer and greener. We were all asleep by 9pm it was rather amusing but we had walked 17.5km up and down mountains so we were rather tired...

Day 3 - an easier day today, no acutal mountains to climb! However it was in the jungle and it was very very hot and humid, it must have been 33degrees or more with near to 100% humidity. after a few hundered meters we were dripping sweat (not pleasant after so much walking and no washing facilities!) Still it was a beautiful walk, we saw lizards, hummingbirds, loads of butterflies, waterfalls, rivers, elderly american hikers...and plenty of mosquitos!! (29/08/07 im covered in bites, they still itch! Apparenly theyu dont have malaria there but rich is unwell with a fever today so if our guide was wrong hes going to sue...)We ended the day on a bit of a high, we got a truck to a village called santa teresa where they had hot springs yay! The truck was an experience...we had to climb in the open back and hang on for dear life to some metal bars. The road was really bumpy so rich enjoyed watching me and lauras chests bouncing away, he even filmed for a bit...dirty git! We passed through lots of coffee and banana plantations which was cool, and there were some amazing views as the truck was milimeters fromthe edge of the road which overlooked a valley....a little scary at times! We eventually arrived at the hot springs and me and laura realised we had left our swimsuits at home as we didnt think ther were any hot springs on this trek! Oh well we stripped to our underwear (less than plesant after 3 days hiking but the boys didnt seem to mind) and climbed in! It was lovely to wash at last, the water was bath temperature and we were covered in dust from head to foot from the paths. We had a lovely time and had some beers afterwards. Lots of mosquiots again, even 50%deet didnt seem to faze them! Sadly we lost our sticks here. Armando said to leave them in the truck coz it would wait, but it didnt. We were gutted! We wanted to ge them home coz they were like pats of us after so muc hiking and they saved our lives. Oh well nothing we could do. We went to the campsite, which had flush toilets, very civilised! After dinner we went into town to party! We spent some time in a bar (a small room in someones house with a pool table and a cd player...) then we went to get photos taken with us at fanny's restaurant (we still find that hysterical, there also a brand of tuna fish and jam called fanny, we had to exaplain to Rik why we were cracking up quite so much...silly americans!) We then went clubbing! It was similar to the bar except there were weird picutres painted on the wall that looked like witches vomiting and it had disco lights. We had a great time, lots of beer and dancing, the locals kept dragging me and laura off to salsa with them, i dont think theyd ever had girls in there before! Anyway it was a great night til laura had her camera knicked, luckily it was found soon after, the locals all helped look but it reminded us to be careful. All in all a great day, especially as our detour to the springs meant that instead of walking up and down a mountain on day 4 we could could have a gentle stroll on a paved road...excellent!

Day 4 - we were allowed a lay in until 8am today! we couldnt have stayed any laonger, it was so hot in our tents what with still being in jungle areas. We started walkiing but then noticed that we had to cross the rather torrential river. Luckioly there was a kind of cable car slide thing! It was so funny we had to clamber into this little cart that was basically a few planks of wood and some metal bars, suspended on wires aobve the river. Getting rich in was fun, him being freaked out both by heights and water! Armando pushed us out but not hard enough so we stopped part way across which freaked rich out somewhat! We could do nything to move as it had to be pulled from the other side. Luckily some locals turned up and helped and we got across. We then started walking along a nice paved road. It was very hot again but there was no rush so we stopped at little random villagers stalls for cold drinks and played in streams to refresh oursleves! We only had to walk for 3 hours to a hydroelectric plant were we could catch the train up to Aguas Claientes whhich translates to hot springs and is a little town built just to accomodate machu picchu tourists. THe walk wasnt too bad apart from the heat,and also there were alot of brush fires as it is dry season and the locals burn the land to clear it and they get out of control. We made it to the station (a few stalls and some train tracks.) We had lunch then had to wait hours for the train as the conductor didnt turn up! We played cards and chatted to the locals, particularly one little boy of about 2 who we think may have been called steve (!) he just came over and sat on my lap and we played catch with him and gave him some fruit, which he promptly spat all over us! He even dragged over a puppy for us to play with at one point! Anyway eventually we got on the train and got to aguas calientes. We were staying in a hotel which was lovely coz i could have a shower yay!! I really needed it...we had some nice dinner and looked around the market (all massicvely overpriced for us tourists) but we soon went to bed becuase we had to get up at 430am to get to Machu Picchu before the worst of the crowds....god thats early!

