Te desea una Feliz Navdiad de Peru!

"H1N1" in the Cow Parade in LarcoMar, Miraflores.

Last night was my first Christmas Eve away from Minnesota (or for that matter my parent's house). I was kindly "adopted" by the Arambulo family and was invited to many casas (houses) as the "daughter they never had" (they have three boys, the oldest is a good friend of mine and my running buddy, Beto).

The festivities started around 9 PM. I arrived early to help Beto's mom, Charo, wrap toys for all the sobrinos y primos (nieces/nephews and cousins). Beto is celebrating Christmas in the US with his girlfriend so it was only his parents, Alberto (Lucho) and Chado, his younger brother, Jorge and his best friend Andrea who are both deaf, and I. I found it was easier to talk to them in English since they only read lips and my Spanish was too difficult for them to understand (ouch!)
We stopped by the house of their middle son, Javier, where he lives with his girlfriend, her parents and their adorable three year old son, Nicolas. The house was totally decorated with lights and had a fake Christmas tree with bows and tinsel and a room full of gifts for Nicolas. We drank Pisco sour, took photos, and chatted with their family before heading out to Lucho's mother's for dinner and presents. They served a delicious turkey baked in an Oriental sauce (mmmm muy rico!) with more wine and Vino de Higo (fig wine that is very rich Peruvian dessert wine).

In Peru, Christmas is celebrated like New Year's where everyone waits until midnight with a glass of champagne to say cheers, light off fireworks in the street and play with sparklers, eat dinner, and then open presents. After midnight as the sounds of fireworks blasted outside, we stood around the Nacimiento, the nativity scene (clay figures about 5 inches tall that was constructed to look like a mountain and occupied an entire corner of the living room. They had a manger with Mary and Joseph, shepards, 20+ sheep, cows, roosters, goats, cougar, etc. like it would have been on Christmas Eve nearly 2000 years ago. I noticed that Jesus was missing when I was admiring the scene earlier in the night and I quickly found out why. After the toast, the grandmother pulled out baby (6 inch) Jesus and made a wish, kissed his forehead and passed it around. We all made a wish, kissed baby Jesus and then she put him in the manger. The three wise men were on the table on the other side of the room and I found out that they will be making their way to the scene and will arrive on January 6, the Epiphany.

We opened presents and then went to our final stop - Charo's sister's house in Surco where the four sisters and their families were waiting to exchange presents and drink more wine. The kids had fallen asleep and some of the adults were dozing off as well. Everyone has someone in the family that they exchange with and it's a surprise so they describe who the gift is for and you have to guess. Needless to say the festivities lasted until 3 AM.
This morning we slept in until 10 and then Lucho and I went for a 6-mile run ("So we could drink more wine today" he said). We ate a light breakfast and got ready for another feast. This was more Thanksgiving dinner esque with a HUGE elaborately decorated turkey (that we didn't even cut but that sat in the table for looks), a huge cut of pig, more turkey, 12+ side dishes, 20+ bottles of wine and a punch bowl with some sort of Sangria-like mixture but with Pisco and white wine - mmm dangerous!).

Elisa, a doctor-to-be, playing with her new toys.
The kids opened presents, the 20-something-year-old "kids" hung out outside, and the "adults" sat around the dining room table talking.
This was very similar to my family gatherings but with a lot more people and (no offense family) much more flavorful and elaborately prepared food (probably because they had two maids helping cook all the food). I will admit I miss the Snickers salad but the lucuma torta was delicious! I was properly stuffed by 8pm and took a cab back home and watched a movie in my apartment.

My favorite memory of last night was when my family sang "Feliz Navidad" to my Peruvian family over skype. It was great! My little cousin David was enthusiastically leading the chorus and hand signals but immediately after the song was over he ran back to the TV to play Wii. It was great to see the foot of snow on the pine trees and all the lights at my house but, I'll be honest, I kinda like wearing short sleeve shirts and capris and not long underwear this time of year! This will be one of my most memorable Christmas's and I feel so lucky to have been invited into the Arambulo family (thank you Beto - we missed you!)

"Muuuun Walker" in the Cow Parade in Miraflores.

Tomorrow I'm going to pack for my vacation to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. I can't wait!

No more climbing mountains, U's victory, and murmurs galore

Hope you have your coffee ready... this might get a little long.

