Katie Pastorius goes to Peru!

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

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:31:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:24:00 +0000

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!

Moving

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:07:00 +0000

Seth on our bike ride with Chorillos and Baranco in the background before his shoes were stolen at the beach while we were sitting right next to them and he had to bike home barefoot!!

I'm moving tomorrow. I'm not moving particularly far away - the next suburb over - and I'm still in a foreign country - Peru - and as anxious I am to get my own place and not have a Peruvian roommate anymore, there is something sad about leaving. Maybe it was that when I came here not knowing any Spanish I had my roommate and neighbors who I could talk to. Maybe it was that it was the first time in over four weeks I could unpack my suitcase and hang things in a closet. Maybe it was that I could cook meals and not go out to eat for every meal (even though we go out a lot still).
What makes a place home? Is it the bed? Is it the people you live with or your neighbors? Is it going to the coffee shop nearby and getting to know the baristas? Is it being able to pronounce your street properly so that the taxistas know where to take you at 3am? Is it the fact you have your own bathroom with TP? Is it a pet or a plant? What makes your home the place you call home?
I love traveling and moving is a natural part of that experience. I find that I always call Minnesota home and only after living somewhere for at least a month or more can I call my new temporary residency "home." Once you live somewhere long enough to call it your "home" leaving that place means leaving memories (good and bad) and can be a bit emotional.
In my short life I have had many many roommates: from week long roommates at soccer camp to Boston and Macalester College roommates. I have lived with over 20 different people since high school (Kelly, Lizz, Sarah, Emmy, Mel, Laura, Sara, Bret, Sophie, Sam, Rosa, Anna, Camilo, Joey, Shannon, Eric, Mom and Dad (and Wynston), Val, Cara, Jackie, Val, Miranda, and Johnny) and after living on a couch in London to having nice apartment in Miraflores, I have called many different places home.
I am excited to move to San Isidro with a panoramic ocean view with beautiful sunsets every night. It is next to a delicious rotisserie chicken restaurant and next to a park that is part of the Malecon (the parks on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean). It is a large three bedroom and I will be hosting a large Thanksgiving Day dinner for over 40 of our American and Peruvian friends (some who have never had a proper Thanksgiving Day feast). I am very excited to explore a new area that's quiet and more residential but also a little sad and anxious that I somehow acquired a ton more stuff in three months and am NOT going to be able to pack it in two suitcases.

My new apartment building is basically the first tall building (in the middle of the photo) - the first tall one after the group of buildings on the right.

No pumas nor jaguars nor anacondas but look what we found in the rainforest!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:57:00 +0000

Our Refugio Amazonas lodge 5 hours upstream from Puerto Maldonado
Puerto Maldonado, Peru
After we hiked to Machu Picchu, we took the train from Aguas Calientes to a nice bed and breakfast in Huaran (we highly recommended the Green House). We relaxed for a few nights and then had to wake up early (again) to take a taxi from the Sacred Valley to the Cusco airport where we boarded a plane and hopped over the Andes to Puerto Maldonado (near the Bolivia border). Flying in was amazing as it was almost all "downhill" and the untouched rainforest looked like an endless plate of broccoli with a big red piece of licorice (the Tambopata river) squiggling through it.
The airport's runway was roughWe were picked up by our tour company and taken by bus to the office to drop off our luggage that we didn't need to take to the selva (rainforest). Seth and I had re-packed our stuff in the airport into one small black bag and it was amusing to see the office packed with people and their HUGE suitcases trying to shuffle things around.

Our favorite animal of the trip - the saddle-back Tamarin (pocket monkey) - that jumps sideways from tree to tree.

QUICK NOTE TO ANYONE GOING TO THE SELVA: 1) go in the dry season; 2) if you can't do #1, make sure to pack lots of bug spray and ONE main outfit to wear over and over that you don't mind getting mud, more mud, bug spray, sweat, purple rainforest dyes, and more mud on with another outfit to lounge around the lodge in at night. You only need flip flops as you have to wear rubber boots to go hiking on any of the trails. Don't bring electronics since they only have electricity from 5-9pm, but don't forget your camera charger (like I did).

Since it had down poured the past two days, the road to the port was flooded which meant we had to go to a port farther down river. That doesn't sound so bad except that the river was SUPER high and it added a few hours to our boat ride up river to the Refugio Amazonas lodge. We saw lots of wildlife on the boat (see photos below - P.S. thanks Mom and Dad for the early Christmas/Birthday gift). We navigated up a very fast current in our narrow wooden boat around lots of logs and we arrived in time for a delicious dinner.

The highlights of the animals we saw are shown below. My personal highlights were seeing monkeys, going to a local farm and learning about (and tasting) all of the different rainforest fruits and learning how cheap they are in the local markets (the farmers are definitely not making money on the prices we pay in Lima or you pay in the USA), and seeing a big bicolor-spine porcupine at night chewing on the plywood in the laundry room (glad he wasn't in my room)!

Our guide saw Capybaras (the world's largest rodent) and weirdest thing we saw. The porcupine is the third largest rodent behind the capybara and beaver.
Red Howler monkeys at the Tambopata rainforest control checkpoint. I loved listening to them call out to the forest and mark their territory - very unique grumbling sound.
Macaws at a clay lick on the Tambopata river.

A Hoatzin in need of a haircut.

Giant chicken tarantula. Luis fed him grasshoppers that he caught.
Long-nosed bats that camouflaged very well into a dead tree on the side of the Oxbow lake.
White-lined fruit bat on a tree on our first hike. One night when Seth and I were playing cards, we saw a bunch of big brown bats flying into the lodge eating all the insects! They are really swift: quick and quiet.

Wild turkey in the tree. One of the many common animals that I didn't know lived in the rainforest. We also saw a red brocket deer, red squirrel, mosquitoes (lots of them), giant grasshoppers, fireflies, and others.

Super cute squirrel monkey that was spotted by our awesome guide, Luis.
Seth behind the blind at the clay lick nearly falling asleep waiting for the macaws and parrots to come down from the trees to lick the clay. We hiked over an hour on a trail that was flooded and had water nearly to our knees but it was worth it.

It rained, a lot. Can, can, can you do the... toucan!
Strangler fig tree in the Tambopata Reserve.
Hiking in the mud. Do I look like a wilderness explorer or what!?