Day 5 - Today is the day we go to machu picchu yay! We got up ridiculously ealry and clambered onto the bus to go. Its weird they have this fleet of very moderm coaches that just drive up down machu picchu mountain all day...anyway that took about half an hour to get up there, then we went in. It so cool you get a passport stamp when you get there! Armando gave us a tour around, it was much better without the huge crowds and we could see the sunrise over the mountains. Its a much bigger place than i though, about 5 square km. It was amazing to looka round, and see the difference int eh architcure in the parts for workers and the temples and posh bits that are highly polsihed and carefully constructed. That took a few hours before we went up waynapichhu mountain. They only allow 400 people a day up so armando queued to get us stamps so we could go. he then promptly buggered of ad left usto climb it! it was very difficult, it was quite high and was mostly steep steps. In places they had handrails so you could acutally clamber up. It was difficult but definatly worth it, we had amazing views from the top over machu picchu, we were up in the clouds. we all took the compuslory hanging over the edge picture and even met some of the people we had seen on the trek at the top! It was nearly as hard getting down as the steps were often very small and so steep you had to lean backwards so you didnt fall off! We then had to go back down to aguas claientes to get the train back to Cusco. That was fun, it took much longer than it was supposed to but they had a little fashion show of alpaca clothing you could buy, and a local dancer. I was much more entertained by the rather attractive hungarian magician who was sat near us and did loads of tricks and things to entertain us! We arranged to meet when we got back to cusco for dinner. Not before another shower though, after being so dirty it was nice to be clean again!

Anyway that was my trek! It was summed up rather succinctly, a lot more happended than what i wrote, but i could go on forever and not write everything, from Rik promising to send us some fanny farmer chocolate from USA (yes we are rather obssessed) to Chris looking like a gay (rather pale and ginger) cowboy at the hotsprings in his tight boxes and cowboy hat! It was such an amzing experience, we saw some beautiful scenerey that went from snowy mountain tops to jungle to ruins to towns and villages. We all became closer from it, and i think Rik was rather shocked about the levels of conversations about things called fanny we descended into. Id love to do something like that again, laura did rather worryingly suggest treking up mount kilamunjaro (spelling?) which requires oxygen at times i think...maybe next year!

Just to update on recent events, i didnt go into the hospital on monday as i was too tired after the trek, then i didnt on tuesday either as we went out for dinner and dancing to comiserate laura going home and i got home at 430am and was rather drunk still when i got up...ahem! I did go in today and had a good time and even got some histories from patients in spaish! I got my blood results back and bought some scrubs so when im next in i can go to anaesthetics. Unfortuantlry the hospital is basically shut for 2 days for a national holiday, and then i am going to the jungle at the weekend so i cant go in until wednesday next week..oh well! My jungle trip will be so cool! I am going on Saturday, flying to some little town then staying in alodge for 3 nights and we get to do night walks to see insects and caimans (like little crocodiles) and go on motorboats to see capybara (giant guinea pigs) and go to moneky island and see parrots and god only knows what else! I can wait ive always wanted to do something like that...best start my malaria pills tomorrow...hope rich is feeling better otherwise ill have to go by myself! Anyway ive been on here hours writing this so id best go know, ill update when i get a chance!!
]]> Mountains, mountains and a few more mountains! — Pisac, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187563800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187563800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187563800/tpod.html Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:16:07 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Pisac, Peru

Ive changed my entry now so i can get get yet another map pin yay! I shall now describe how tiring my weekend has been...