Defeated
There are only a few times in my life when I have really felt defeated (losing in PKs in the NCAA tournament, barely passing first SHELF exam, etc). Last Friday morning was one of them. I enjoy hiking and in the last year have done some amazing trips in the USA (Superior Hiking Trail (autumn and winter) and Pictured Rocks National Park) and in Peru (Laguna Rapagna, Inca Trail, Colca Canyon and now Volcano Chachani).
I was supposed to summit the volcano Misti with a few of my friends but we all had to work so I went with a different group to a higher mountain, Chachani, instead. At a towering 6,090m (19,977ft), Chachani is the highest volcano in the region. To get there we drove on the worst dirt road and at the highest elevation I have ever been at in an old beat-up, filthy dirth Toyota 4x4 who's engine was roaring and whose tired I thought were going to pop from the boulders in the road. I'm glad we didn't die on the way up and they let us off around 5,000m to climb to base camp (approximately 5,200m (17,060ft)) for the night.

Once our backpacks with our tent, sleeping bags, mattresses and food were packed, the five of us (two girls from Sweden and a boy from France and I) started the painfully slow walk to camp.

Shortly after arriving I had a mild headache and took a nap in our tent (I was sharing with Sebastian from France) before dinner. My heart was pounding and I had the chills since the temperature up there was around freezing and I had not brought enough warm clothes. I felt weak at dinner but ate and went straight to bed after sunset (see below)

to get some sleep before waking up at 1am to climb to the summit. I tossed and turned and at around 9:30 I had an urge to get out of the tent but the zipper was broken and I could not open it in time before puking all over my sleeping bag (and luckily - for him - not on my tentmate). I grabbed a plastic bag and threw up a few more times, stuck the bag outside and tried to fall back asleep with my head pounding and heart racing, doubting if I will have enough energy to wake up in the morning to climb.
At 1am, we woke up under the stars - the milky way spanning from north to south, Orion and the Southern Cross on either end - and packed our things to started another painfully slow walk up the mountain. After crossing two passes of adjacent mountains, El Angel and Fatima, with at least three hours to go over an ice field and up another peak, I decided to call it quits, enjoy the view, and wait for the group to return and not ascend the summit. If I hadn't been carrying my ice axe in one hand and walking stick in the other I may have tumble off the mountain as my legs were so weak and I was losing my balance every other step.

I have never felt so bad at altitude before. The total climb time from base camp was seven hours, and only three hours to descend. As soon as I got back in the 4x4 by noon I was feeling 100% better and by 11pm I was back in Lima at sea level. I guess that means no more mountain climbing for me for a while which is fine since I think I prefer the more scenic trails with waterfalls anyway.


The best sporting event of my life


My friends Jonathan, Josh and I went to the final game of the Peruvian soccer season between the two top teams that were tied for first - Universitario and Alianza. It was the same team I saw with my friend Romina back in September but this was a completely different experience. Stadium Mundial, with over 70,000 fans, was unlike any other sporting event I have been to - better than any Twins game, the BC vs Notre Dame football game, the men's Olympic half pipe in Italy, the Argentina vs Peru World Cup Qualifier, this was on a whole new level. Passion doesn't even come close to describe these fans. Their love for their teams is in their blood and everyone gets really really into the game, and so were we.
Real quick, the play-by-play:
1. We scalped tickets outside and hoped they were legit
2. Walked a mile on the Universitario's side of the road past riot police

3. Bought sweet 15 soles jersey's to try to fit in
4. Got searched at the gate and almost lost our belts - who knew you couldn't wear a belt to a game?
5. Paid a man 2 soles to find us seats in the sold out stadium

6. Arrived just time for the teams to take the field and everyone start throwing paper confetti and giant balloons and toilet paper which COVERED both goals and most the sidelines.

7. Ate an overpriced chicken sandwich and kola real (the fake Coca Cola).
8. U forward was taken down in the box - PK! "He shoots he scores!!!!!!!!!!" The stadium goes NUTS! There were fireworks, flame sticks, smoke bombs, noise makers, and everyone is jumping around screaming with joy.
9. The game gets dirty and players are diving left and right, the play stops a lot but the refs do a good job calling the game.
10. 10 minutes left and U's captain, a burly Italian-looking long-haired Argentinian sweeper goes up for a header with Alianza's forward and smashes his face breaking his nose and the other guy's skull. The Alianza player goes down hard and starts to have a seizure.
11. Play resumes and the tension builds as the clock ticks down. The opposing fans start lighting everything on fire and the riot police run around like chicken with their heads cut off trying not to let anyone throw anything else in the burning piles.
12. As the referee blows his final whistle, the U fans at the end of the stadium rush the riot police and start climbing the 30 foot fence and about 40 get onto the field to celebrate with their heroes. I can't imagine what these games would be like if they served alcohol inside!

13. The U fans are told the stay in their seats until the Alianza fans have time to leave and while they present the trophy to U for winning the league.
14. We try to beat the rush and leave with the Alianza fans in our U shirts and Josh almost got jumped outside while trying to find us a taxi.
15. Back in Miraflores everyone is going nuts and cars are honking, fans are parading around Parque Kennedy celebrating U's victory. So we join the riot and sing:
Ese es la "U",
el mejor de los equipos,
el mejor de los equipos,
ese equipo se llama la "U",
¡la "U"!