Seth and I on the boat on our way to kayak down the Tambopata river. The current was so strong that we hardly had to paddle and we basically floated sideways (next to logs) as the rainforest passed us by. Too bad there wasn't much wildlife as the river was over 13 meters (usually around 3-5 meters in the dry season) and we couldn't see the shore.

Our bedroom with a nice hammock next to the wall that is missing/open that overlooks the rainforest. We had bednets to keep out the mosquitoes and giant grasshoppers and spiders.

Seth and our local (and short) guide, Luis, and I. He was awesome and very knowledgeable!

Better get back to work on my Fogarty projects (the PREVENCION papers, Center for Excellence projects, Heart attack perceptions retrospective analysis, and writing a few protocols for projects to start after the new year). Chau!

Machu Picchu

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:06:00 +0000

My boyfriend Seth left today to go home to the freezing cold state of Minnesota. We enjoyed two great weeks exploring Peru and its diverse landscape. Here are some photos from Cusco and our 4-day hike to Machu Picchu along the Camino Inca (Inca Trail).

Seth eating a fancy dinner of guinea pig (cuy) at MAP cafe in the Museo de Precolombino in Cusco the night before we started the hike. Not too bad except when you consider that you used to have guinea pig as a pet when you were a kid... poor Spike.

Saqsaywaman is an old temple overlooking Cusco and is one of the highlights of our trip (besides Machu Picchu). The rocks were rolled on logs from a quarry 8 km away. Look how big they are! They are carved to fit perfectly together and have withstood many earthquakes and are a fantastic Incan site that everyone who comes to Peru should try to visit.

Our group at the top of the third pass on the Camino Inca (Inca Trai). My friend Emily Howland, fellow Macalester soccer player and her friends, Devon and Anj who are traveling around the world, went with us and we met other awesome people in our group.

Steep steps with lots of people taking breaks. Our day packs had everything from bug spray and SPF to sunglasses and rain gear - and we used all of it everyday! Seth and I hired a porter which was a life saves as Seth wasn't feeling great for the first few days. It's part of the initiation into Peru but nonetheless it is not fun to be sick while hiking.

Our favorite ruins - Winywayna - with a nice hike down to a hidden waterfall (thanks Lizz for the tip) behind the terraces.

Can you see Seth?

The clouds in the valley next to Machu Picchu.
We woke up early every morning to hike but the last day was the worst as we had to get up at 3:45am to stand in line at the check-point until they opened at 5:30am and rush to Machu Picchu for sunrise. It was chilly and dark and it rained for the last hour of our hike before the Intipuku (Sun Gate, where you can see Machu Picchu for the first time). The valley was covered in clouds and we couldn't see anything when we got there. So we waited... and waited and finally walked down 45 minutes to the terraces above Machu Picchu but still, nothing. More waiting... ate our AM snack but still nothing but clouds. Then we climbed down to the entrance to check our bags and explore the ruins when all of a sudden the clouds lifted and you could see everything (except Winapicchu) but it was great!

An alpaca on Machu Picchu (or is it a llama- i can't tell the difference) but they are very cute.
Overall I would highly recommended this trip except November is the beginning of the rainy season and it rained everyday! Friends who have done this hike warned us and I will warn any adventurous readers who want to hike it - two of the four days are climbing up (and sometimes down) very steep stairs at altitude (12,000 ft or more). It's not easy (except our guide had an 80 year old on one trip so it can be done).
After a two-hour tour from our guide Jime (pronounced Jimmy in English) we relaxed on the terraces enjoying the beautiful views until our tummies were rumbling and it was time for lunch. It was weird to get on a bus after hiking. It was a bit confusing to be hiking and seeing lots of amazing ruins and going over mountain passes of over 13000 ft and camping outside when it was 40 degrees F and then seeing tourists with purses and make-up who were speaking dozens of languages on our last day when we hadn't showered. Oh well. The dirt road to Aguas Calientes, a horrible tourist town full of people who are only in Peru to go to Machu Picchu, had lots of switchbacks (with all the money that Machu Picchu makes you would think the road would be paved). We ate lunch at a restaurant that our guides get a commission for taking us to but the food was ok. Emily enjoyed a real coffee (none of that instant stuff they had on the trail) and we said goodbye as Seth and I boarded the train to Ollyatatambo for a few days in the Sacred Valley before heading to the Amazon (next post).
What a great trip!

Love/Hate

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:21:00 +0000

Living in Tumbes has made me realize what I love and hate about living Miraflores (in Lima).
Love about Miraflores: having hot water and taking a nice hot shower
Hate: paying extraordinary amounts of money for rent and utilites (by Peruvian standards since it costs $350 to rent a 1br in Miraflores and 150 soles ($50) in Tumbes)
Love: being next to the beach (even though it's rocky) and watching surfers
Hate: that it's rarely sunny to enjoy going to the beach. Tumbes is always hot and sunny but we're inland from the beaches. After our trip to Mancora last weekend, however, I will say that cold showers feel good on your sunburns!
Love: friends with cars and motorcycles so that you don't have to worry about being run over on a mototaxi or being stuffed into a combi
Hate: the traffic in Lima; it's just like LA!
Love: not having guard dogs barking all night
Hate: listening to car alarms going off instead
Love: having a kitchen and microwave. you can only eat out for so many meal and when it's all rice and no veggies it get a little frustrating.
Hate: paying gringo prices at the tiendas and street vendors
Love: going dancing at the clubs
Hate: paying 20 soles to get in
Love: going for a run along the Malecon and the ocean rather than run stairs in my apartment in Tumbes
Hate: breathing lots of car exhaust
Love: sushi
Hate: over-priced food and menus (a set salad or soup, entree and desert for one price) since you can eat menu here for 5 soles ($2)
Love: good coffee since everything here is instant
Hate: paying for it - in a country that produces a lot of coffee you'd think it's be next to free but all the good coffee is imported from America and has imported prices.
Love: speaking English
Hate: being able to speak in English. Only Heather, Miranda, Colin and I speak English in Tumbes
Love: not having to wear bug spray because the mosquitoes eat you alive. I also love not having little bugs in my bed, and tiny ants climbing on my stuff and in the sink and shower.
Hate: how urban Lima is
Love: not throwing my used TP in the basura (waste basket)
Hate: thinking about where all my garbage goes - hopefully it's not in the big dump pile in the shanty town by the river...
Love: 24 hours/ 7 days a week electricity and never having to deal with power surges
Hate: 24 hour internet because I can work the entire day and never leave my apartment

Only two more days in wonderful Tumbes. It's growing on me even though there are only 4 reasonably good restaurants that Heather and I frequent for lunch and dinner on a rotating basis. I'm sick of going out to eat all the time, taking cold showers and not running every morning but I'm going to miss the blue sky and hot sun and the wonderful field workers. I will probably be back in March for a few months but we'll see...

