Las Fotos

Hey guys, for those following our blog and not on facebook, here are links to some pictures from our trip.  If the below links don't work, you can copy & paste the URL's underneath.  There are 4 albums at the bottom of this post. Enjoy :-)

Trip to Lima & Nasca

     (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100333418348982.2341269.23112184&type=3&l=d8f096e31f)

 Physical Therapy Clinics in Arequipa & Juliaca

 (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100333472725012.2341275.23112184&type=3&l=0c77a78fec)

 Colca Canyon & The Orphanage

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Trip to Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, & Cusco

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One Last Jump!

We've all landed safe'n'sound in DC....

But now we're up'n'at'em again as we disperse across the country this weekend to our various clinical rotation sites!!  Thanks for following & God Bless!

Top 25 Peruvianisms

We decided to compile a Top 25 List of things we’ve all learned during our time here in Peru.  Enjoy :-)

Crossing a 4 lane highway by force

25. A beeping car horn = a warning that a car is coming and not stopping.  This is how people got through intersections.

24. Painted lines on the street mean nothing…they’ll make 5 lanes of traffic on a 2 lane street

23. Do not kill a vacuῆa…or you’ll end up in jail for 3 years

22. Shepherds do not appreciate it when you chase their herd of Alpaca/Llamas…but if you should find yourself doing such a thing, just pay 2 soles :-)

21. Showers are inconsistent…hot water is a privilege

20. Power outages can happen while you are in the shower.  Also, many showers are electric so it is possible to get a lil zap if you touch the shower head.

19. Blame anything & everything on the altitude.

18. When it is your birthday, you take a bite out of the cake instead of blowing out the candles

17. Signaling a patient to come to you with just your index finger is suggestive…don’t do it.  Instead use your whole hand to motion.

16. We can’t survive without Sam.

Mastering the Market

15. We’ve mastered bargaining with sales ladies.

14. There is not a lot of meat on a guinea pig.

13. Chachacoma is gross…don’t eat it.  It is a leaf commonly eaten to treat diarrhea or upset stomach but we are convinced it gives you one.

12. When Becca is motion sick, know the difference between Dramamine and Imodium when trying to help her…ahem Nate Blakeley ;-)

11. Missy DOES know the difference between 180° & 360° (ahem…Sam)

10. Mosquito bites…American bug spray doesn’t work on Peruvian bugs

9. Don’t take pictures of traditionally dressed locals or they will charge you a sol…unless you are Becca and can snap a picture without looking through the lens.

8. Chris Brown officially made friends with every stray dog he saw…he even brought one into a restaurant

7. Make sure you go to the right airport when trying to venture to Peru

6. Don’t let Courtney go shopping alone…she’ll buy it ALL!

Alpaca Steak

5. Chicha is disgusting.  It is a purple corn syrup drink common here in Peru.

4. Do not throw your toilet paper in the toilet, it goes in the waste basket.

3. When ziplining in Peru, waivers are not necessary & beanies count as helmets.

2. Alpaca is yummy :)

1. Serving the under-privileged in Peru is a very rewarding experience!!

And P.S.-If you are ever wondering, the #1 words to teach Peruvians are “crop dusting” & “badonk-a-donk”

Peruvian Chocolate & Colombian Dungeons

Having a blast at ChocoMuseo with our chocolate chef!

Verse of the Day: "His life is the light that shines through the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it" -John 1:5

Somehow the last day of our time here in Peru has come all too quickly.  Today was another relaxing day in Cusco as we got ready to begin our journey back to the states this afternoon.  Our final stop was an exciting one tho as we headed over to Cusco’s ChocoMuseo, a little chocolate museum and factory where we all got to make our own chocolate!  They started by showing us how the entire process worked and the different steps it takes to get from the cocoa bean to the liquid pure dark chocolate.  We even got to try peeling a roasted cocoa bean and eat the insides at their purest form (a tad bitter…needs some sugar for sure).  We then picked out our molds and chose from many different additives and fillings to make our chocolates our own.  They ranged from milk powder for making it into milk chocolate to oreos to nuts to coffee beans to mint to sprinkles and the list goes on.  We were excited by all our options and had a blast trying to perfect pouring just the right amount of chocolatey goodness into the molds while still leaving room for other goodies and somehow not making a mess.  Afterwards we got to try cocoa tea which was fantastic! Virtually no calories and tastes just like hot chocolate! 