Saturday - today we got a bus (i.e. psycho combi van with loads of people on it) to tambomachay which is the ruins of a sacred place to water. I shall put some pictures up but it was very nice, up in the mountains with the stones carved to channel the water from a spring into a kind of fountain. We then went down the hill a little to puca puccara (excuse the spelling i no longer have my guide book, i shall explain why soon) which is ruins sacred to the earth. It was quite cool, we paid a guide we met on the combi to show us around. There was a little carving in the stones which is supposedly a carving of machu picchu, thouigh i wasnt sure. We then follwed the path shown in our guidebook (i hate that book) which bypassed the road and we everntually ended up in another place but i cant remember the name of it. It was a huge rock in the middle of some fields and there were amazing views from the top. we then got rather lost trying to find the next place in the book, qenko. Im not entirely sure we ever did find it, we did end up in some ruins so maybe...and then we got lost again (i really hate that book, we followed thepath it described to avoid the long way down on the road and got lost so muich) the eventually we ended up at sacsayuhuaman (sexy woman) where we saw the big statue of jesus like the one in brazil but not so big. there was loads of really impressive ruins to, i was not keen on the tunnels though, being claustrophobic and scared of the dark...i got a bit freaked out...it took hours to do the walk, we didnt realise how long it was to do and we were rather tired when we got back...a sleep was required before we went out to a bar called mandelas (as in nelson) where there was a band playing kind of rock andean music with lots of drums, pan pipes and an electric guitar...it was cool!

Today - we decided to go to Pisac for the ruins and the big market that is every sunday. We got a bus that was so packed you could hardly move! We got to pisac and started of up the mountain to the ruins. We followed the guidebook for 30mins, got completely lost, went back and started again. Followed the guidebook for 3 hours up really really steep paths (i so nearly died it was not funny) then got to the top and asked some locals where the ruins were (this was supposed to be a short cut) they laughed at us then we realised we were on the wrong f###ing mountain with no way to get to the other one with the ruins. bugger. Rich got rather cross and hurled the guidebook off the mountian...that is why i no longer have it. We walked back down and had some food then wandered round the market. It was ok but we cant even go back to see the ruins without buying another tourist ticket that is like 35soles...its rather annoying and i am very tired....oh well i start at the hospital tomorrow so i shall go now until then!
]]> Told you Peru is dangerous... — Cusco, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187307600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187307600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187307600/tpod.html Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:40:46 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Cusco, Peru

Well I was right Peru is very dangerous...In case you hadn't heard there was a huge earthquake yesterday, near Lima. A lot of people died, probably over 450 by now, and there was a lot of damage in the more rural areas where buildings are less sturdy. I don't think Lima was too badly damaged so we should be able to get home...we felt the quake here in Cusco. We were in Spanish class at the time. I thought I was getting really dizzy while reading out some Spanish, but then the others said they felt it to and we noticed everthing was shaking. We got out of the house pretty sharpish I can tell you...it was such a strange feeling, like you are drunk and the room is kind of spinning, it doesnt feel like the ground is shaking until you touch a wall for example. it lasted ages, about 4 minutes in total we think. We were all very scared but no one was hurt and there was no damage here. Hope there aren't any more, apparently there was a smaller one in the north of Peru earlier in the day yesterday...

Anyway on to brighter news! I havent updated for a while, the internet is rather temperamental here...Well I am day...4 now I think! It feels like I have been here forever...I never had a problem with the altitude, I was taking Diamox for it but didnt like the side effects (tingling and hyperventilating) so I stopped that..Ive been drinking coca leaf tea, eating coca leaf toffees, and today I even had a coca leaf ice cream!! I didnt even really have a problem with jet lag, probably coz I didnt sleep for the whole journey so was so tired i slept like a log. Ive settled in really well, I can even find my way around Cusco pretty well! Ill now describe some of what ive been up to...