Hasta luego!

Puerto Pizzaro and Mancora

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:23:00 +0000

Puerto Pizzaro

Puerto Pizzaro is a small fishing town 8 miles from Tumbes. The combis that I take to get to the Proyecto all go to Puerto Pizzaro so yesterday I decided to take the combi and not get off and explore Puerto Pizzaro. I had no idea what to expect and four hours later I was overwhelmed and stuffed. After arriving I was swarmed with men in neon green shirts who work for the motorized tour boats. I wasn't expecting to go out on a boat, I just wanted to walk around and explore, but after the 6th man came up to me to show me photos of the crocodiles, Isla de Amor (where lots of honeymooners go), and Isla de los Pájaros (where the Magnificent Frigget bird nest), I thought maybe I should go check out the mangalares (mangroves). I stopped to take a photo of the fishing boats (see photo) when a nice older man asked me if I'd like to go out on one of those boats. In Spanish, he explained that he has a motor/row boat and for only $10 (much cheaper than all the neon green t-shirt guys) I could have him take me on a private tour. The only stipulation was that if I liked it then I would tell my friends to go to him in the future.

It was the best $10 I've ever spent on a tour. I had my own wooden boat and 70 year-old guide, Juan, who took me on a romantic ride through a labyrinth of tidal channels to a crocodile farm. Then we went to see the frigget birds and then to the Island of Love where I sat next to the water and ate a big plate of chicarrones (fried calamari, fish, and shirmps) and listened to the waves.

The mangroves are a very important food source for numerous species of crustaceans, molluscs, fish and fauna and humans enjoy conchas negras. The tides change dramatically and by the time my tour was over the channel to the crocodile farm was too shallow for motorboats.

Thousands of magnificent frigget birds nesting on the island. Males have bright red breasts and the chicks are white. Quite an incredible site!

Mancora
Two hours south of Tumbes, Mancora is one of the greatest beach/surfer towns in Peru. My friend Heather who I'm working with in Tumbes and I went to spend the day in the sun and swim in the Pacific Ocean. My friend Miranda decided to meet us there and we had a great night (and day) in this surfer town eating delicious seafood, drinking Piscos and bad Peruvian beer and dancing at a club on the beach until 5am. It was a great day in the not-too-hot-but-feels-great-85-degree-sun if only my three applications of SPF45 would have been more effective! I'm totally fried (but really only in the places I forgot to reapply sunscreen). I bought a couple sarongs and Heather bought an awesome hammock for only 50 soles ($18) at the cute markets. I love Peru!

Me, Heather and Miranda enjoying some Pina Coladas at a restaurant on the beach.

Next week
I have one more week in Tumbes and then I am going to Lima for Halloween and to meet my boyfriend Seth there. We will be going to Cusco, Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, and Puerto Maldonado for the next two weeks.

Field work

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:59:00 +0000

Most people have no idea what it means to go out and collect data in the field. Let me try to briefly explain what I am doing in Tumbes, Peru.

For the project that I'm helping with right now we are trying to answer the question "Did the 1997-98 El Nino have an effect on the growth of children in Tumbes?" In order to do this we need to screen over 2,000 kids to find a 0.2 difference in the age-standardized variation of children who were 0-36 months old during those years. Basically we go to these small towns in the Tumbes district where we recruit one child per household (that were randomly selected from the Proyecto's census records). We knock door-to-door (if there is a door that is) and confirm that the kid lives there. Then we ask to talk to an adult, preferably a parent but older siblings and grandparents are fine too, to answer a 30-minute questionnaire and consent to let us measure the kid's weight, height, triceps skin thickness and percent body fat the following day in school.

There are three local field workers who have been trained to collect the data and work full time, waking up at 5am to go to the field. We meet up with them around 8 to 10-100 miles away go to the schools. Some schools are only elementary school in the morning and in the same classrooms they have high school in the afternoon, and some are vice versa. Some towns are big enough to have two separate complexes for each. Basically we don't know what kids we are going to find until we get there and even then a lot of kids don't go to school everyday in which case we have to come back the next day.

This best park about this job is the kids. They are wonderful! They are so inquisitive and beautiful. They are very polite but love to stare at me. The families invite us in and invite us sit to on their very nice plastic chairs while they stand. Others have 1970 floral-patterned brown couches that are comfy. No one really wear shoes. Everyone has one television and a large poster of Jesus in their living room.

Motocars at one of the major intersections in Tumbes

If you haven't noticed, the entire area here is poor and rural. However, I can't imagine why anyone would want to move to Lima or the USA because they have everything they need here. People who are the richest of the poor have a nice life. Most people who are born here never leave and their entire family (and extended family) live in the Tumbes area. Downtown Tumbes has a church and center square and in total Tumbes is about 8 blocks long. Some "richer" families send their kids to the neighboring towns (that we've already been to the schools) but then we have to go back. The reason we can't do the measurements in the house is that most houses don't have a straight wall for use to set up the height measurements nor do they have plugs that won't blow our impedence machine. It's amazing how quickly you can tell what families are "rich" since their floors are "tile" and they own a horse rather than donkeys and occasionally have motocar (see photos) instead of bicycles. Most families make between 150-300 soles/month which is less than $100/month. I can't imagine but they all seem very happy and that's really what's the most important.

It's very interesting work and I love it!

View from Heather's third floor room - arguably the "best view" in Tumbes. Pretty nice, huh?

Buenos Aires and Tumbes

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:02:00 +0000

I am exhausted. I arrived in Tumbes less than 24 hours after arriving from Buenos Aires on one of the best vacations of my life! I have lots of work to do and I can't wait to get experience working in the field here but first a quick summary of my trip to BA.
-Thursday: arrived with 5 girls to the hostal and ate at Cafe El Federal in San Telmo.
-Friday: toured the old mansion and now museum El Zanjon. Very cool. Ate at a cafe on Defensa in San Telmo and for dinner got dressed up to go to Bourgognie in the Alvear Palace Hotel - super fancy and expensive but the best meal I can remember.
-Saturday: Ate delicious sushi in the tea house at the japonese gardens and then watched Argentina's Natonal team sneak by a horrible Peru soccer team in a world cup qualifier game while it was POURING rain!