It was pretty freaking awesome!


Murmurs galore at EsSalud
I started a clinical rotation in the Institut Nacional del Corazon (Heart Institute) at the hospital EsSalud this week. I LOVE it! I forgot how much fun it is to work with patients and this national referral hospital see EVERYTHING with regards to problems with the heart. In my first two days I heard more murmurs and saw more bacterial endocarditis than I probably will in my entire career! They have two cath labs on the other side of the 1000-bed hospital which means when someone has a "Code Red" aka heart attack, you have to wheel them down the hall to the elevator to the 1st floor, through the hallways of the clinics past the pharmacy to the cath lab. Realistically, if you have a code, you're probably a goner. Their clinic has lots of echocardiography machines and a room of treadmills. Their students and residents work round-the-clock like we do. Their nurses are great even though the RN to patient ratio is 1:7. I can't wait to go back and I am glad I waited until my Spanish was better to work with patients because even though I don't know most of the words, I am learning the importance of the physical exam and Dr Stillman would be proud of my auscultation skills (even though you can hear some of these murmurs a mile away!). I am comfortable (maybe too much so) speaking in Spanish and sounding like an idiot because that's the only way I really learn.

Feliz Navidad!
I will be staying in Lima for Navidad and going to a friend's house to celebrate with his family and then I will be flying to Rio de Janiero, Brazil, to meet my boyfriend and his friends Fernando and Leslie to celebrate my birthday and New Year on Copacabana beach.
Muchas gracias for reading and I hope you have a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year! Adios!

Trucha and rafting in Arequipa

I have been taking Spanish classes everyday with Beatrice from 9-11am and then working on seven projects (in various stages from needing IRB approval to finishing touches before submitting to big journals) all day and night. Tonight, I was invited to the house of one of my mentor's in Peru, Dr. Josefina Medina. She and her husband had me over for "coffee," which turned into three hours of talking about my family, their family, medical stuff, research, Peru, etc. (in Spanish) and drinking a few apple martinis, Pisco, coffee, Real Kola, and eating cheese sandwiches, ice cream and chocolate cake, I was very content. Their house is beautiful and has a central fountain inside and every bedroom overlooks it. They also have a nice garden with a small swimming pool. I was very impressed and grateful for their hospitality.

Rafting
After working all weekend (literally until 1am on Saturday) I took a little break and went white water rafting (grade 3+/6 rapids). I highly recommend it! It was very exciting except we had a novice guide who didn't speak English and couldn't steer. The other boat had the English speaking guide but I got moved since I "speak" Spanish (go me!). Our guide was pretty bad at giving us commands, which consisted of "Delante" "Detras" "Alto!" "Pesos derecha" "Pesos izquierda" "A dentro!" and basically steered us into just about every rock in the river. He had to get out nearly a dozen times in two hours to push us over and then leap back into the boat as we flew through the rapids. I will admit that part of the problem is that the rainy season starts in a few weeks so the river is very low right now. However, the other boat didn't have many problems. The canyon that the Rio Chile runs through was absolutely beautiful! There were a few 10ft drops that got my heart racing and one time our guide got us perfectly stuck perpendicular to the river between a rock and the wall of the canyon. As our guide is yelling "Pesos derecha" to avoid the rush of water pouring into our boat, the other boat comes flying over the rapids and T-bones us. I thought for sure we'd tip over but somehow both boats made it down and we didn't have any major catastrophes. We were back by lunch and I almost wanted to do it again. But alas, there was work that needed to be done.

Trucha
For lunch today, Josh, Katie and I met at the trout farm on the outskirts of Arequipa and ate in a cute wooden boat on the Rio Chile. For only 15 soles ($5), I had delicious "ravioli de trucha" that turned out to be fried wontons with fresh trout - absolutely delicious!



Afterwards, I climbed to the top of a hill nearby to the mirador (lookout) where I could see all of Arequipa - a city of over 1 million people - and a perfect view of the Volcano Misti (that I will be climbing in a few days).

I was exhausted by the time I got to the top so I sat at this tienda and enjoyed the famous ice cream from Arequipa: Queso Helado.

Colca Canyon

Bottled water in the Canyon: 10 soles ($3) (usually only 3)
Night in a hut next to hot springs: 15 soles ($5)
Eating fresh trout over rice and french fries every night: 5 soles ($2)
Squatting over the hueco (hole), legs shaking/aching, breathless at 9,000ft, overlooking the canyon 2,500ft below: Priceless



Generally the trek is 2-3 days, but we took an extra day so we could see the waterfall at the start of the canyon. It is merely a trickle right now compared to in the wet season in February and the boys were tired so they took a siesta while Katie and I went exploring in the boulder field below.