Just for fun, here are a few fun facts and myths we learned while here:

Fun Facts about Cocoa Beans:

Making our own chocolate!

1. When used via cocoa butter, it is used in suppositories
2. They have an anti-depressant effect
3. They are an aphrodisiac
4. They can actually prevent tooth decay (it's the sugar they add to the chocolate we eat that can then cause tooth decay)
5. Cocoa Tea has 0 calories and tastes just like hot chocolate
6. According to a study done, men who eat chocolate live a year longer due to the antioxidants keeping the arteries elastic.  (Dr H-J, feel free to EBP that one if you’d like ;-)

Common myth-busters about chocolate:

1. It does NOT cause acne
2. It does NOT contain caffeine

Peruvian McDonald's in prep for our return to the USA

In our lil "columbian dungeon"

On our way to the airport we stopped at McDonald’s as a bit of pre-USA prep.  It was pretty much the same as in the U.S. except you would order a McPollo instead of a McChicken and they had these sweet Twix McFlurries (are these even in the states anywhere or have we just been gone too long?).  Upon arriving to the tiny Cusco airport we all learned a tad of patience as our airline was having difficulty processing all its passengers in a timely fashion.  We didn’t end up arriving to our gate until 10 minutes before we were supposed to take off, but as all things always work out there was no need to rush…the plane wasn’t even there yet, haha.  We made it safely to a 4 hour layover in Lima and then on to an 8 hour layover in Colombia.  Life without adventures wouldn’t be much fun.  As such, upon arriving to Colombia at 2am we were not allowed to go to our connecting gate to sleep and instead were ushered downstairs to this little empty room where they shut us all in with others already sleeping on the floor.  It was pretty much more like a dungeon than anything else, haha.  We later found out they were fumigating the airport so that's why we were "locked away"…what spectacular timing we have.  If we had to use the bathroom they would quickly usher us out and then be knocking on the stall door within 30 seconds saying “rapido, rapido” while holding their noses from the fumigation.  Next stop is the USA!  We are excited to be reunited with friends, family, and spouses (in Nate & Mary’s case)!

We have all been so blessed to have this opportunity to serve the people here in Peru and have been each touched in different ways.  Thanks to all our followers and supporters for your faithful prayers and encouragement that made this trip possible!  Through your prayerful support you were just as much a part of all God did down here as those physically serving here!

 

Becca

Sleeping in is glorious and guinea pigs are competition

Verse of the Day: “Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”” John 6:29

  After a great day at Machu Picchu, we were all very excited at the prospect of having no real plans for today and having to option to sleep in. For Sam, though, it was another early morning as he was to catch his plane to DC to start college. Becca and Courtney made sure he got his taxi and said final fair wells. He was definitely gonna be missed as we were going to be traversing Cusco without our fluent translator and comic relief. I would have to say we did pretty well. Cusco is a beautiful city and probably the most clean and attractive city we have stayed. We spent late morning in the main square hanging out with Jess and Adrienne shopping before they left for their flight. Tejal hung out with us as well and worked on making her own travel plans for the rest of her time in Peru. She figured out that she was gonna go to the jungle for two days and we hope she has safe travels and a great time. 

For lunch we checked out a small restaurant that said they had guinea pig (cuy) which we were excited to finally be able to try. To our disappointment, the waiter said we had to have called 4 hours in advanced to get it. We decided to stay and had some brick oven pizza and calzones which made our tummies really happy. After a quick stop for ice cream on this beautiful, sunny, warm day, we said our goodbyes to Jess and Adrienne. We got an email from them saying they made it safely to Lima and we hope they also have safe travels back to the US. With the departures of 4 of our fellow travelers, our group soon seemed very small but cozy as only us SRU students were left.   

The sales-ladies were relentless at trying to
 convince Nate their sweaters fit him :-)

With this being our very last full day in Peru and this beautiful city, we ventured out once again to do some last minute shopping. With our failed mission to eat guinea pig at lunch we set out to find a restaurant that would allow us to try one at a descent price. This soon became a fun game and before we knew it we had restaurants around the main plaza vying for our business. Before we found one to eat we did some more shopping which turned into another bargaining fiesta as we went back and forth with vendors talking them down to the best price. This was comical when Nate Fry wanted to buy a t-shirt and the lady was charging him more just because the shirt was a bigger size. Mary called her out as discriminating against him because of his size, he can't help that he is a bigger person. With all of us pulling for Nate she came down 10 sols and we won! This happened with many other purchases and it was a blast working together to get the best price. Finally we decided to try for our guinea pig again and get some more food to eat. This is where Sam would have been awesome but thankfully a nice person nearby decided to help us after he saw we weren't getting through to the hostess.