-Sunday: San Telmo antique markets all day with tango in the streets.

-Monday: Met fellow Fogarty, Lisandro, and his wife and wandered around Monserraut and San Nicolas and then went to the Recoleta markets outside the famous Recoleta Cemetary where Evita is burried. Flew home in the evening, did laundry, uploaded photos, went to a few meetings in the morning and re-packed for Tumbes.

Lots of peaceful (and entertaining) protests in Buenos Aires during Ferria de Colon (Columbus Day).

Delicious ice cream on Calle Florida

This is 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the WORLD! 11 lanes wide with a HUGE obelisk at Ave de Mayo.

Tumbes
The Proyecto Eliminacion de Cisticercosis has established a great place to do research in Peru. Fieldwork here is easy because of the great work they have done over the years. Quick background, Tumbes is the northern most district in Peru and where I am staying is only 30km from the Ecuador border. The Proyecto is on the PanAmerican Highway (yes we hitchhike the PanAm to get to and from here) and is a few acres surrounded by acres of rice fields (and lots of mosquitoes). There is a brick wall outside and inside is a clinic, a lab, a pig pen (where they are slaughtering pigs right now to study cysticercosis), a soccer field (of course!), a three story building with the first two floors are offices with lots of computers (and wireless internet) and an apartment on the third floor. There is another guest house with screens for windows and a kitchen which is where my friend Miranda is staying.

I am staying in an apartment with the neurologist from the Proyecto in the neighboring town 4km down the highway. Tumbes is a small city but has a main plaza and a few hotels and even fewer gringos (Americans). The community has lots of smaller neighboring towns and the whole area is very poor. We are measuring kids height, weight, body fat, and talking to families and having them fill out a questionnaire to assess whether El Nino has an impact on stunting children. I've never been in a place like this. We ride around in mototaxis which are motor bikes with carriages on the back. A nice dinner costs $3. We measure people's wealth by the number of animals that they live with. In one household you can have many families with all their animals (ducks, pigs, donkeys, etc).

Today we went to two schools, a primary school and a high school. It was very fun but it is hot and humid here and i was dying! Tomorrow I am going with the field coordinator, a RN, to do home visits to finish some questionnaires and then meet up with the other two field workers to do more measurements. These women are very nice and we hire a driver to take us and the equipment around all day for $20 (which is a ton of money). None of them speak any English! I'm already getting better. Hasta luego.

LimaKids

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:10:00 +0000

LimaKids is an organization that was started up a handful of years ago with the mission of providing medical care and outlets for street kids of Lima. They have weekly "rounds" in which they find and work with children on the street as well as a monthly policlinico in which a physician tends to their medical - and often social - needs. They've also organized an elaborate soccer league that has grown, and more importantly, has had great success over the past several years in building kids' self-esteem and teamwork skills. Teams are organized around orphanages, who come together weekly for games, with a final tournament at the end of the season. I am just finishing my season with the San Fransico 15-17yo boys team. The orphanage celebrated their 8th anniversary on Friday and the kids put on a great show for the teachers and members of the community who volunteer often. LimaKids has other projects as well and they're always looking for ideas/volunteers. Check out LimaKids for more info.

If you are in Lima and are reading this, there will be a great fundraising event for this great organization the weekend of October 17th in Miraflores. Email limakids@gmail.com for me info. It would be fantastic if you all could learn about and support what many of us here in Lima think is a great organization. If you can't make it and you're still interested in donating, use this site: donation link.

Eduardo with two orphans at San Fransico.

There is also a Facebook page, where you can get info for the event and become a member of LimaKids and donate to LimaKids. It's through the Saranac Rotary Club, which manages funds for the group so don't worry if it's not the right title, it's still the right org! Click here to join the facebook group

Muchas gracias a todos y espero que todo este bien. Thanks again.

I'm off to Buenos Aires with my friends Miranda, Kara, Rebecca and Ali where we will shop, eat, drink and dance all night and hopefully take a day to go to the beach and do some cultural things. On Tuesday I'm off to Tumbes for a few weeks doing field work. I'm very excited since it is something I have never done before and no one will speak Spanish. Hasta luego!

A week in the life of KTP (a post for another day).

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:06:00 +0000

So I prepared a wonderful blog post that was going to have photos of the places that I go to often - my wonderful apartment in Miraflores, the friendly doorman, my fantastic coffee shop Sama, my grocery store Metro, my corner bodega, my salon where we get manicures and pedicures for $8, my combi stop, the boys from the orphanage, etc. However, last Sunday I went to the annual culinary festival at Parque de Lima (it was similar to a Ribfest in the States where restaurants sell smaller portions of their best meals and you get to sample ALL of them) with my friend Romina and her cousins. After a whole day of eating delicious Peruvian dishes, like risotto, fried pork, and cerviche, eating desserts, like queso helado, drinking Pisco sours, getting interviewed by a local television station, getting the famous Gaston's signature in my "Native Potatoes of Peru" book, and shopping at the market where people were selling specialty items from all over Peru, my camera was stolen.
Stolen. Just like that, gone.
It was a little deja vu as less than four years ago when I was at the Olympics in Italy my camera was stolen out of my bag when I was on a bus after the short-track speed skating event. I was devastated then and I am devasted now.
We reported it to the police who were nearby who were sympathetic but said there is nothing they can do. Romina escorted me to my combi but I was hesitant to get on, hoping desperately that if I stayed around the park maybe I would find the thief. The light was about to turn green so I said goodbye to Romina and got on and rode home, very frustrated and ticked off. How could I be so dumb? Why didn't I put my camera back in my bag and not in my pocket where some 4'11" 40-something red-head Peruvian woman could take it? Didn't I learn anything from the last time? How am I supposed to get a new camera?

Well after beating myself up for a while I decided to look on the positive side. 1) I'm pretty good about uploading photos on a weekly basis so only the photos for this post were lost. 2) My camera was a little outdated. It was a Canon A710 with only 6 megapixels and a 10x zoom. Not shabby but there are better ones out there. 3) I have plenty of great memories and an overstuffed stomach to remember the day by and plus now I have something to write home about and maybe this will make a good "Christmas and Birthday" gift from my parents as both holidays are close together and tend to mesh into one anyways.
Hasta luego.

