Surfing at Huanchaco Beach

            Yesterday I visited Huanchaco for the first time with my host family. It is a nice beach only about 30 minutes outside of Trujillo. We went on Christmas day and the beach was packed. Today a large group of the volunteers went to Huanchaco to take surfing lessons.  It was a ton of fun. Apparently we learned from these to brothers who were champion surfers. They had a guarantee where if a customer didn’t ride a single wave they would get their money back. I am happy to say that I didn’t get my S./40 back. After the short 10 min lesson we hit the water. They gave me a push on the first wave and I stood up and rode it. It was pretty fun but I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until I rode a wave all by myself. So after that we started to separate from the group and after multiple failed attempts I finally rode a wave independently which gave me a great sense of accomplishment. Now I'm only hungry for more surfing!

            After surfing, about half of us went to eat ceviche at a beach-front cevicheria. I was excited because I had never had ceviche before and I had desired some since the trip began. I ordered the ceviche con langostinos and calamar, which is essentially langoustines (small shrimp-like lobsters) and squid that is cooked only using the acidity of lime juice. It was spicy and very good.

Later on that evening after going for a nice run through the city, a friend and I decided to shoot some hoops. Some local kids came by and started talking to us and we ended up playing a soccer game against them. BAD IDEA. These little kids tore us up, it was pretty embarrassing and I wouldn’t recommend trying this at home. Although we got schooled, it was a lot of fun and a great chance to practice my Spanish and teach a little English at the same time. Monday is tomorrow and it’s back to work at Hospital Lazarte. Nos Vemos!

Merry Christmas!

Last night we had a traditional Peruvian meal at about 11:00pm with the entire family. We exchanged gifts and just hung out. Christmas day today has been a nice, lazy day. We finally got to sleep in for the first time this trip. I went for a nice run along buenos aires beach, not the most clean or beautiful beach in the world, but it sufficed. We just had lunch which consisted of a delicious chicken with rice, onion, cilantro, and peppers and now we are going to check out Huanchaco beach. It is about 30 minutes away and should be much nicer according to what our host family says. In this photo from left to right is: Ashley, Juhyung, Aida and her mother whom is also named Aida, Javier along with his son also named Javier, their sister Lucia and myself.

Visit to Local Clinic in Otuzco

Today I traveled from Trujillo to Otuzco to see the other volunteers in the program. Otuzco is about 1hr 15min outside of Trujillo and is located in the Andes Mountains. The town is 6000ft above sea level so you can imagine the decreased temperature and oxygen levels. The drive itself was an adventure because even though we asked him to drive slowly he flew the whole time, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, but he eventually got us there safely. When we arrived it became apparent that this was indeed a very rural, poverty-stricken community. Although there is a strong lack of modernization, I think the town and its surroundings are quite beautiful.

My clinical experience today blew my first two days at Hospital Lazarte in Trujillo out of the water! I began volunteering at the maternity hospital in Otuzco, Elpidio Berovides Perez, with three other volunteers, Mirtha, Ian, and Ryan at about 10:00am and finished at about 12:15pm. These two hours were jam-packed with interesting patients. After a couple of common cold symptomatic patients, a 17 year-old patient came in with some type of infectious growth in her ear canal. After cleaning it with iodine and administering Novocain locally, Ryan was given permission to cut it open using a scalpel in order to remove any pus. No stitches were necessary. Mirtha and I then proceeded to clean the hand of another patient whom had nearly completely severed off his thumb and pinky fingers three days before in a work-related accident. A different female patient was then prescribed rabies medication after she entered the clinic covered in cat bites all along her arms and legs. The most interesting part of the morning was when we got to witness a live birth. We were led into a small room where we witnessed a mother give birth to her 5^th child. She was only in labor for about 10 minutes and gave birth to a healthy 4Kg boy on Christmas Eve. It was amazing. During my amazement I was shocked when the doctor told me to take out my camera so that I could take pictures as she went into labor. I have posted pics of the baby but the more graphic pictures will be for only close friends and family since they may be inappropriate to post in this blog. Needless to say, this was the hands-on type of experience I was looking for in Peru.

Free Alarm Clocks!!!

One great thing about Trujillo is you don't need an alarm clock because there are plenty of roosters...

El Progresso and El Centro

I had a ton of fun today. This morning we went to a cooking lesson at the Blue Ribbon International and learned how to make three traditional Peruvian dishes. The first was Papa a la Huancaina, which is a plate of thick-cut potatoes in a yellow chili sauce. The second was Lomo Saltado, which is Peruvian stir-fried beef using beef tenderloin, fresh tomato, onion, garlic, chilies, vinegar and soy sauce. Both of these dishes are delicious. We also learned how to make a very traditional drink known as a Pisco Sour. It has 2.5 oz Pisco with simple syrup, lemon juice, egg white, and bitter angostura.

