Blog of Seán Cusack

We dutifully headed into the hospital today to listen to an hour long lecture from a Canadian paediatrician on the rarer forms of congenital heart disease. Unfortunately because of the language barrier, each of the 60 slight variations blurred into the others, and it wasn’t particularly useful.

After some time on the wards, we headed off for lunch, and we decided to try a new Mexican place. The food was pretty dire, and a travelling band came to play rather badly & loudly for us.

For dinner everyone headed back to the restaurant that only Emily, Tajel & I had been to before. As it happened the power was out, so they were unable to have Pisco Sours (they have to be blended). They dropped the price of the bill, but later some of the girls were sick. Its possible that the food wasn’t coooked or refridgerated as well as it should have been. I got a take-out pizza from a little place down the road, and again it was all cheese and no sauce.

Fiona (the medics away representitive in Peru) had met one of the people responsible for running a major charity called Bruce Peru. They were responsible for finding children who were of school going age, but for some reason (financial/family issues), they had missed their opportunity to go. They give these children a free education/some food/basic life lessons, and through an intensive course get them to a level where they can continue on in mainstream school (and continue to pay for them!).

One of the many facets missing from the children’s lives was any form of healthcare. Usually the families were just too poor for them to be able to afford a visit to the doctors, but a lack of any form of health education also meant that they were in need of a check-up.

Our whole gang headed to one of their two school in cusco in order to give the kids a general check up, start a health record for them, and give them a dose of Albendazole (a cheap antiparasite medication). Everyone paired up, and Bradley and I worked together to weigh and measure all of the children. After that we gave them a quick once over and listened to their hearts and lungs. Bradley came up with the idea of giving the kids his stethoscope so that I could listen in peace without having mine accosted!

We saw lots of kids, and only two or three real problems. Without divulging too many of the details, one child had a raging ear infection, another had scabies, and a third had limited movement and pain in one arm.

After a lengthy discussion over doses, we finally gave the lad with an ear infection some amoxicillin. We didn’t have any medication with us for scabies cream unfortunately, so it was decided that the two girls who had seen the case would go and pick some up and come back another day. There are a few photos of our day out here.

We had two large tubs of medication, which we had each paid some money towards – this was the only way we could give the kids any medicine, as their families could not afford it.

For lunch we went to an Irish pub we’d been to before, and later that evening whilst we were at Spanish lessons, Bradley went out for a walk and came accros a local girl in the massage trade (theres lots here!). After chatting to him for a while, she said she loved him! After beating a hasty retreat, we decided not to use the street she worked on again, so as to avoid any further confrontations.

Later that night we went to a pub quiz being run by the charity that we’d been with in the morning. We split into two teams, and after a hard fought series of rounds, we didn’t have many points to show for it! The only consolation was that my team (Gowri, Tajel, Bradley & I) beat the others

We arrived in the Plaza (main square) for 8am for our Sacred Valley tour. Upon arrival we were told that we would need to pay an extra 5 soles each to cover the extra 30-45 mins detour to Moray. We happily paid this, and were soon on our way in a very nice Hyundai minivan.

After we had climbed the walls of the Cusco valley to enter the Sacred Valley, our tour guide asked us if we would like to visit a zoo, and so this was to be our first stop. The first thing that hit us as we entered the zoo were the parrots perched on the fence poles either side of us. So close you could touch them, and yet we were suprised to learn that they were not tied down, but sitting there of their own volition.

After taking a few snaps of those (pictures here) we went on to see a baby ocelot, a caged anteater and eagle, and then a wild guinea pig (at least a foot long!). The main atraction was a condor. This incredible bird had a wingspan of over 3 metres, and was docile enough that I could walk up to within a metre of it. After gawking at the sheer size of the bird, we moved on to see some alpaccas and some caged pumas.

After this it was back in the bus, and we were on our way to the ruins of Pisaq. Pisaq provided us with about 90 minutes light hiking to see an incredible fortress of complex ruins. The hike provided us with some of the most incredible views seen on the trip so far. The main ruins were called the Qorihuayrachina, with the main attraction being the Temple of the Sun. This building was designed so that the first rays of the sun in the two main seasons would be the first to pass through its windows.