Diggin into some Guinea Pig! Yummy!!

We all just wanted to try it, not actually sit down at a restaurant so this nice man was able to communicate a take-out guinea pig for us. Once we had our pig we bought our cheap beverages on the street and ate at Paddy's Pub, the highest 100% Irish pub in the world at an altitude of 11,165ft. The food was cheap and hit the spot. While eating our meals we tried our guinea pig which tasted like chicken to some and squirrel to others but the general consensus was that it was good. 

It was a great relaxing day in the city and we were all very glad to be able to spend this last day together having a good time and laughing about our experiences. It has been very exciting as we anticipate our journey back to the states. Please stay tuned for the end of our journey as we get to make some chocolate tomorrow and board our plane!

Sunday Funday

Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalms: 37:4

One of the 7 Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu!

 On Sunday, we woke up in our Aguas Calientes hostel at 5:00 am in order to meet our tour guide at 5:45 to take the bus to Machu Picchu. The road was extremely steep and curvy (to say the least) and took us up a mountain for about 25 minutes.  When we finally arrived, our wonderful tour guide took us all around Machu Picchu, giving us all kinds of valuable historical information. We saw some amazing views and learned many facts about the Incas, including the 2 sectors that Macchu Picchu was divided into (agricultural and urban), the temple of sun, how the Incas kept watch over their city, and the temple of the 3 windows.

Shout Out to the Birthday Girl!! :-)

We also got to view and pet a few llamas that were grazing in the terraces of Machu Picchu. An interesting fact was, when looking from the terraces of Machu Picchu, mountains (which included Huayna Picchu) made the profile of an Incan face.  After a 2 hour tour, we ate a light lunch and then prepared for our hike up Huayna Picchu.

Huayna Picchu

Just a glimpse of how steep it was to climb

We began our hike by signing in at the bottom of the mountain (so that they could make sure that if we did not return, they could send assistance).  The first 10 minutes of the hike seemed nice and easy, then we realized that we hadn’t really started climbing the mountain.  Chris had to give Nate Blakeley a pep talk before we started our journey due to Nate’s fear of heights.  Very quickly, the narrow path got extremely steep and almost constant uneven stairs began (putting our depth perception and proprioception to the test).  We needed frequent breaks due to the altitude and extreme grueling path.  After about an hour, we made it to the top, only to be met by large insects that we at first mistook for bees, but then realized that we had no clue what they really were (but they were definitely numerous).  We had a great view of Machu Picchu from the top, which appears in the shape of a Condour (according to our tour guide). We were able to capture tons great pictures and make many memories.  The hike down was not much easier than the hike up, due to having to balance on the narrow, steep stairs (often with little to hold onto to keep our balance). 

Just a tad exhausted after hiking Huayna Picchu

When it was all said and done, we were all EXHAUSTED to say the least, but very happy that we accomplished this hike and enjoyed God’s creation. 

After our adventures of the day, we caught a 3.5 hour train back to Cusco. While on the train, we met a very nice couple (they were both radiologists) and played cards with them for a good portion of the trip.  We made it back to Cusco around 8:30 pm, checked into our hostel, and then ventured into Cusco to find some dinner (the first full meal we had eaten all day). We found a great little place to eat (most of us had our first American dish since we had been here), and then went to bed, very ready for a good night’s sleep. 

God Bless,

Missy, Nora, & Nate Blakeley

"Love"-ly overlook on Machu Picchu

Goin in for a closer look...opps.

Scaling new heights

A lil relaxation session at the top

Perfect Day. Perfect People. Perfect View.

Eye of the Jaguar

Hey y’all!

