Strike Two

We left Aguas this morning on the 530am train to Ollantaytambo as planned amd that is where our plan started to fall apart. Wouldn´t you know it, a strike was planned for today to close all of the roads to and out of Cusco. Luckily, it was still early in the day and there was one country road that a taxi driver believed would still be open. We worked out a deal for him to take the three of us and three other American girls we met on a previous train (we kept running into them over the past two days) to the promised land, Cusco. We tore out of that small town, Ollantaytambo, like a saint out of hell--really, what does a bat have against damnation? I felt bad for the droves of people stranded in Ollantaytambo´s main plaza as we passed by but there wasn´t really anything we could do aside from be grateful for our transport. We still were not sure if the road would be open the whole way. There was one point we came to a log laid across the road. The driver jumped out to quickly move it but it was too big for one man. Zach and I immediately followed out of the van to move the log. We later debated the possibility of having significantly harmed our back or neck in the process but we got the log off the road and our van was on the move again. From then on we made it to Cusco without problems!

Instead of taking a bus out of Cusco at 11am for Lima, our voyage is delayed until this evening, giving us enough time for the blockade to be taken down (for the farmers to go home and let buses through) by the time we reach the perimeter of the strike.

This means I have an extra afternoon in Cusco. Let´s try to upload some photos!

We hired a boy to carry our packs for a half a mile or so. We hired four or five bikes throughout the hike, none able to help for more than half a mile, unfortunately. Some bikes were even threatened or attacked by the strikers at the road blocks. The indigenas on strike did not want anyone helping us on our way. They let the air out of one poor boy´s tires. That made me mad to the point that I pushed one of the farmers away from the kid´s bike. Then this old farmer got in my face (more like my chest cause of height issues) and we grabbed our packs and split without looking back.

One of the blockades had trucks backed up for about half a mile. Locals had painted the sides of the buses and trucks with their propaganda.

The afternoon on Choquequirao. Chillin on the terraces.

One of the glaciers we walked by on our trek. The highest pass that we crossed was about 14-15,000ft above sea level.

Uploading is taking WAY to long. Esto es todo por ahora. chao!

30 hrs in Aguas Calientes

OH my! We made it to Aguas Calientes (the small village at the base of Machu Picchu) last night. I would love to post pics of our trek over the past week but the internet connection is not wide enough here, ya know, band width ´n such. Seriously, I just waited twenty minutes to upload ONE picture--not happening. Hopefully there will be time to post some pics tomorrow before we leave for Lima (We are taking the train out of Aguas in about five hrs, I´ll have to write about Machu Picchu another time).

The gist of the past week: We left Cusco at 6am, four hr drive to a small village called, Cachora. There, we met up with Alfredo, the useless guide, Chino, the chef, Florantino, the leader of the pack (the pack being two guys that un/packed the mules and tended to other duties, and our new friend, Keeko, he is the guy who we met in Sicuani. After about an hour of eating and organizing the gear, we took off on the trail to Choquequirao. Two days later, we arrived at the largest mountaintop city of the great Inca Empire. An immediate sense of reverence was felt upon entering the high andean city. No tourists, no guides, no nothing; only an occasional flock of bright green birds shreiked through the sky disrupting the quiet that lay over the city. It felt like a ghost town. It felt like the city´s inhabitants split in serious haste leaving nothing but a curse on those who followed. It was a bit eerie, if I haven´t gotten that across yet. Most of the trails were unmarked and had to be explored, the exploring we did as kids in uncharted forest (remember, Jayden and others). Instead of uncovering salamanders and fishing holes, we came upon homes, garden terraces, and bathing pools. We spent the remains of the afternoon exploring what we could and then retired to our campsite on Choquequirao´s hillside. We took up more exploring at sunrise and moved on from the ruins at about 12 noon.

What followed was what felt like an eternal decent. A literal falling from grace as we dropped down the backside of the lofty city. We took the trail down, down, down for two hrs, broke for lunch (my knees, my body couldn´t take anymore), and then climbed, climbed, climbed for about three hrs. Completely exhausted, we camped on a small farmer´s plot at the top of Choquequirao´s neighboring mountain, Maisal. We got there just in time to watch the sun drop behind the high shelf of snowcaps lining the western horizon. In a matter of minutes, the sky went from gray to rose to black, followed by a tremendous display of stars in every direction.

I think it was Ronan who explained that the Incans made constellations out of the dark patches in the sky, rather than the stars themselves. That makes total sense when looking at the sky from a Peruvian mountaintop. The milkyway and the stars are so bright that it is easier to pick out shapes of black--and there are far less black splotches than stars to keep track of. We star gazed and chatted with the polish couple also trekking through the Incan wilderness until we were too cold and in need of warming up with mate and soup complements of Chino & company.