The next stop was Ollantaytambo (oy-lan-tee-tam-bo), an incredible set of terraces overlooking a small village. The top was home to a fortress, used to successfully fend off the Spanish forces in the 1500s. At the base was a fountain, said to never stop running, as well as a group of children who insisted on dancing for us – and then insisted we paid them!

We were now heading to the main attraction – Moray. Moray was an agricultural testing ground for the Incas. It provided insight into which altitudes best suited which crops. The concentric terraces served to shelter the lower crops from the wind, whilst still maximising their exposure to sunlight. Each terrace was around 5-6 foot high, and the deepest was 15 terraces from top to bottom.

As night fell we headed to Chinchero, but stopped off to sample some genuine Chicha – a local alcoholic drink made from fermented corn. We tried both the natural, and fruit-sweetened varieties. The latter was so nice I opted to try a pint, which I was forced to down under peer pressure! We arrived at Chinchero to find a small town with a church at the top. Perhaps somewhat of an anticlimax after the incredible vista at Moray. We finally piled into the taxi for a relaxing ride home.

We arrived in our house to find Bradley, the latest member of the expedition – a fellow Manchester medic whom I had never met!

After a quick stint in the lounge, we all crawled into bed for a well deserved rest.

We dragged ourselves out of bed and into hospital today. Everyone was fairly tired, and so the hour long lecture on conjestive heart failure in spanish was more than a little dull. Especially as the lecturer had opted to project as much text as she possible could, and then reading it all out. I could only be thankful that they did not ask us questions – I don’t think they’d have been too impressed with the answers!

For lunch we decided to go for a McDonalds. I opted for a very health McPapas Grande (a large fries), and was tempted by the girls into trying my first McFlurry. It was an excellent choice, and it kept me cool in the heavy sun as we trundled back to one of the tourist information shops we had been to previously. We organised a Sacred Valley tour with a private guide who spoke english. We also managed to negotiate to visit Moray, one of the best looking archealogical sites around. Normally you have to pay extra for this, so we were pleasantly suprised to get the trip for 45 soles each (around 10 pounds) for an entire day (8AM til 7PM).

I didn’t eat with the main group, so when Tejal and Emily got back from spanish, we popped around the corner to a restaurant they had been told about. It was more like a converted front room, but the food was excellent and the chef spoke to us between each course for progress information as well as advice on how we liked our food. I had a spinach and mushroom curry, which the others kindly improved by dealing with my spinach!

The girls decided to get a dessert between them, and not to be left out I decided that I would have one for myself. It was easily the best dessert I’d had in Peru, and maybe one of the best ever. A chocolate cake with a lemon and blackcurrant sorbet, and a touch of freshly made ice-cream.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful save for the frequent reminder of just how much effect Emily’s pisco sour (the local alcoholic cocktail) had on her!

After all being fairly tired after the night before, we decided to pass on going to hospital this morning. We went for a rather late breakfast in Jack’s and the girls went off by themselves to get some photos in the markets.

I headed home to do my spanish homework (there was lots!), and after spanish and my usual phone call home/to Jeni, we all settled down in the living room.

We opted for a quiet night in front of the telly watching The Dark Knight.

After the enticing photos in the restaurant the day before, and with a smattering of information from the tourist offices, we set off to look for information on how to visit some of the incredible ruins.

We learned that there were two main tours – a city tour which went to 4 of the local sites, and a sacred valley tour that went out to the further away sites. As it was already 11am, it was a little late to go on a sacred valley tour, so after shopping around we booked a city tour on a public coach with a english + spanish guide. This cost about 4 pounds each, and the photos can be found here.

As we arrived at the first site (Saqsaywaman) we bought our tourist tickets for 70 soles. We had just arrived at the ruins as the rain started. We had just enough time to learn that Cusco was designed to look like a puma.

Saqsaywaman was at the head of the puma, and was supposed to be the teeth. The site was a 3 tiered set of stones, each taller than the one in front of it. As it had started to pour, we had a quick look around, and then headed back to the coach.