It's not about winning or losing

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:26:00 +0000

Today was our second soccer/futsal game with the team that I help coach, San Fransico. I woke up early (8am) and took the usual combi to the shelter/orphanage. Usually with traffic it takes me an hour to get there so I plug in my iPod and listen to Coffee Break Spanish and jot notes in my a notebook.

I arrived shortly after 9 and all the boys were yelling "Gringa, gringa es aqui!" "The American is here!" The private combi/van was supposed to show up at 9:30 to take us (me, Eduardo and his wife, and the 8 boys) to the game but by 10 I was getting a little worried. The kids were starting to get restless and kick soccer balls at each other and over the orphanage wall so that they would have to tell the security guard to open the 15 foot black metal door and they could have a chance to run away. It never works and I think they lose more balls that way.

Anyway, the combi arrived and it took us another hour to get to the orphanage where we were playing (for our 11am game). Good thing I got up so early! So I live in a posh area of Lima. All of our roads are paved and our houses have roofs. The area we went to for the game was in the north of Lima. We turned off the highway onto a dirt road with lots of burning trash, super skinny dogs, bodegas (convenience stores) with gates shut, lots of street venders selling fruits and vegetables, and little three wheel buggies transporting mother's and children around the neighborhood. The brick buildings that surrounded us looked like they were never finished being built but they were and people lived there. Their clothes hung from clothes lines on the roofs and an occasional satellite dish meant someone could watch the Premier league futbol (or maybe American Football, who knows) on their TV tonight.

The orphanage walled in but once we drove inside it was much nicer than I expected based on the surrounding area. A dozen small houses with lots of grass and trees a central futsal field. We played 5 versus 5 futsal on a cement court that was about the size of a tennis court. We lost the game 3-6 after hitting the post no less than 8 times and giving up three goals on turnovers by passing back after a kick-in (John Leaney would not be happy as he always told us, "Always throw it down the line."). The kids were pretty upset but got over it once we got back in the combi and they could look at all the pretty girls on the street and drink their Coca Cola - both are a treat when you are locked inside an orphanage all the time.

In work news...
I have been very very busy working on a few data analysis projects. Not only am I learning Spanish but I'm learning Stata and SPSS syntax. AH!

On a high note, I just found out I'm going to Tumbes for a few weeks in October (after I get back from Buenos Aires with 6 American girl friends) to work on a field project there. I will be helping collect anthropomorphic measurements on children as part of an El Nino study but more importantly I am going to be learning how to set up my own project in Tumbes, work with locals on data collection, and get to know this very rural town where NO ONE will speak English (except of course for the three other gringos who are there working on pig slaughtering and chronic obstructive respiratory disease studies).

Why Tumbes? You might ask. Well a number of years ago a researcher from Peru did a great job setting up an epidemiological study on neurocystercercosis and has been collecting census information on the area. It's a great size, we have data on everyone who is born and who dies, who moves in and out, and ever have all their animals accounted for. Tumbes is located on the beach and the ocean is warm and the sun is hot. It will be nice to get out of Lima for a bit. I can't wait!

Know your cardiovascular disease risk

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:21:00 +0000

I came across some interesting articles in my overwhelming literature search on what is known and not known about CVD in Latin America.

For busy physicians, there are four challenges in regard to a patient's CVD risk (Cooney et al. JACC 2009): 1) How do I identify people who are at increased risk of a cardiovascular event? 2) How do I weight the individual effects of all the causative risk factors when assessing a person’s risk? 3) How do I stratify that risk to determine who needs lifestyle advice and who needs additional medical therapy? 4) How do I ensure that I am not overmedicalizing those persons who are at low risk of an event?
There are various risk scoring systems that doctors use to answer these questions. The most well known is the Framingham risk score but it is unknown if it is a valid scoring system for different ethnic populations, say in Peru. That's one of my projects here.

So, do you know your CVD risk? Framingham and other risk calculators have been developed based on people who are at risk for events and emphasize secondary prevention after disease has developed. For young people (<45 year) your Framingham risk will be low unless you have a genetic profile that predisposes you to CVD (high cholesterol or triglycerides) but primary prevention and modification of risk factors at this early stage is where we have the greatest opportunity for prevention of CVD and subclinical disease. The earlier the better.

Did you know that it is recommended to exercise at least 2 hours per week? That's it. That's only 30 minutes 4 times a day or 10 minutes 2-3 times per day. How many of us actually get 2 pathetic hours per week? How much time do you spend watching the Twins or Viking (or Packers) games? How much time do you spend in your car? The elephant in the room in the healthcare reform debates is our culture of inactivity and eating poorly. Walking 2 hours per week can lower your blood pressure more than popping a pill and it can decrease your risk of CVD and stroke by 25% not to mention it can help you lose weight.

Below are current recommendations based in risk and age. See where you fit and take the first step in lowering your risk now! It may be cutting down on smoking, it may be going for a walk or a longer walk but we can all do something to lower our risk and put me out of a job! :)

Work update

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:13:00 +0000

Hola de Peru! I have been working a lot lately; lots of meetings with various people including my advisor here, Dr Jaime Miranda, the program director at NHLBI, Dr Cristina Rabadan-Diehl, and the Executive Director of UnitedHealth Group (based in MN) and former BMJ editor-in-chief, Richard Smith, and attending a conference on hypertension (in Spanish) so I'm sorry if my frequent (and fun) posts have fallen behind.
My Spanish comprehension is getting much better but I find that I talk to the gringos in English a lot and so my speaking ability is vastly behind. Unfortunately, my wonderful Spanish teacher, Rosalie, is moving to Spain to start a Master's program and is leaving me :( For one of our last classes we went to see the Cuerpo Humano (BodyWorlds) exhibit that was here and I learned a lot of medical vocabulary and taught her a thing or two about the body and diseases.