Trekking in Colca Canyon, Peru
My friends who are working in Arequipa on Chagas disease, Josh Siembieda and Katie Maloney, and I, just finished a four-day hike in the Colca Canyon - twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. I had arrived from sea level (in Lima) less than 24 hours prior after an exhausting and delicious Thanksgiving Day feast with over 50 American and Peruvian friends, two 25lb. turkeys, and lots of yams and potatoes and cheap Chilean and bad Peruvian wine.

Day 1
We woke up at 3am to take a bus from Arequipa to Chivay and Cruz del Condor where we watched the Andean Condors cruise within 30 feet of us.


We ended in Cabanaconde at lunch time and had trout with rice and french fries and we stared our hike. At the canyon lip, Cabanaconde (10,700ft) is the main town where all the small villages (spread out over the approximately 35 miles in the Canyon) go to for for education, trade, and transportation to Arequipa. We hiked over four hours downhill on soft rock to the Colca River and at the bottom (6,600ft) our legs were shaking and the smell of rotten eggs was overwhelming. There was a geyser and hot springs next to the small hostal called Llahuar (our room had a bamboo door, rock walls, dirt floor and a tin roof, and three mattresses). Don't worry - we inspected the room for chirimachas (the bug that carries Chagas).


Our local guide, Rolando, didn't speak any English so it was great practice for us.

Day 2
Since we had to carry our own packs, I tried to pack super light and it still felt heavy. I didn't cut holes in my toothbrush but I only brought the following items (including what I was wearing):
Backpack with 1 pair of pants, 1 shorts, 3 shirts, 1 jacket, 1 hat, 2 socks, 1 shoes, swim suit, travel towel, arm warmers, 1 flip flops, 5 underwear, 1 bra, sunglasses, SPF, hand sanitizer, TP (a MUST!), toothbrush, glasses, contacts, gallon of water, small first aid kit (Josh used the moleskin for blisters, I took 250mg of acetazolamide twice a day for altitude prophylaxis, and if it wasn't for the Advil on the last day when we hiked out I would have died), headlamp, Freakonomics book to read, iPod for the bus ride, travel pillow (this goes everywhere with me), camera (thank you Mom and Dad), battery charger (but none of the towns had electricity), phone (which didn't get any reception), trail mix and Swedish Fish (thanks Mom), and last (but not least) a photo of my dog.

We hiked up and down, then up and down some more, crossed the Colca River and then hiked up and up and up and up some more until we arrived in Fure. We stayed the night in Fure (9,000ft) with no electricity and no road (except the one for mules and trekkers), but they had water from an elaborate aqueduct system that dates back to Incan times when they terraced the whole mountain for agriculture. We ate dinner - fried trout, rice and french fries - over candlelight. It was chilly at night but without lights we were all asleep by 8.



Day 3
Quick video in the morning on the third day of the Colca Canyon and Colca River.

The third day we hiked from Fure down to "the Oasis," also called Sangalle (7,100ft), where we stayed at El Eden, a hut with dirt floor, bamboo walls and a palm leaf roof but it had a sweet swimming pool and was surrounded by palm trees and avocado, papaya, banana, orange and other wonderful fruit trees and flowers. It really felt like an oasis compared to the Arizona-looking cactus-covered canyon surrounding it.

Josh feeling "bad ass" and at home (he went to U of AZ) in the desert with of eagles, snakes, lizards and picaflor (hummingbirds).

Day 4
The last day, Katie and I woke up at 4am to hike out of the canyon (up 3,600ft). We were passed by many mules but it only took us about two hours (most people do it in 3-4). We enjoyed a not-so-refreshing Coca Cola Zero and some eggs for breakfast and hopped on the public bus by 9 to Cruz del Condor to catch one last glimpse of the famous Peruvian Condors, which we did.


Each part of Peru that I visit (besides Lima) has a very unique culture and customs. This areas is known for it's embroidery and the hats are the finest example of this. The women work very hard in the fields but are always wearing elaborate vests, long silky shirts, thick dresses, long braids, beautiful hats (our guide said a whole outfit costs over 1,000 soles ($300), which is more than a month's pay for most people - can you imagine!
Overall we hiked around 33km (20 miles) and our legs were sore and much in need of a trip to the Chivay hot springs - six large swimming pools fed with HOT water of varying degrees. The sunset as we drove into Arequipa was great with the mountains/volcanoes surrounding the city.

I can't wait to climb the Volcano Misti (19,000ft) next week - it's only a two-day hike with 12 hours up and 2 hours down!