The following day we continued our climb on Incan trails, passing old incan mines, climbing stone stairs laid by the Incan laborers, until we reached Victoria pass, somewhere around 14-15,000 ft above sea level. It is hard to describe the experience rounding the bend of that pass. First you gasp, and then you walk another ten feet and just laugh because it all seems too beautiful to believe--or perhaps it´s the lack of oxygen.

So that was the first three or four days. There are a couple more days of the trek to explain, but I have to leave it there. Each day deserves a complete chapter, but this is a blog, not a book. Besides, I can´t spend all my money on internet. There is still much to do over the next few weeks.

I know words are wordy and pictures are not, so pictures you shall have! I hope...

hasta la pròxima,

36 hrs in Cusco

I think I traveled for longer to reach Cusco than I will spend enjoying the great Incan capital. That is ok, because in six hrs I leave for an eight day trek (this is our vacation travel time of the summer, Yeah!). First to Choqueqirao http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/travel/03inca.html?scp=1&sq=choquequirao&st=cse

and then to Macchu Picchu. The three of us, and possibly this guy we met in the hostel who also made the journey to Cusco from Sicuani. His name is keecko! He was smart and bought a bike to get across all the road blocks. We met him having dinner in Sicuani (we stayed there one night) and then he passed us the next day on his new bike, and then he sits down next to us this morning as we eat breakfast on the roof-top terrace of the hostal in Cusco. Crazy small world.

much love,

36 Hours to Cusco

We finished our work in Arequipa and the plan was to head to Puno to check out the indigenas people living on the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. Nothing about this summer has been very ¨planned¨but so it goes, the best laid plans, even the not-best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry; they especially go awry when one is in South America. From Puno, we planned to head north to Cusco. The details were all worked out, meaning we bought the tickets to Puno. But then we learned that the strike that the indigenas people were leading had not ended and that all the roads were closed from Puno to Cusco. All the roads were closed from Arequipa to Cusco as well, but we also learned from some locals that the road blocks were very short at one point between Arequipa and Cusco. We decided to take the locals´advice and to believe the bus company that was running to the city where the strike was supposed to be only 5km deep. That means, the plan was to bus to the city, Sicuani, and then walk past the road blocks. After 5km, we would reach the end of the strike where buses would take us to Cusco.

Sounded simple enough but the road blocks turned out to be 50km long. It was a horrendous 36 hrs journey to Cusco. I walked and walked like a pioneer, I rode on motorcycles, hid in the back of a truck, paid kids to carry our packs on a tricycle, etc. We made the epic voyage with a Belgian, his Italian girlfriend, 3 Argentines, and a Frech dude. So much more to tell, so much. but the hostel guy is telling me to get off the computer.

Safe and sound. Signing off...

Sueños

The computer is not behaving with respect to photos so you are just going to have to imagine Arequipa through my very very brief post--if only there were time for more.

The city is nestled between an active volcano, el Misti that seriously rises into the sky like it is ready to burst. thirty sixty degrees to the west stands a great wall of snow capped mountains that were once volcanoes. The city is nicknamed the ´white city´because almost every building is made from the white lava (sillar) that has formed an interminable quary from previous volcanic eruptions. Pictures another day.

Our commute to school involves a short walk to the main street where we catch a taxi. In contrast to Lima, the air is pure and cool, the sky is clear and the sun is beaming down by 7am with intensity. I was waiting outside of a classroomthe other morning and a recollection of Provo came to mind. Why? I always thought the mts of Utah were kind of brown and well, not so grandiose. I think it was a combination of the air, the sun, and being on a campus.

After a hard day of work, we come home to our Arequipeña home with the familia Barrios. I couldn´t be happier with the set up. First thing, we get into our pajamas. Second, we help out with dinner, or sometimes just talk with the mom (Hermana Nelly) in the kitchen and then we enjoy an amazing meal followed by a couple hours of conversation over a variety of herbal teas. This is the life! I love our dinner table/tea time. This is what I love most about life, just talking with friends and family over an emptied table. Once we´ve covered all the bases, history, food, politicis, hobbies, literature, etc... we clean up and head to bed (or to drop a blog post). I´m kind of living my dream here in Arequipa. But it all ends this weekend and once again returns to being just a dream.

Sorry I don´t have more pics. There are muchos that I´d love to post but no time.Our morning walk

The view from our front door

Cooking the Lomo Saltado. SOOO GOOOD!

Peeling the papas for a little chicken al cial!

Carta

Carta is the spanish word for letter, but it is also used as ´card´as in playing cards. We have ¨played¨ a few cartas on this trip so far. I´ll get back to the cartas in a second...

We left Lima yesterday morning to head south. Our next destination, Arequipa. The medical school here is smaller, everything in Arequipa is smaller, hasta los taxis, y la gente so we expect the work to be a little less stressful--we´ll see tomorrow.

