By Jamie F., Guestblogger from Cusco, Peru SALUD program
On Sunday morning we awoke early and had a delicious sweet pancake for breakfast. The dad walked us down to the dock and we were on our way to another of the large inhabited islands. This island is called Tecquile. They dropped us off on one side and we hiked up to the top and to the main central square. This island actually had some solar power since there is certainly plenty of strong sun there all the time.
We learned more about the traditions of this island before having a delicious halibut lunch (which could’ve been the cause of me getting slightly sick but nonetheless it was delicious). On these islands we had a special type of tea (munea or a type of mint) and then at lunch I had a mixture of munea and coca. We hiked down 567 (uneven) stairs to the other side of the island where our boat was waiting. Then it was another 3 hour ride back to the port of Puno. But it was an absolutely gorgeous day and I sat up top for the most part chatting with people from all parts of the world (Germany, Britain, Scotland, US, Brasil, Holland…). That’s what I love about traveling here is that there are really people from all over the world and you can learn so much from them especially because pretty much everybody speaks English so it’s easy for us to communicate.
Anyways so we just hung out on top of the boat and watched the scenery and reapplied sunscreen a bunch of times because the sun is really strong there and then reflects off the lake to make it worse. Once back in Puno we dropped our backpacks off at the hotel and walked around the main square, which is very small. There is really not much to do in the actual town of Puno. We did some souvenir shopping and went to a pizza place that was recommended by some guidebooks. I got lasagna which was delicious and we all just hung around for a while until our guide picked us up for the bus station at 8:30. The bus company overbooked some seats so that was a hassle but it worked out fine because we made great time and the seats reclined back pretty far so it was easier to sleep. We pulled into Cusco at 4 am and I got a taxi with 2 other people and went to sleep for 3 hours before class.
I ended up being sick the next day and so returned home early from school and my family was great and took such good care of me checking on me all the time and the next few days even made me special food that was easy on the stomach.
On Tuesday I started working at a new hospital, this one is a fairly new parochial hospital. Everyone there is really nice but it’s just a very small clinic so there wasn’t much for us to do. I observed the general doctor for two days and the OB doc for a day. It was interesting getting to the clinic because we took a combi to school every day and those are packed full of people and we felt the urge to load on the hand sanitizer after our rides. But none the less it was extremely cheap and fairly easy.
I can’t believe I’m already 3 weeks in, time has really flown and I just want to stay here and keep learning!!
Click for information on AmeriSpan’s language programs in Cusco.
Click for information on AmeriSpan’s SALUD program in Cusco.
ShareThis