Spanish - I started spanish lessons on Monday. Initially me and Rich had them seperatly but as we have the same teacher and the sessionsare 3 hours long that meant we lost most of the day so ow we have 4 hours togeether. Our teacher is lovely, her name is Techi (a nickname). She gives us tea and this Peruvian drink I cant remember the name of made by boiling purple maize, its lovely. We are progressing quickly with our spanish, though I think Rich is finding it a lot harder than I am, porobably coz I know french quite well and its similar. Getting to Techis house is an experience! We can go on Combis (small VW camper type vans with seats) and larger bus or a taxi. Combis and buses are 50centimos (about 8p) and a taxi 2-3soles (about 30p) Combis are sooo scary but great fun! You hail them by waving frantically and they screech to a halt for about 10 secs for you to clamber on (pushing past the other 25people crammed in) all the while the guy taking money yelling really fast spanish about where it stops i can only assume as its too fast to here. You then hang on for dear life while they cram more people on every 100 yards until you guess where your stop is then shove past people really quickly before the combi drives off ad throw your money at the collector. Phew its exhausting writing about it! Buses are the same only slightly larger...

Food - I have been eating out all the time as I cant be bother to cook and its so cheap. I have tried Alpaca! It was lovely i had it grilled with a fruity pink sauce with berries on it and chips. It was like the most tender delicious steak you have ever eaten...yummy! Not tried guinea pig yet though I will soon. I had trout (trucha) l;ast night which is supposedly another popular peruvian thing, it was very nice. Ive had quite a lot of english food too and that seems popluar here.

Activites - I havent been anywhere outside cusco yet, as i still get tired easily (less oxygen, you get knackered quickly). Ive done a lot around cusco though. Plenty of shopping, I have now bought a beautiful bag with bright blue suede, brown leather and lots of llamas and other peruvian symbols on it. I also got some purple stripy trousers (kind of like pyjama bottoms, they are everywhere here) and a lovely alpaca wool blanket as i am always cold in the house (even when its warm outside, boiling hot even in sun, cool in shade). We went to the catherdral in the plaza de armas. its amazing, absolutely crammed with inca gold and silver that the spanish knicked and used in their cathedral (which i might add they built over an inca temple, bastards) The locals got one back though, the spanish hired them to paint pictures in european style, and do the carvings etc so the incas put in surrupticious inca symbols everywhere like there is a picutre of the last supper, exactly like da vincis but jesus is eating guinea pig and drinking maize drink hee hee! We had a guide which helped, she told us loads about it and even did some of it in spanish so we could practice...Ive also been to the Inca museum, which is full of artefacts from inca and pre inca civilisations. We had a guide for that too, though i dont know where he came from as we were the only people there who did...While we were there there was this lady with a llama (the first I have seen yay!!!) and we paid her to let us take pictures with it. There are locals everywhere trying to sell tourists stuff, from finger puppet llamas to cigarettes, often they are children as young as 5 and they are soo persistant, they follow you down the street insisting you buy their stuff and asking you questions and things. You have to say No gracias every minute to them but they often dont get the message. Its rather annoying but there isnt anything you can do about it and sometimes they are very nice to chat to. What else have I done...gosh I cant think now. Oh yes there has been a fiesta for the virgin mary the past day or so. The other night they built these huge bamboo structures then attached laods of catherine wheels to them and they all went off in order to local music. It was very pretty but rather dangerous. there were loads of sparks and the fireworks tended to fly off and into the crowd...there hs also been processions in the plaza de armas with locals dressed up in amazing costumes and dancing to music wiuth statuees of the virgin mary and stuff like that. Ill put photos and things up but they take ages to load so not right now. Oh and last night I went clubbing in cusco for the first time! Well a bit anyway...we took Juan Carlos (the house keep odd job guy) pout for a meal then onto a couple of clubs. Its great coz you get tickets for free drinks in the street, and free entry so its a very cheap, ie free night!

Thatll do for this session i think. I have stuff planned for the weekend. on saturday we are going to sexy woman (its is not reqally called that, its something iun Quecha (local language) that i can spell but it sounds kind of like sexy woman). Its got ruins and statue and stuff and is a nice little walk, ill let you know what its like. On sunday were are going to Pisac which has beautiful ruins like a small Machu Pichu and a huge amrket, that should be fun. I start in the hospital monday morning. I go on my trek to Machu Pichu on Wednesday, we leave at 5am gah...ill keep you posted....
]]> First night... — Cusco, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187031240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187031240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1187031240/tpod.html Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:04:59 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Cusco, Peru

Well I survived the first night in Cusco. There were one or two teeny teethign problems but I'm in one piece so couldnt be all bad...