Research Projects
Here's a quick run-down of the projects I'm working on. There is a potential for this to turn into a two-year assignment as there is a lot of work to do and only one of me (and Antonio the statistician I work with) to do it.
Study 1. PREVENCION (a Spanish acronym) study looked at the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in a cross-sectional sample of the adult population of Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru. The primary investigators are Dr Julio Chirinos and his mother Dr Josefina Medina. I got IRB approval from University of Washington last week to do data analysis and write manuscripts about the normal variance of hemodynamics in this population and specifically where prehypertensives and hypertensives fall based on healthy normotensive curves. We are using measurements from impedence cardiography (something in know little about) but need to train myself in so we can use this technology for study #2 in the spring. I hope to submit an abstract to the World Conference of Cardiology by the end of this month for the Conference in Beijing, China in June 2010.
Study 2. PERU-MIGRANT (PEru's Rural to Urban MIGRANTs) study was designed to investigate the magnitude of differences between rural-to-urban migrant and non-migrant groups in specific CVD risk factors. We will be continuing field work in Tumbes, which is near Ecuador, in the mountains region of Ayacucho, and in an urban area San Juan de Miraflores. The study was Dr Jaime Miranda's PhD work and is the basis for the NHLBI and UnitedHealth Group's Center for Excellence. We will be screening an additional 2000 people for CVD and 1000 for COPD starting in March.
Study 3. LASO (Latin America Study of Obesity) study combines over 12 databases, including the two listed above, to look at epidemiological trends in Latin America. I have not submitted a project proposal yet to LASO but if I run out of things to do with studies 1 and 2 (unlikely) then I always have this one.

Dr. Katherine Luke

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

This was an email I received a few days ago about a wonderful person who I've only met twice but will remember always for her bright smile and amazing personality. She was recently diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer - the same terrible form that my dear friend and former soccer coach's wife, Carrie Leaney, also suffered from. Katherine will be dearly missed by many as a friend, mother, and wife but her spirit will live on in her memories and through her beautiful children. If you so desire, please consider contributing to her children's educational trust fund.
-
Dr. Katherine Luke, a graduate of Macalester College and a recent PhD in the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology at the University of Michigan, passed away unexpectedly on the morning of Saturday, September 12. Katherine shone personally and intellectually, leaving an indelible mark in the hearts of the many friends and colleagues who loved, respected, and admired her.

Two weeks ago, Katherine was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, an aggressive and rare cancer. After finding out the cancer was quite advanced and had metastasized to other organs, Katherine began chemotherapy on Friday, September 11. This Saturday morning, Katherine passed away.

A memorial service and celebration of Katherine’s life will be held at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Ann Arbor today, September 15th, at 2pm. All are welcome to attend to honor our amazing friend. The First Unitarian Universalist Congregation is located at 4001 Ann Arbor Saline Road in Ann Arbor, MI, 48103.

Anyone who had the opportunity to know Katherine knows that her children, Nicholas and Alexandra, were the absolute light of her life. Her husband Michael Pryplesh, mother Ginger Luke, and stepfather Don Cherry, have communicated to us that the best way to honor Katherine would be to create a loving network of support for her children—showing them how much they are loved and valued every day of their lives—not just today, but tomorrow, in five years, and when they’re twenty or thirty years old.

Future logistics for continued day-to-day support for the family will come in part via the Helping Hands site: Helping Hands. You can register on the site to receive updates as they become available on ways in which help can be provided.

If you have any photographs of Katherine, the family has asked that you please post them to the website above (or email them to zakiyal@umich.edu) so that that they may be included in the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to an educational trust fund established for Katherine and Mike’s two children, Nicky and Ali.

Donations to this fund can be made via check to: Ginger Luke and Don Cherry, 5202 Bradley Blvd., 5202 Bradley Blvd., Bethesda, MD, 20814.

Your love, support, and prayers for Mike, Nicky, Ali, Ginger, and Don during this terrible time, are greatly appreciated,

Sincerely,

The friends and family of the Luke-Pryplesh Clan

Arequipa and La Punta

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Arequipa
A view of the main plaza in Arequipa with the Cathedral lit up at night.

Romina and I flew to Arequipa in the Southern Highlands of Peru on Friday in order to meet with Dr. Josefina Medina, a cardiologist and the principal investigator on the PREVENCION study. We departed the plane with a view of the full moon rising over the picturesque and dormant volcano, Misti. Dr. Medina is the sweetest Arequipenan woman that I have ever met and was very excited to show me all the technology that she has in her cardiology office. Thank goodness for Romina, my friend and translator, as my Spanish is improving but not sufficient to understand scientific meeting by myself. I was very impressed by Dr. Medina’s computer skills and by the wide array of cardiovascular prevention techniques that she uses in her clinic, including echocardiography, arterial pulse wave, sphygmography, and others.

La Punta
After our meeting we took a taxi on a winding mountain road with sheer cliffs down past Mollendo to La Punta, a small town on the beach where Romina’s family is from. We stayed at the Punta del Sur, the largest building in town besides the church. It didn’t take long for the gringos to become the talk of the town. Her uncle is a very prominent figure in the town and owns a lot of farm land and recently built the very nice hotel with solar panels for hot water which was a big bonus.
He drove us around in the back of his Toyota pickup truck up to the giant “Jesus Blanco” for a panoramic view of the beach and fertile green valley.

It was a stark contrast to the desert and dry brown mountains that we drove along.
Then, he took us along the beach and through his never-ending farms where he employs over 70 women to pick crops. Rice is his biggest crop and a close second are artichokes (photo below) since the value of sugar cane has dropped recently and export demands for artichokes have soared in the past few years. Next time you eat an artichoke heart, look at where it came from.

Next we went to the chicken coop where he keeps his prized roosters for cock fights.
There was even a cock ring where he trains these beautiful birds.
Photo of Josh and Tio (uncle) with the beautiful roosters.

Then he drove us through the valley to his prized possession – his bull. At nearly one ton it is an impressive animal and surprisingly friendly. He gave us kisses and let us rub his nose.

Later we went to lunch at this delicious restaurant with great views of the valley and river running though it where they catch fresh fish and crawfish. It was delicious until all of the gringos got sick the next day in which case I can only assume it was lunch.
Back to Arequipa
We returned to Arequipa and toured the city during the day. Since it is 7,800ft (2300m) above sea level, we undoubtedly felt a little altitude sickness upon our return and didn’t sleep much.
The city is nestled in the valley between towering, snow-capped mountains and it’s beautiful! The sky is always blue, the sun is always shining, the roof dogs are always barking, and the neighbor’s roosters are waking you up at sunrise. It’s weather and topography are similar to Arizona and nearby are the two deepest canyons in the world - Colca and Cotahuasi – that I will hike by the end of this year.