Mary

Nora

Missy

Tejal

Friday night we took an amazing bus ride on Cruz Del Sur from Arequipa to Cusco leaving around 9 pm. The trip took a total of ten hours and wow for three guys who can’t sleep on buses, trains, planes, or airports without a fan and a couple of cool pillows this trip was a pretty doggone long one. The bus food pretty much made everyone sick who attempted to take a stab at it, and Chris couldn’t even finish up the extras from everyone else. When he doesn’t eat everyone else’s food you automatically know that something is definitely wrong. Some got some sleep, mean while CB and Nate Fry laid wide awake speaking in quiet tones about Becca’s not so pleasant yacking in the downstairs and upstairs bus toilets due to her untimely motion sickness. She obviously chose a terrible time to fix to watch the featured is movie that was playing on the bus, the movie was none other than “War Horse.” Most of us including this late night duo of bro-skis did not bother to watch the ending. We wouldn’t recommend this film so don’t waste your time, but it may be better in good ol English k.

Becca

Chris

Jess

Courtney

Nate B.

Nate F.

Sam

Adrienne

Come early top of the morning around 6AM we finally arrived in Cusco. Cusco seemed to be a wonderful little town full of early morning worker outters as we encountered many peeps jogging, doing some yoga, and working on their fitness doing high intensity plyometrics with the park benches, good for him. After being picked up from the bus station we arrived at our hostel and had 2 hrs to burn before heading on out to the mountains for a fun filled day of ziplining and learning about the Incan culture with our tour guide David. When we got to the zipline which was called “Eye of the Jaguar” some of us were fixin to pee our pants. The bros at the top of line were primed and eager to hook us on up to the harnesses and get us movin on down the zipline to reach our final destination 1.3 miles down the mountain. We were told that the top speed of this zipline was 68 mph, and FYI the eye of the jag is the longest zipline in the world y’all. Mary volunteered to go first without hesitation, and dang she did it on up, no fear, no looking back, simply breathtaking. The remainder of the team went without any mishaps until Nate F. Originally specified on the zipline website, the weight limit of 190 pounds was exceeded by 50 pounds so there were no intentions of him going on the zipline. However, upon arrival the operator of the line said that one or two people had gone before that were around this weight, and a certain technique needed to be used so that the legs would not scrape the ground during the descent. Current thought running through his head-“I’m only in Peru once so why waste the opportunity”. So as Nate F. was strapped up by the operator and the owner/translator discussed proper techniques to “slow the descent” s since the normal weight limit was exceeded and excess speed may incur a disagreement existed between the two in Spanish. Meanwhile Nate F. and Becca looked at one another in concern as they were the only two left to go down the zipline. Current thought at that time- “Well it’s too late now so let’s just do it”. To top it off there were no helmets large enough to fit Nate’s excessive external occipital protuberance (aka back of head) so a properly fitted beanie woven from llama was used instead to support any trauma that may exist with impact. Fortunately all worked out well and everyone made it to the end of the line- minus Becca who had some problems while attempting to film the adventure from the air (i.e.-she accidentally let go of the pull line and the poor man at the bottom had to chase her to catch her again). 

Next we all were very hungry as our tummies were rumbling like bears in the wilderness looking for a little snack to hold them over before a long long hibernation. So David suggested a buffet to make us feel better, and wow did he know where the grub was! This particular Peruvian buffet was awesome, filled with wonderful vegetarian and meat lover options. We ate to our contents with the beautiful mix of live Peruvian flute playing in combination with jungle parrots squaking in the background. From there we went to sacred ruins named Ollantaytambo which was amazing and so gorgeous to experience and walk through. The ruins were so interesting, as there were terraces built upon one another leading up to breathtaking lookouts down upon the valleys and mountains in which the ruins were established. David was great during the tour as he shared cool facts and kept us guessing to his secret answers to the million questions he asked throughout the tour. He had a cool way about him as he would ask a million questions to us then either not answer the question he posed or just say “let’s go, you’ll find out in a bit.” We learned a great deal about the Incan culture from our buddy, and couldn’t have done the tour without him, he was simply the man and much appreciated by us all.

  

After the tour was over and dozens upon dozens of pictures taken, we were ready to eat again and fill our tummies. We decided upon a little spot to eat some Italian pizza done right, wood fire oven style. The pizza was great and the live entertainment was a cool twist to the Peruvian night out on the town. From there we were ready to hit the hostel after catching a midnight train ride to Aguas Calientes, a town closer to Machu Picchu. We were all exhausted and primed and ready to get some shut eye before a long day at Machu Picchu in the AM.

Much Love,

Nate Fry + CB