Our trip out of Lima, the gray city, consisted in a 5hr bus ride south along the coast. The poverty we drove through was horrendous. I´m no stranger to it, but I don´t know if it was the endless gray I´ve lived under for the past ten days or what, but this poverty was hard to see. I couldn´t see the hope in any of the shanty towns we passed. Maybe the difference is that I didn´t see the people, no faces,only my imagination to draw a miserable pictureof life in these pueblos.

We finally reached Ica where we took a taxi out to this little oasis five miles fromtown where the most incredible sand dunes rose high, high above the gloom of the coast. There, we were greeted with smiles, the people were happy and suddenly I found myself enjoying a small piece of paradise. We rented some sandboards for $3 dollars and spent the afternoon carving up these enormous slopes until the sun had well set and the dessert cold was blowing in. It wasn´t hard to imagine while walking up these dunes that I was in the Nimibian dessert in Africa or well, the Peruvian dessert in Peru.

We boarded another bus at 8pm to head down to Arequipa where we arrived at 8am. Just enough time to take a taxi to church for a little Sunday worship. Here is where we pulled out another ´carta.´ We spent a couple hrs one afternoon in Lima passing out surveys in a hospital as part of a project ofsome local investigators in Lima. We completed the same amount of surveys as other researches did in twice the time it took us. We chalked it up to the international card. I also credit it to my aptitude to just walk into anywhere when I am in a foreign country. That´s how I ended up in the office of the director of health services for Andhra Pradesh when I was in India. OK, other cards played, the gringo card-no understand spanish-Rochester card, people oddly know more about the school here than I did before I came. Now in Arequipa, it was time to play the ´mormon´card. A friend inLima has a boyfriend, who´s family lives in Arequipa. The mom was baptized four years ago and hethought she would love to meet us. So we went to her house for lunch and after being in the home for five minutes, they refused to let us find a hotel or hostel. The family is so, so nice. And the house is great. I took a hot shower with pressure and all for the first time today since I left DC. We will be here in Arequipa until our work is done. Probably three or four days.

Lima

We´ve been working from 8am to 8pm six days a week since the day I arrived in Lima. The
pictures I posted in the last entry suggest otherwise, sorry. Today, we finished our work at 6pm. Just enough time to pick up our washed clothes, grab dinner, pick up a gift for our host family, and pack for our travels tomorrow--oh, and Zach and Ronin went out for the night with some of our limeno friends. I thought I´d get to bed at a decent hour but it takes so long to plan things! I am just now getting to the blog.

I ate cow hearts (anticuchos) last night because our lima peeps wanted us to enjoy some of their favorite cuisine. Just wanted to make a note of that. What else do you want me to say, pues. Thanks!

Our last focus group in Lima!

The waiting areas are always full hasta the hallways in this hospital

Outside of the Hospital, I wish this guy replaced the hotdog vendors outside of the school´s hospital in Rochester.

He was actually very happy that I asked to take his picture. Seriously!

Debbie thought the food was...hilarious

It was so good, Leslie called everyone about it

We met up with Rochesterians Tuesday night for a late dinner at the famous, Astrid y Gaston ( unfortunately, they were just stopping in for a day, we think?)

Una foto, una foto

Hola desde Peru. Why am I here? I planned on writing a post before I left to explain what I plan on doing here. The long and short: we are a mobile species. The more educated, the more mobile. This is great for the educated but the uneducated, surprise, surprise, lose. So doctors are leaving Peru to practice in better places, like Rochester. I am here with two colleagues to find out why medical students choose to stay and practice in Peru or why others choose to leave their homeland for ¨better¨land. Oh no, my Spanish is already ruining my English, ¡que horror! Seriously, that makes me sad, pero bueno, asi es.

The other part of the study is that almost a third of all doctors currently practicing in the US come from other countries. I attended a meeting a couple months back where the New York congress presented a new bill to excuse visa regulations for any foreign doctor as long as they practiced in under-represented rural or urban areas. Really? There is a lot of ethics to pull out of this but I don´t have the time, ahorrita.

So here I am in Peru, surveying and meeting with students in focus groups to understand their perspective, and to understand if they understand what they are bargaining for when they sign up for a residency in the Johnny (USA). Understand?

A few pictures outside of the University, Enjoy!

This is a poster in the University of San Marcos of Medicine. Those lines are SO latino. Gotta love how romantic the culture is.

Eating a local treat, Picarrones. Yes, they were delicious.

Pigeons never go hungry, 1st or 3rd world.

Plaza de Armas, Lima´s central plaza, behind is the, Hotel Bolivar

Yes, a little discotequing, of course. The best part was when the power went out around 12am throughout the entire district. I love Sur America!

Wouldn´t be Sur America without cathedrals