I don't think I ever posted on the highlight of my summer so here it goes. After all the military training I "got to" do, I was able to travel to Peru for some additional training required by my school. All USUHS students are required to complete some training between their 1st and 2nd years, but because I went through ROTC they let me go do something medically related and I was fortunate enough to be selected to go to Lima Peru to visit the Naval Medical Research Center Detachment, Peru for a quick course in military tropical medicine.
But of course, the trip would not have been complete without a quick visit to Macchupichu right? So here are some photos from the part of the trip that we had to pay for: Cuzco and Machupicchu.
Of course, we saw a lot of things, but here are some of the highlights. This is the Sacred Valley.
This is where the Spanish came into Cuzco and thought this was a major fort or military stronghold. In reality, it was probably a market or sacred place where they could study
the stars and nature, but after all, what do you expect a bunch of invading military people to assume about a large stone structure such as this one. This is just to give you an idea of how awesome their masonry skills were. The way they laid rocks was simply incredible!
After dropping elevation, we were able to spend a day or two hiking around Macchupichu and Aguas Calients. This is a view of the village from the entrance. Words can hardly describe how awesome it is. It was surprisingly warm compared to Cuzco and we had a great time exploring the village and the surrounding mountain tops.
They say that without constant care, the entire village would be overgrown by the surrounding foliage in just 1-2 years, perhaps to the point that you would not be able to see it was there. So how do you keep the lawn cut back? Employ llamas to cut it for you. This guy, along with 11 others were roaming around the site and as you can imagine were quite accustomed to having people around. I got to touch it and get some additional pictures. This was a good one though.
While my inebriated friends were sleeping off their previous night out, I set out with one of my friends to hike Putucusi, a local mountain that looks across the way at Macchupichu. Unfortunately, people had left their mark, but this was one of the coolest hikes I have ever been on. Up and up these wooden ladders. It was a lot of fun. I have done a lot of hiking over the years but this was the only time I have hiked hundreds of vertical feet at a time on a ladder.
And here you go. That is the bus trail winding its way up to the village; the village at the top that from here looks like a gravel pit. The tour guide over at the village told us that they estimate that there were around 1000 people living there at a time. At the bottom right you will see some additional terraces. There were discovered a little while ago when a fire burned up the shrubs that concealed it. I bet there are a bunch of other terraces on that hill slope.
And just so you know, the Inca did not use it as a last resort against the Spanish like some people think. For unknown reasons it was abandoned nearly overnight a few years before the Spanish arrived in Peru... just a side note.
Here is a look at the terraces up close. I don't remember now, but it seemed like there were around 30 of them one on top of another. I am making that number up. There are a ton of them though. Just thinking about how long it must have taken to place the blocks in their place so well and to have them stand up against time and several earthquakes is truly amazing.
And one last look at the village. This was taken after hiking the mountain that looks down on the village. After hiking, we had to stop and rest on the backside of the mountain. Those Inca sure loved stairs!
So now to business. The next week we spent in Lima seeing how the Peruvian Navy handles health care and doing rounds at several national hospitals. We saw a lot of patients with AIDS and/or Tuberculosis. This picture is on one of the Peruvian ships with a Peruvian Naval officer who is a Dentist. In Peru, medical/dental school is a tract aside from college. After high school you enter strait into a medical school that lasts 7 years and when you are done, you are a doctor. So here is Dr. Manuel Larru. He was a really cool guy that I spent a lot of time with the next week when we went out to Iquitos.
So here I am again, back on my mission... or so I felt. I was in the jungle again, hot and sticky. It was such a flashback that I really was not sure how to respond to. It is like the flashbacks that war veterans get, only this was a good feeling. I rode in ahead of everyone with some locals with all our gear. This was the rest of the team, Dr's, translators, and med students being hauled into the base camp that the Swiss-built years ago for research.
Each morning we would load into these little boats and cruise up the river to some small village where we would spend the day giving medical care to local people. Really this was a field exercise for the military doctors in tropical medicine and health assessment of people living in these areas for long periods of time. Each day a group would set out throughout the village to assess their sanitation, food, and water. It was a great public health effort to teach the local people about basic public health care principles while providing them much-needed health care.
Being the only Med Student who spoke Spanish meant that I got to spend lots of time with Dr. Larru providing dental care... well sort of. We did not have a mobile examination unit so we did the best we could, cleaning teeth and extracting the teeth that were so rotted out that it was all we could do. Luckily I had learned the basics of suturing because not only did I get to place the anesthetic and pull the teeth, but I got to place a suture (stitch) or two. It was the best medicine we could give for the circumstances. And don't worry, I never was alone, Dr. Larru was there the entire time guiding my hands. Super cool!
This one is just for effect. I think we ate this later that night. According to the local people, the river there is home to the largest "fish with lungs." I don't know if I was lost in translation on that one but that is what they told me. The fish (not these) have to surface in order to breathe and then continue on their way swimming. Ugly fish. There is no way around that, but it was fun to see them pull these out of the river.
And one last note. Next time you say to yourself, "Self, this place is a dump," that might not be true. This place, Belen (a section of town in Iquitos) on the other hand is. All the houses are built to be above the flood plain and are literally tin shacks, some with four walls others with one. The people dump all their stuff off their platforms (including their human waste), and then wait for the rainy season to come, the river to rise, and for the water to carry their waste away. Pretty bad eh? Well, it gets worse. When the rain does come and the river does rise, the people then use this river water to bathe and drink out of! Remember that they are defecating and urinating into the river? So sick.