After a 5 minute drive, we were a short walk away from our next site. At this point Cusco started to show us what rain was really about. The drops were so big you could feel each and every one. When we got to the site (Tambomachay), we found a small spring that was being channeled through rocks. The water was from a mountain spring and apparently never stopped flowing. The tour guide told us that drinking from it would result in eternal life or eternal diarrhoea. At 50/50 it seemed like it was worth the risk, and I’ve not had any stomach trouble yet!

We trekked back to the bus and this drove us about 300 metres down the road to the next site, which we looked at through the coach windows. It was a small fort called Pukapukara, and it was thought to be a hunting lodge or a guard post.

The penultimate site was Q’enqo, a large rock formation in a zigzag shape with a cave carved into the middle. The cave had a small altar which was used for sacrafices. We were told that most sacrafices were not human, and that only rarely were children killed.

Before heading to the last part of the tour, we stopped off at a small alpacca wool factory which had some amazing clothes, and we were shown how to distinguish between real and fake alpacca products, and also the difference between baby and adult alpacca wool. The prices were more than a little steep, so after a short stay we left to travel back to Cusco.

The last stop was Qorikancha, the site of an ancient Inca temple – probably the biggest they had. It was originally covered in gold, and its name means ‘Golden Courtyard’. The temple was a religious focus for the Inca race, and apparently was filled with gold artifacts. Unfortunately these, as well as the gold that covered the walls, and indeed most of the original building was taken by the Spanish when the invaded, and most of the gold was melted down. All that remains now is the outer wall, and a few small buildings inside. A dominican church has been built up around the site, and now serves as a monastry.

After last night out, we decided to have a well deserved lie-in. We got up at 10:00 to visit the markets.

We had planned to visit both one of the main markets in Cusco, and a smaller contraband market.

We hit the town to try and get some breakfast, and after much to-ing and fro-ing we found a nice little cafe that seemed to have a diverse menu. Unfortunately we had to bail when the girls realised the posters on the wall were of women in bikinis! This was enough to shift us on, but we eventually found a breakfast cafe.

Many of the girls went for the special of the day – a corn soup. This arrived with a single lump of an unknown meat. Eventually we decided it was beef rather than alpaca. I opted for the sweeter option of crepes with sugar and lemon.

In the cafe we noticed some incredible pictures which had been taken around Cusco at various archaelogical sites. I took some photos of the pictures to show the tour operators, and we asked the owner about the places. It turned out that these were part of the 10 day tourist ticket that you could purchase for 70 soles (18 pounds). This allowed you to visit the 10 main ruins around Cusco.

Further investigation at the tourist information kiosks revealed that normally you head out on a tour of either the local Cusco sites, or the Sacred Valley. The tours could be private (just for the group), or public. Tour guides were optional, and there was a premium for english speaking guides.

After speaking to several people about trips, we realised that it was too late to start one today, and so we carried on to the markets. You can see the photos here.

The first market we went to was one of the main ones in Cusco. There were many stalls and a live band. There was also a nearby indoor market which had a selection of clothes and one stall with some watches. Lindsey bought a Louis Vinion (50% authentic!), and Tajel picked up a childrens watch!

We had heard about a “contraband” market, and we had asked around for directions. We went there looking for the type of markets typically found in Turkey, with fake watches and real Lacoste shirts taken from the local factory. Unfortunately our intention was lost in translation, and we ended up in a very different market. At the time we didnt really know, but it turned out that this was an unoffical market that even the locals didn’t go to. Everyone we told about the trip either laughed or gasped about the fact that we had gone there.

What we found was a series of makeshift stalls each trying to sell one of two things. The first was local knittware, the kind found in every other stall. The other group of things for sale were salvaged electrical equipment. At one point I saw a stall selling the circuit boards from a power supply unit from a computer. We didn’t really know who the target was for these sales, as the local electronics scene isn’t particularly massive!

The trip was called short when we realised that the local children were on the hunt for tourists to throw water baloons at. Apparently some of the children were even putting flour in the baloons to make more of a mess. We opted for a tactical retreat, and just made it to the taxi under a barrage of water baloons from a nearby derelict building.

Afterwards we headed back to the square to organise a trip for Sunday, and after eating at Jacks, we had a quiet night in front of the television.