I dont remember if I said how we swapped rooms to a nicer one. Well we did but we didnt have keys yet so we couldnt lock the door. We got ready to go out for a meal in the evening (after a few hours sleep) and sadly we didnt take the door off the latch, then closed it. Ah. We only had the clothes we were wearing and a bit of money. Fiona (our rep here who sorts out problems) was in bed so wouldnt come and bring the key round, and the guy who lives here, Juan Carlos (odd job man, washer up and anything else he can help with) tried to open it but to no avail. We made the best of it and went out for a nice meanl in an Irish pub. It was so cool to be in somewhere familiar as Peru is a bit of a culture shock at first. They even served guiness and shepherds pie. I had a pizza and some pineapple juice (have been advised to lay of the weird exotic food and booze for a day or 2) then came back to go to bed. We found another empty room and just slept we were so tired. It wasnt too cold either, though i was glad of my alpaca hat on the walk home. Slept very well and awoke bright and early to the sound of gunfire...apparently the peruvian military just fire then guns off randomly every morning at 7am. Fair eough. Dawdled getting up then went to Jack's cafe, a really nice place owned by the same people who own the irish bar and had some soup and coca leaf tea (its soo nice im getting addicted to it...)

At lunch time Rich had to go for his spanish lesson (we get 3 hours a day each but me and rich have the same teacher which is a pain in the ass as she wont do it with both of us so we arent going to have much time to do stuff in the day..) I went with Lucy and Helen (the other PMS students) to the Avenida del Sol (avenue of the sun, not sure if spelt right) and we wandered a bit and went to a nice market that I shall be visiting frequently to purchase alpaca related items...them we changed some money (so much for dollars, no one takes them so we are gradually changing them into soles) and got an ice cream. Ive got my first spanish lesson in a bit so I might go and prepare. Apparently we go to the teachers house and they make us tea and busicuits. goody!
]]> Cusco at last! — Cusco, Peru http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1186962180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1186962180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1186962180/tpod.html Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:55:12 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Cusco, Peru

I made it to Cusco at last!! Felt much better after a nights sleep in Lima, even if we had to get up at 6 to be at the airport in time for the flight connection...had a lovely meal last night, something with spaghetti and chicken. It only cost 14soles, about 1pound20 for a huge plate I couldt eat all of it.

Cusco is lovely! Havent suffered too much from the altitude, felt a bit dizzy and headachy but had some nice coca leaf tea (and coca leaf toffees and coca leafs chewed, which is nasty) which is supposed to help. The house if lovely, right in the centre of town. We have a big room with an onsuite bathroom. The house is set over 4 levels and is quite rustic. Its also freezing cold. We were really tired when we got here but we went into town to have a look around. The plaza de armas (main square) is very pretty, with lots of churches and restarurants. We went shopping and I'm ashamed to say I bought an alpaca wool hat (7soles, less than a pound) and a bright pink, gorgeous alpaca wool jumper for 40soles, a couple of postcards and some food.

Well that'll do for now, no doubt I'll be on here all the time updating...
]]> At Heathrow airport — Heathrow airport, United Kingdom http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1186763640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1186763640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cetanner/peru2007/1186763640/tpod.html Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:52:22 -0400 My Peninsula Medical School Elective to Cusco, Peru and how I managed to survive all the incredibly dangerous things there! The welcome pic is me being a puma (sacred inca animal) at Machu Picchu!
Heathrow airport, United Kingdom

As promised I am writing this on a terminal at hethrow airport! it doesnt type very easily...checked in online last night so just dropped off bags and went thru security whichwas quite painless actually! the coach was running half hour late but still got plenty of time to wander round shops and go to the wetherspoons here! i will try to write something at JFK when i get there...
]]>