So as you go to bed tonight, count your many blessings, name them one by one, then wake up the next morning and ask yourself how you can help keep your community clean. It might make all the difference in the world :)
Hope you enjoyed the abbreviated pictures. I of course have a million more but I'm sure you don't want to spend that much time looking at them. All my love. Fred.
After dropping elevation, we were able to spend a day or two hiking around Macchupichu and Aguas Calients. This is a view of the village from the entrance. Words can hardly describe how awesome it is. It was surprisingly warm compared to Cuzco and we had a great time exploring the village and the surrounding mountain tops.
They say that without constant care, the entire village would be overgrown by the surrounding foliage in just 1-2 years, perhaps to the point that you would not be able to see it was there. So how do you keep the lawn cut back? Employ llamas to cut it for you. This guy, along with 11 others were roaming around the site and as you can imagine were quite accustomed to having people around. I got to touch it and get some additional pictures. This was a good one though.
While my inebriated friends were sleeping off their previous night out, I set out with one of my friends to hike Putucusi, a local mountain that looks across the way at Macchupichu. Unfortunately, people had left their mark, but this was one of the coolest hikes I have ever been on. Up and up these wooden ladders. It was a lot of fun. I have done a lot of hiking over the years but this was the only time I have hiked hundreds of vertical feet at a time on a ladder.
And here you go. That is the bus trail winding its way up to the village; the village at the top that from here looks like a gravel pit. The tour guide over at the village told us that they estimate that there were around 1000 people living there at a time. At the bottom right you will see some additional terraces. There were discovered a little while ago when a fire burned up the shrubs that concealed it. I bet there are a bunch of other terraces on that hill slope.
And just so you know, the Inca did not use it as a last resort against the Spanish like some people think. For unknown reasons it was abandoned nearly overnight a few years before the Spanish arrived in Peru... just a side note.
Here is a look at the terraces up close. I don't remember now, but it seemed like there were around 30 of them one on top of another. I am making that number up. There are a ton of them though. Just thinking about how long it must have taken to place the blocks in their place so well and to have them stand up against time and several earthquakes is truly amazing.
And one last look at the village. This was taken after hiking the mountain that looks down on the village. After hiking, we had to stop and rest on the backside of the mountain. Those Inca sure loved stairs!
So now to business. The next week we spent in Lima seeing how the Peruvian Navy handles health care and doing rounds at several national hospitals. We saw a lot of patients with AIDS and/or Tuberculosis. This picture is on one of the Peruvian ships with a Peruvian Naval officer who is a Dentist. In Peru, medical/dental school is a tract aside from college. After high school you enter strait into a medical school that lasts 7 years and when you are done, you are a doctor. So here is Dr. Manuel Larru. He was a really cool guy that I spent a lot of time with the next week when we went out to Iquitos.
So here I am again, back on my mission... or so I felt. I was in the jungle again, hot and sticky. It was such a flashback that I really was not sure how to respond to. It is like the flashbacks that war veterans get, only this was a good feeling. I rode in ahead of everyone with some locals with all our gear. This was the rest of the team, Dr's, translators, and med students being hauled into the base camp that the Swiss-built years ago for research.
Each morning we would load into these little boats and cruise up the river to some small village where we would spend the day giving medical care to local people. Really this was a field exercise for the military doctors in tropical medicine and health assessment of people living in these areas for long periods of time. Each day a group would set out throughout the village to assess their sanitation, food, and water. It was a great public health effort to teach the local people about basic public health care principles while providing them much-needed health care.
Being the only Med Student who spoke Spanish meant that I got to spend lots of time with Dr. Larru providing dental care... well sort of. We did not have a mobile examination unit so we did the best we could, cleaning teeth and extracting the teeth that were so rotted out that it was all we could do. Luckily I had learned the basics of suturing because not only did I get to place the anesthetic and pull the teeth, but I got to place a suture (stitch) or two. It was the best medicine we could give for the circumstances. And don't worry, I never was alone, Dr. Larru was there the entire time guiding my hands. Super cool!
This one is just for effect. I think we ate this later that night. According to the local people, the river there is home to the largest "fish with lungs." I don't know if I was lost in translation on that one but that is what they told me. The fish (not these) have to surface in order to breathe and then continue on their way swimming. Ugly fish. There is no way around that, but it was fun to see them pull these out of the river.
And one last note. Next time you say to yourself, "Self, this place is a dump," that might not be true. This place, Belen (a section of town in Iquitos) on the other hand is. All the houses are built to be above the flood plain and are literally tin shacks, some with four walls others with one. The people dump all their stuff off their platforms (including their human waste), and then wait for the rainy season to come, the river to rise, and for the water to carry their waste away. Pretty bad eh? Well, it gets worse. When the rain does come and the river does rise, the people then use this river water to bathe and drink out of! Remember that they are defecating and urinating into the river? So sick.
So as you go to bed tonight, count your many blessings, name them one by one, then wake up the next morning and ask yourself how you can help keep your community clean. It might make all the difference in the world :)
Hope you enjoyed the abbreviated pictures. I of course have a million more but I'm sure you don't want to spend that much time looking at them. All my love. Fred.
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