First day at the clinic and sightseeing!

 Our apartment pet Danka. She belongs to the owner of the hostel and we love her!

 Right before bed on our first day. Yeah, it's that cold!

 Clinic ended at 3pm, so we headed to the Chocolate Museum afterwards, aka heaven!

 Monsy enjoying chocolate tea at the Choco Museum.

 Evening in Cusco.

 Best hot chocolate ever. Needless to say, I was exceedingly happy.

 Enjoying the nice sofa and chocolate tea

 In front of Mercado San Pedro.

 Mercado San Pedro.

 Evening in Cusco.

 On our way to dinner at Chez Maggy in the San Blas neighborhood.

 Our gigantic chorizo/margherita pizza at Chez Maggy. It was devoured in about 5 minutes.

 There was a lovely live music band at Chez Maggy.

Dinner-day 2.

Hi readers,

Today was our first day in clinic, and as you can see from the pictures I have a lot to share. First, we slept for over 12 hours last night. We went to bed at 7pm with pretty much all of our sweaters on because it's freezing at night, and woke up at 7am this morning. The altitude and the trip really took a lot out of us. We arrived in clinic at 9am and had a quick meeting with Senora Amparo (the head of the clinic) and Dr. Velasco (one of the doctors in the clinic). After that we went on rounds with the doctors on the different wards. Then we split up. There were five doctors and so we each went with one of them. I'll let my group mates tell you about their experiences.

I spent the entire day in the operating room with Hermana/Sister Alejandra (a nun at the clinic who is also a doctor). It was an amazing experience! There were 5 quick operations, ranging from wound cleanings to foot tumors. Everything was foot related today. Since the clinic is a Catholic institution, they prayed before every operation which I found very moving. I'm Catholic, but my religious beliefs are tenuous at best. Today, however, I felt very proud to be Catholic. The work that these sisters are doing can only be described as God's work. They tend to the poorest of the poor for free. Without them, many of the patients would die. The entire group was very inspired and moved by them. Not to mention that they are kind, funny, wicked smart, and very welcoming. We all felt that this is the way that medicine should be everywhere. It reminded me of my native Cuba, where doctors do amazing things with little in terms of resources.

At 2:30pm we ate lunch at the clinic, generously provided by the sisters. After that we headed to a local tourist hotspot, the Choco Museum. Later we went to visit a large open air market in town, Mercado San Pedro and I even bought some tangerines! Finally, it was back to the apartment (which we will call the Peruvian Igloo from now on) and then to dinner at the pizza place. One thing about showers. Yesterday we figured out that the hot water only lasts for about two quick showers. So we decided to trade off and have two people shower before dinner, and three afterwards. That way everyone can avoid the ice cold showers some of us had to take yesterday!

That's all for now. I'm beat after being in the operating room all day.

Saludos,
Annelys