pisac and stomach buggies

This gallery contains 18 photos.

sunday we set up a guided tour of pisac, a peruvian village in the sacred valley. it’s widely known for the expansive market surrounding a pisonay tree that is nearly 400 years old. unfortunately, all three of us were quite sick for our tour. we braved it as best we could, but certainly not the …

Life in Peru: Things we see

The day-to-day:

• Because Sarah and I are here to work on data, it automatically means that we are experts on all things technology. Problem in the clinic, call on us, apparently. This includes refilling an ink cartridge with a 5mL syringe. Oh, and the computers will have an error everyday. Somehow, error messages in Spanish are scarier than errors in English. I maintain Macs are the way to go.
• We eat A LOT of quinoa and carrots.
• There are more dogs than I knew possible. Most look like mops.
• Said dogs wear more sweaters here than in LA.
• You do not, and will not have the right of way.
• The sun comes up at 5:30am.
• Water smells like sulfur. Surprisingly enough, not the shower. Just the tap. So bathing is good. Washing hands, ehhh.
• The rooster will, like clockwork, say hello from 5:30am until 7:00am.
• The illegal parrot next door says “hola” whenever you walk by.
• We have 3 iron gates that require turning the key 3 times and opening a latch to get through. Don’t forget locking it back. That means 18 turns and several latch pulls.

More to come.

campaign

you may have seen my little comment about helping with pap smears…

cervicusco goes on screening campaigns in and around cusco. since dr. ferris may develop a cohort at one of these locations, sarah and i went along to see what campaigns were all about. the paperwork was pretty well taken care of, so we both assisted the medical and pa students with the pap smears. essentially this consisted of putting gel on the speculum, collecting the swabs, and filling in the paperwork. i was working with becky, a medical student from iowa, and she taught me a lot about the cervix, what to look for, how it changes with pregnancy and/or age. it was really interesting. the women were so sweet and would kiss becky’s cheek after their exam. if only in the states people were that thankful about screening exams.

looking back towards cusco from the campaign site

screening table

containers for swab collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

becky and i

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tunupa restaurant

This gallery contains 10 photos.

there are about 18 people staying at cervicusco now. sarah and i, pa students and their professor,  other doctors, dr. ferris, dental students and their professor. quite the group. dr. ferris is leaving this afternoon, so we all headed out for a dinner in cusco last night at tunupa restaurant. pisco sours, red wine, a …

hiking & headaches

yesterday morning i woke up at 5:00am to hit the road with Dr. Ferris about 5:30 for a short hike. i haven’t done much activity, aside from walking, since we got here, so it was time to venture out for some altitude adjustment and, more importantly, beautiful morning views. it was a touch cloudy, but here is the panorama from our destination, a little ridge in the national park ‘behind’ our home. (we’re not going to talk about the headaches. they relate to the data. i thought i’d reference that all is not perfect. at least the views are. )

Larapa, Cusco is off to the right (out of the picture)

shelter along the hike

Dr. Ferris knew this was a photo op spot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

first few days

hurray, we arrived! sarah and i left atlanta on saturday afternoon and after a layover in lima, arrived in cusco early sunday morning. we spent most of sunday sleeping and getting aquatinted with our new home. today, after spending the morning with dr. ferris going over the medical records, we took a break and ventured into downtown cusco. we stopped by the starbucks (yes, starbucks. don’t worry, we’ll get real peruvian coffee shortly) and wandered around the square. for the past two days the weather has followed the same trend, sunny in the morning with rains coming in during the mid-afternoon. we stopped for an awesome lunch at los toldos near the plaza. we didn’t venture out too much with the salad bar and stuck to carrots, potatoes and beets. then enjoyed a veggie panini. after a little more wandering and bearing finding, we headed back to larapa. stopped by the supermarket and back to the clinic to start working with the records. sure enough, rains came in right as we hit the door. excellent timing.

there are certainly a number of things that have already taken us out of our comfort zone (the smell in lima and lead gas to name a few). i’ll have to toss up a kari inspired post about american versus peruvian culture soon.

Plaza de Armas

taking in the sun

blue

we will return to los toldos

instagram

This gallery contains 9 photos.

the camera on my iPhone has been my camera for the last month—not because mine is broken or anything, just because i’ve been lazy and the phone always seems to be on me. enter: selection of instagram photos from my break.  

where to & self promotion

buenos tardes. (see that, i’m totally going to blend right in.)

first part of this post is a call for thoughts. sarah and i will be on a bit of a budget while in cusco, but want to take full advantage of our time there. cusco in and of itself will be fun to explore, but we would love any thoughts on key things to do while there! by that, lake titicaca and la paz, inca trail, amazon basin or other journeys? we’ll have to choose because they can get pricey quickly. ready? comment!

the self promotion part refers to me sharing that, should one be interested, i have a little photo blog. it’s hey erin in the blogroll. yes, i’m apparently narcissistic. or a really big procrastinator. or both. i don’t want it to link to fb because then you’d get a feed each day, and i don’t want to be that present on fb. i digress… so i’m going to attempt to do a photo a day. yesterday had a post about kale, so as you might imagine, it’s really thrilling stuff. i’ve seen other people do more intensive takes on this idea, and it’s unlikely that i’ll be that awesome, but hey, could be fun? (yes, i’m often this self-deprecating.)