This colonial city is build of white volcanic rock, called sillar, and has largely withheld the test of time and numerous earthquakes. The Catedral de Arequipa is the largest building in town and forms one side of the popular Plaza de Armas. It was built in the 1544 and was reconstructed in 1844 after suffering much damage from fires and earthquakes. Recently, in 2001, a cathedral tower fell after a earthquake but has been restored. The streets are narrow and many are for pedestrians only and are lined with small tiendas (stores), cafes, and restaurants, while other restaurants have balconies that overlook the Catedral, Plaza and its central fountain.
Nearby is the Monastario de Santa Catalina (St. Catherine‘s Convent) that was established in 1580 shortly after the Spanish conquest. My proper name is Catherine Ann, after my great grandmother Catherine Youngquist and I believe she was named after this saint. I might start telling people my name is Catalina since when I say “Katie” everyone says “Que?” since it’s not a common name here.

At its peak, over 200 nuns and their servants lived in this city and since the nuns took vows of isolation it because a city-within-a-city. Currently 20 nuns still reside in a private part of the convent and the rest has been open to the public for 40 years. The narrow streets are beautifully painted with reds, blues, and whites, and flowers and fruit trees line the courtyards and streets. The nuns are famous for their baking and I enjoyed a delicious alfadore in the café after wandering this tranquil little city for over an hour.
I met my friends for another delicious meal at Tradicion – rocotta rellena (stuffed red peppers) and queso helado (yummy fresh ice cream) while a very talented band played traditional Peruvian music.

On our last night there were fireworks on this large bamboo structure in the main plaza but before the lit the big structure a man holding a bamboo toy on a stick with fireworks was in the street. My friend Jenni got caught on fire from sparks flying.

Romina and I about to board the plane back to Lima after a wonderful long weekend. I miss it already!

Half marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Video of the Nike 100th Media Maratón de Lima 21K race.

Map of the route.

I did it! The course was great and very flat. We started on the narrow streets in El Centro de Lima and it was amazing to see thousands of red shirts contrasting the yellow and white colonial buildings. There were fans and musical entertainment along the whole route and the police stopped all car and combi traffic so the air was clean. My friend Miranda came out to cheer us on as we ran by her apartment near the Malercon. It was so nice to have a fan.

I paced myself well and when everyone else was dying in the final 4 kilometers, I passed a lot of people. I find great satisfaction running with kilometer markers rather than mile markers as you feel a greater sense of accomplishment as you pass more of them (even though the distance is the same). The final stretch was beautiful though the Circuito Magico del Agua where you weave between these 13 amazing ornamental fountains but you are looking (or dying) for the finish and the water is blocking your vision until you come around the main fountain and 100 yards ahead is the big red banner with the clock ticking and a 10+ person orchestra entertaining the thousands of fans.

Last year at the Earth Day Half Marathon in St. Cloud I finished in 1:50:31 but yesterday and ran the Media Maratón de Lima in 1:49.22. Whohoo!!
A couple of Kenyans won it.

After the race I went to get a bandaid for my quarter sized blister and while I was chatting with the paramedic a girl got thrown into the truck who had collapsed. Having had some experience working with Dr Bill Roberts at the Medtronic TC Marathon, I helped check her vitals and her hands were freezing. I put her feet up and took her socks and shoes off and covered her in blankets as the paramedic was setting up oxygen by nasal cannula. After a few minutes she woke up and I gave her my gatorade and water while I went to turn in her timing chip and get her medal. She was about my age and she thanked me. It was great to get a little clinical medicine experience and practicing my medical Spanish (not quite up to par but working on it).

Final results: here. I was 31st in my age group 18-34, 563rd overall. Anyway, there were over 3000 people (about 800-1000 women) so that's not bad.

My friends, Beto and Kara, after running 13.1 miles (21 kilometers). Go us!

Today, I think I need a massage since my IT bands are killing me and stairs are a little difficult to descend. Ciao!

Paragliding in Miraflores

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:25:00 +0000

The classic view 5 blocks from my apartment of Larcomar (the big shopping mall in the cliff) in Miraflores with a nice view of the neighborhoods, Barranco and Chorillos, along the ocean.

The weather today was wonderful and sunny with a cool breeze off the ocean. There were lots of paragliders and surfers and it reminded me why I love it here. It's amazing how sunny weather can change your mood!

Eliot Brown, a friend of mine from Macalester, stayed with me for a few nights. It was fun to have my first visitor in Peru and we discovered the airmattress had a small leak so I'll have that fixed for the next person who comes, don't worry. We played ultimate frisbee at the US Embassy and ate delicious cerviche (raw fish and seafood marinated in lime with some picante) and tacus tacus (beans, rice, and lots of seafood) and drank chicha morrado (delicious juice made of blue/purple corn), mmmm. Ciao Eliot!

My Lima half marathon is tomorrow morning and I'm not quite ready, oh well. The weather should be perfect - 60s and overcast. My friends Beto and Kara are running with me and I'll post photos tomorrow.

LimaKids

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:12:00 +0000

LimaKids is a great non-profit in Peru that was started by a previous Fogarty scholar who's mission is to support for children and adolescents living in orphanages or in socially risky situations. Basically kids who are either living on the streets or in extreme poverty or both, and who are highly vulnerable to violence (physical, psychological and sexual), sexual exploitation and substance abuse. LimaKids runs a medical clinic and soccer clinics but their biggest project is organizing a soccer league for over 20 orphanages around the city.

I went to the coaches meeting last night where we discussed the rules for futsol (5v5 soccer played on a cement court with a heavier ball) and then all the coaches played for two hours in the park nearby. There were dozens of futsol cement courts, filled with people playing pick up, and a few grass fields with men's teams playing under the lights. There was a skateboard park and a few basketball courts as well but the action was on the soccer fields. It gave me the chills to see so many people out in the park late at night (9pm) playing my favorite sport ever - futbol!

I was not prepared to play; I was wearing my glasses, a nice shirt and dress pants since I had come directly from my clinical research training course at the pharmaceutical company, Merck. I played anyway because this was an opportunity I could not pass up and within 15 minutes marco cuatro veces (scored four times) and needless to say they were impressed and I had myself a small fan section from outside the park fence. I had a great time and I can't wait to help coach Eduardo's team, San Franscico (15-17 year old boys). Eduardo has never coached before but he is the only coach that speaks English which is why I got put on his team. I think we'll make a good team.

So I've never coached boys but I've coached pre-teen and teen girls for over 6 years so it can't be much different, right? Let's hope so...

Our games are every other Saturday and we train on Friday and Saturday's, which will keep me busy and get me out of Miraflores.

FYI. A group of us will be running a 10K in October and will be raising money for LimaKids. Any amount that you can contribute at that time would be amazing and really make a difference for the street kids in Lima.

