I know I said that Rob and I were going to go to Huacachina to go sandboarding, but we decided to change up the plans a bit. We decided instead to go to a fútbol game. I gave him a warning that these fans were a lot crazier than any that we've seen before (**see note below). They start fires in the stands, never stop jumping and singing, throw things at opposing players, and have to be surrounded by riot police at all times to attempt to control them. We managed to find our way into the VIP section (midfield seats in the shade) thanks to my friend Carlos. Even in those seats, we heard people yelling at opposing players with phrases that I don't think I shouldn't repeat here, even in Spanish as my parents might figure out how to use google translate one of these days...
**A little background between Rob and I... we like to go sporting events together. Twice during college, I drove out to Lincoln, Nebraska (where Rob goes to school) to go to a Cornhusker football game (even missing Thanksgiving one year), I've driven with him to Chicago to go to a Twins - White Sox series, to Green Bay, Wisconsin for a Vikings - Packers game (Favre's first victory AGAINST the Packers), and countless Twins games since we were 13.
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| The view from the VIP seats at the Alianza Lima game |
The weekend after Rob went back to the States, I decided that I needed a vacation! Along with several other gringos, we went down to Ica, Huacachina, and Lunahuaná. We toured three different wineries in Ica, and acted as their taste-testers of their piscos and wines. My favorite was the wine called Perfecto Amor, because "cuando lo toma, probablemente vas a quitar tu ropa antes del fin del noche" and I bought a bottle. Here are a few of the pictures from the tours... to see all of them, check out the Picassa web albums to the right.
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| In the stomping pit with Mika showing us her stomping form. |
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| I think that's the fermenting pit that I was escaping from? |
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| Our selection of piscos and wines to test |
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| Another winery's historic factory |
After the winery tours, we took a taxi to Huacachina to go to a disco (bar). At about 2 am, most of the group headed back, but my friend Kristyn thought it'd be a good idea for the remaining four of us climb the top of a sand dune (read: sand mountain) and watch the sunrise. We thought that it was a great idea and we went for it. With the help of the bottle of pisco we brought along as fuel, it was one of the greatest (and most well-deserved) sunrises that I've seen in my life.
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| Party at a hostal in Huacachina |
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| Sunrise from the top of a sand dune |
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| American flag : accomplishing an impossible mission like going to the moon : : Empty bottle of pisco : accomplishing an impossible mission like climbing a sand dune after drinking a bottle of pisco |
Considering we didn't get back to our hostal in Ica until 9:30, we didn't quite make it to the sandboarding with the rest of the group. We heard it was fun. I've already done it, so my bed was much more appealing at the time. After the rest of the group got back from sandboarding, we all headed by bus to Lunahuaná. After some bargaining (begging) by us at a hostal, we found some rooms (read: closets that they put mattresses in) to stay in for the night. We woke up to go rafting the next day and relax in the sun (which we haven't seen in Lima for quite a while).
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| Danni, Mary, Marlene, Sile, Matt (another MN boy), Kristyn, Karen, Josh, Daniel, and me before the rafting adventure |
After a week of work in Lima, I went up to northern Peru to help out Christina with her project. She is working on creating a census of a small mountain village and investigate the prevalence of Chagas disease and offer treatment to those who have it (we don't have the results of this village yet, but it should be more than 10% of them).
I took a plane to a city called Chiclayo, then took a seven hour bus ride to the town of Buenos Aires (population: <20 families), where there is a house available during the research project. We were one of the few houses with electricity, and were about an hour away from cellphone or internet access. The village that we went to was called Campo Florido and was about a two hour drive through the mountains on a dirt road that is impassable when it rains, thanks to mudslides. Christina told me a story of how she was once trapped on the road with her taxi driver for 24 hours before the road was in good enough condition to continue.
In Campo Florido (population: ~300), I helped to add everybody in the town to the census and get them ready for blood donation. Only about half of the town showed up for the study, but we were still busy all day. Waking up at 5:30 to drive to the town and skipping breakfast and lunch, we were starving when we finally made it back to Buenos Aires. After dinner, we ended up working with the blood samples until 4:30 in the morning (essentially 23 straight hours of working). I thought that I've worked long days in the cadaver lab at TRIA before, but nothing compared to that!
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| Our house in Buenos Aires |
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| The road to Campo Florido |
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| Lilia taking blood for the research project |
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| The town and soccer field of Campo Florido |
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| Working with stool samples... |
After work, I had a chance to play soccer and volleyball with the other kids in Buenos Aires. I remember always seeing my old dog Wynston chasing soccer balls in the middle of my sisters' games, but something I've never seen before this trip was a pig doing the same thing. Okay... the pig wasn't chasing the soccer ball, but instead would chase whoever kicked the ball at it whenever it got hit. I even won a sol ($0.35) while playing volleyball! It looks like my 1 credit volleyball class last fall is already starting to pay for itself!
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| Playing volleyball with some of the kids (I won my sol from kids my age, not these kids... I promise!) |
That is pretty much what I've been up to lately. I am currently working on: writing up a journal article for the project I worked on when I first arrived, doing background research to start a new project, and doing whatever else I can to help out other people's projects. I found out that we made it past the first round of the Gates Foundation's grants, and if we receive that, then I'd be able to come back again and finish up doing research down here for another several months!
I decided to put off medical school applications for this year. I want to keep working and getting more experience before applying again. I'll keep you updated as I make new decisions on what I'm doing.
On Wednesday, I'm flying to Iquitos to compete in the Great Amazon Raft Race. This is a three day race 112 miles down the Amazon on rafts that we have to build. After I finish the race, I am hoping to do a survival expedition, where I'll have to learn how to survive in the Amazon for five days without any supplies.
In other words - I hope that I will be back in about two weeks to give you a new update...
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