Later on in the afternoon we went to El Progresso.  This is a part of Trujillo that suffers from extreme poverty. We handed out gifts, food, and hot chocolate. As you can see in the photos, the kids were thrilled to see us. Man, they were relentless but a ton of fun. My buddy Efren dressed up as Santa and you just knew he was gonna get eaten ALIVE, which he did...it was hilarious...like I said, those kids were brutal and relentless. I learned that El Progresso was designed to be an open market when it was constructed a few years ago but the locales whom had no place to live took over. Eventually, the government had no choice but to grant land entitlements to them; when this happens they call it “invacion” which obviously translates into “invasion”. The way these people live is striking, to say the least, and really puts things in perspective. I got a huge dose of gratitude today.

 We just got back from downtown where a few of us ate dinner and checked out the decorations in La Plaza de Armas. All of the Christmas trees are sponsored and decorated by local companies. The Peruvian culture is very interesting and beautiful. Gotta get to bed because tomorrow is our first day of work at our clinics, should be fun and interesting!

Trip from Lima to Trujillo

Wow. It has been a pretty crazy couple of day. I'm goin on about 4-6 hours sleep, total over the past two day so if this post isn't quite coherent please forgive me. Yesterday, we left the district of Mira Flores in Lima for Trujillo by bus. We departed around 9:30pm and it was an 8.5 hour trip. When we arrived our host families picked us up at the bus station at a out 7:00am. All of our host families are super nice and basically awesome people. My host family is comprised of Aida and Javier, along with their two daughters and son, Aida, Lucia and Javier. I will post pics of them later.

After eating breakfast, we rendezvoused with the group and we preceded to go sand-surfing...oh btw, paragliding didn't happen yesterday because wind conditions didn't permit, so me and my buddy Jimmy just walked around the city and beach...Sand-surfing was quite a work out but fun. We also had lunch were we did the surfing, it was the best grilled chicken I've EVER had...seriously, it must have been fresh from the farm because where the dunes were it was very rural. I love all the food so far.

Trujillo is crazy. I've decided Peruvians drive even more insanely than the Mexicans. All you hear are horns cuz thats how they communicate, traffic lights and signs are optional, and taxis are everywhere. The best part is people, especially little kids, are always j-walking and basically weaving traffic, like "frogger" but to the ultimate level.

I'm getting to know the other students in the program and most of them are cool. A bunch of us are already trying to organize our New Year's plan....buuuut I don't wanna jynx it by saying it because you guys saw what happened with the paragliding. 

I would say one of the best parts about this trip so far is the rate at which I feel like my Spanish is improving. Having to speak to my host family for anything and everything, bartering with taxi drivers, and socializing with all the other host families at a little get together where we all met up tonight is giving me the most conversational practice in my life. I really enjoy it. I am looking forward to starting work in our clinics; it should be a really fun experience.

Oh, one last thing, I met this Peruvian guy, Nelson, who is into basketball and sad to say he knew more about the Phoenix Suns than me. He informed me that last week we attained Vince Carter….embarrassing when people from another continent know more about your own local team haha. 

Dragonfly Hostel

Here is just a couple of quick pics of the hostel and the street we're staying on. The hostel is actually pretty accommodating, hot breakfast, hot (warm) water, clean beds...better than I was expecting. 

Buenos Dias

So after getting like, I don't know, 3 hours sleep, I remembered that on the plane last night there was this strange German/American couple who ended up getting pretty belligerent off of a bunch of those airline size bottles of Sutter home. Right across from me was this little lady whom the drunk guy in front of her kept blaming for kneeing the back of his seat; she was so small her knees could not reach at all and I never once witnessed her do ANYTHING. The guy preceded to rock back, effectively slamming his back into his seat so hard that it nearly broke and the lady became frightened. He was dropping the F-bomb and flicking her off-thos of us awake to see this were pretty much in shock. I was thinkin' to myself, "am I really going to have to take down this fat American dude on this plane!?" Anyway, after a few more of his pissy fits and a few chime-in's by his non-english German-speaking wife, their daughter calmed them down....whew, didn't have to start my trip with a fight, thank god.

Well its time for breakfast and then I'm pretty sure it's off to the beach in Lima. So happy we get to spend a full day in the big city AND hit the beach for some paragliding before we head to our homestay locations in Trujillo or Otuzco....I will be in Trujillo (closer to the beach :D). I will try to get some pics.

Bienvenidos a Lima

So after we got to the hostel in Lima, it was first things first: food. We had to go get a torta and check out the nightlife. We walked around a bit and some of the clubs were goin pretty strong and it is about 3:30am here. Pretty tired from the long day of travel, gonna go to bed cuz we got a big day planed for tom; found out at our arrival that we are going paragliding tom! I'll let yall now how it goes! Buenas noches.