Serving sizes

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:03:00 +0000

This is the popular Minnesota Lions Tap burger and this kinda stuff just doesn't exist in Peru! I ordered the mediano or medium burger from Bembos (the fast food chain here that's across from the McDonald's) and the serving sizes just aren't the same. The patty was like a normal size, the fries were definitely a US small and the drink was like 12oz (definitely a small). Next time I'm going to order the grande but it's no wonder we have health problems in the US.

My new job!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:30:00 +0000

I am very excited about my new job at the Center for Excellence in Peru. My advisor is Dr Jaime Miranda who recently finished his PhD on the Peru MIGRANT study, which looked at the effects of migration on cardiovascular risk factors. Interestingly, migration from rural areas to Urban areas contributes a lot to obesity, especially in women. We have been approved from the NHLBI to enroll 2000 Peruvians in our epidemiological study on cardiovascular disease project and we'll enroll 1000 for the chronic COPD study. We will start field work early next year in Tumbes and Lima. I am currently working hard on developing some proposals for a few abstracts using the previously collected PREVENCION and PERU MIGRANT database, among other large databases in Latin America that our group has access to [the Latin American Study of Obesity (LASO) database]. I will help our group (of 4 people) apply for more grants to enroll more people or start other projects, like national stroke and myocardial infarction registries.

Today I am going to a clinical research training course at the Merck offices in Lima. It's two days of intensive training on biostatistics, research design, protocols, running clinical trials, etc. but in SPANISH! Eeeks! I'm bringing my medical Spanish dictionary in my bag, just in case :)

Altitude cares very little about your fitness level

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:00:00 +0000

The 4.5 hour hike to laguna rapagna in the central highlands of Peru was a moderately difficult hike, except given that we started about 11,000 ft, I'd say it was by far the hardest hike I have ever done. I hiked Bartle Frere in Queensland - 10 hours with leeches covering my legs and falling from trees - and that was nothing compared to the heart pounding, head throbbing, breathlessness that I experienced after hiking only 5 steps at 14,000 feet. I can't imagine ever being able to climb Everest (over 29,000ft).

From the moment we stepped off the coach bus from Lima I was dizzy and cold. It was a mere 2 hours from sea level driving on a beautiful winding road that reminded me of the drive from Loveland to Estes Park, CO, along a nice stream surrounded by sharp mountain peaks. This drive went through more mining towns and the road was very narrow that make it difficult to pass slow trucks and took twice as long as it would in the states. The sky was perfectly clear: baby blue and sunny. I had forgotten what the sun looked like living in Lima for the past 3 weeks where there is always a haze. I'm glad I had sunscreen today!

We packed headed up a rocky road that had endless cut-backs but passed a few farms with hay roofs and rock fences. Generally, I felt out of breath after about 25 steps and had to stop to slow my heart and sometimes find a rock to sit on to catch my breath. I even took my acetazolamide as instructed.

At the beginning, the group of 30 (half Peruvian and quarter Americans working at the Embassy and a quarter Fogarty-related people) were very slow moving as some people could only make it 15 steps before stopping. Two people had to turn around after 30 minutes. Basically for the next 6 hours, the group spread out based on how many steps (30 vs 20 vs 10 steps) you could go without resting. There were three Peruvian guides and their three beautiful guide dogs spread out to make sure everyone knew where they were going.

We hiked along a deep valley and passed over small waterfalls and streams. As we skirted around a number of mountains we were constantly climbing in elevation. As I reached the final clearing before the last big climb, one of the guides was waiting and we had a quick conversation in Spanish. My Spanish comprehension isn't great but I swear he said that it would only take about 30 minutes, maybe even only 20 for me, to get up over that "wall" to the lake (see tired-looking photo below). An hour and 15 minutes later after stopping every 4-6 steps to catch my breath, I made it and it felt great!

I finished my lunch and took a long siesta while I waited for my friends. In the end we all made it to the beautiful turquoise lake at 14,000ft surrounded by snow-capped Andes mountains. It only took about 2 hours to get down and we were very entertained by the llamas and sheep along the way.

It was a beautiful day! The views were unbelievable and my legs are unbelievably tired. I guess it's good cross-training for my half marathon next weekend, eh?

Llama's chasing Christina down the trail.

Llamas and sheep are skeptical of us and hesitantly pass us on the trail.

Picarones!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:45:00 +0000

Leora, a Fogarty from NYC, is trying her first picarone "pee-ka-ro-nay".

The food in Lima is fantastic! I did get a little sick last week but I am over it and back to eating all the comida peruano that I can find. My favorites are the postres (desserts), including arroz con leche, churrios (filled with wonderful creams - see below), tres leche, and picarones. Here's a video outside the Monasterio de San Francisco where we saw the catacombs. We explored El Centro de Lima and ate some more delicious picarones (basically a funnel cake dough but made with sweet potatoes and fried in a ring-shape served with honey).

My friends Miranda and Jenni have been keeping an excellent blog about our trip in Peru and have lots more about the delicious food here with photos! Check it out: Pinas Peruanas.

Futbol in Lima

noreply@blogger.com (Katie P) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:28:00 +0000

I went to see the #1 club team, Universitario, play the worst team, Bolognesi, at the HUGE municipal stadium in Lima. Unfortunately, the better team, despite played most the game 11 vs 10 and having lots of crazy fans with flags, drums, and torches, could not defeat the hard-working team from Tumbes (by Ecuador). The game ended 0-0 but not without some excitement. A Bolognesi player was thrown out for tackling from behind and injuring a player and at least two others did the same and got yellow cards. The field and stands were lined with policia wearing helmets and holding shields (you can see them lined up below the fans). They don't serve cervezas, which is probably a good thing, but they do serve Inka Cola (tastes like bubble gum and is florescent yellow and everyone here loves it) and U-kola (a cheap, rip-off, watered down Coca cola). Overall, the quality of soccer (futbol) here isn't great, which mi amiga Romina warned me about, but being in the outdoor stadium, having a little boy shine your seat and a woman bring you coffee and a chorizo sandwich (after overcharging you because you are American), and hearing all the dedicated fans yelling and banging their drums, it was totally worth it!

Tomorrow we are going to hike Laguna Rapagna. It's 11,000ft at the base and the 6 hour hike goes to 14,000ft. I took my acetazolamide and I'm bringing a gallon of water. Should be fun!