Day 1
I took 2 flights today one from my hometown to Denver then Denver to Panama City. In panama I got my luggage (donations) and took a shuttle to my hotel. This was nerve racking as most vans were unlabeled and everything else was in Spanish which I know none of. The heat and humidity were extreme. I was pouring already. Got yo my hotel which was actually nice but I wasn't brave enough to leave my room until the next morning.
Day 2
Met 9 members of my team in Panama. Customs wasn't a problem, surprisingly. Iquitos is poor with trash on the street and a broad variety of buildings that look uninhabitable. Truly a third world country. The main mode of transportation is motorcycles with 2 back wheels and a bench seat in the back. Many families with little kids are riding around the crazy streets on mopeds and motorcycles. One woman had an infant strapped to her chest while riding. The hostel we're staying at looks like a compound in the middle of the city. Tonight the team pulled out all the donations, separated them and spent hours counting pulls into baggies to hand out at clinic. Our first meal was pizza, surprisingly. Haha. Nice to have though. Tomorrow starts early. I hope I sleep tonight.
Day 3
Spent most of the day in clinic in Iquitos on the outskirts of town (Belin) at a school? Clinic went pretty smoothly. Everyone worked pretty well together surprisingly. We have a great team that works well together. We closed early as it was a Sunday and everyone was at siesta so we weren't busy the last couple of hours. Even so we saw about 270 people. Tomorrow is supposed to be much much busier. Pretty sure I lost about 10# in sweat. Oh holy chafage. Haha. Yay. Tonight we went out to dinner at Kikiriki a chicken @communal restaurant. We had chicken roasted, fried rice, fried plantains, French fries, and "purple corn juice". It was interesting but pretty good. Eating meat not from the USA scares me. I pray I don't get sick from anything. We rode in the little tuk tuk things. It was a hair raising interesting experience. I swear they have no traffic laws here.
Day 4
Had clinic in the same place as yesterday. It was definitely hotter/ more humid today. Was in triage taking vitals again the same as yesterday. Hope to get something different tomorrow. The drove us back to the hostel in an air conditioned bus which seemed excessive when looking at our surroundings. Having a super rough night. Very emotional. Overwhelmed by new everything. Couldn't stop crying tonight at dinner. So embarrassing. Missed seeing the super septic baby. Are you kidding me? Ugh. My passion and expertise. Oh well. We've seen 470 pts in 2 days. Yikes. Great turn out and hopefully we made a difference in someone's life!!
Day 5
Today was a MUCH better day. We took a bus to the Nanay river then took a boat out on the Amazon river to a village called Galleto. The people there are much more reserved. They shut down school for the day and let us use their school for our clinic. There were bats flying all over the place. Freaky. The bathroom required you dumping a bucket in it to flush it. Luckily I didn't have to use it. I worked in pharmacy which was definitely a challenge. Reconstituting things and figuring out dosages was crazy. My brain doesn't work like that. It was stressful but kind of fun. Then we toured part of the town. The people are totally self sufficient and basically live off the land. It's about 1:30 hours from Iquitos by boat. This afternoon people started getting sick. N/v/d mostly diarrhea. The other half of us are constipated. Diarrhea is worse. We'll see how long I hold out. I pray I don't get it. Felt better about myself and my place in the group today. My self esteem is struggling here. I thought I had taught myself that only Gods opinion mattered but I am still having problems with this clearly. This has been a trying trip for me. I feel really self conscious in this setting it's been really hard for me to struggle with this.
Day 6
We drove by bus (with a/c) to Nauta. Clinic was in a church: community center. I was in well clinic which involved me screening, educating, and sending people to the providers if needed. It was ok. The kids are so sweet. Then we drove by motokar (the tuk tuk things) to a hotel. I actually have a private room/ bathroom tonight!! More people got sick last night and today so the team was in rough shape the last two days. One more day of clinic. I'm ready to be done. Amazing experience though. I always feel like we're not doing enough though which is really tough for me. I miss my dogs. I really want to shadow the providers tomorrow. Hopefully that happens. Good experience overall. We had brief moments of wifi tonight. Super exciting. Haha
Day 7
We took a boat about 1 1/2 hours down from Nauta to Nueve de Octobre a village of about 700. I got to shadow, FINALLY. I shadowed Dr. Mark. It was really interesting. We saw a lot of chicken pox, UTIs, and bronchitis, with a couple of interesting cases. When we got back to nauta we took a bus to Iquitos. I got horribly car sick on the way back and we had to pull over so I could puke on the side of the road with 3 buses of people watching. I guess my trip wouldn't have been complete without it. Haha We stayed at a REALLY nice hotel the last two nights. By really nice I mean hot water, water pressure, no fleas, and A/C! It was fabulous! We ate in the hotel that night which was a mistake since we waited about 2 hours for our food. But it was good at least.
Day 8
We slept in...until about 7, then took a surprise walk through the market. Some people are live worms. Then we took a boat on the Amazon to a place where we got to see birds, feed piranhas, fish, and gators. We saw the biggest fish in the Amazon. Then we took another boat ride to an animal sanctuary where we played with monkeys, saw an anaconda (some people held it, not me), held a sloth, and saw other rescue animals. Then we went to a native village with real native people who still live a nomadic lifestyle. They come everyday to a display village and dance for the tourists. We got to dance with them as well. Then everyone bought the crafts they handmade. We then went to a dock and most of the group went swimming. After seeing what was in that water all week and having a heat rash I was terrified would get infected I just stuck my feet in and didn't go all the way in. For dinner we took motokar to a hallway and then walked down the stairs to a dock. A boat came across the water and picked us up to take us to a floating restaurant. The food wasn't great but a fun atmosphere.
Day 9
Woke up super early and took a shuttle to the airport where I flew to Lima then Cuzco. I met Diana at the airport and we took a taxi to our hotel in Cuzco. We walked around the city a little bit. It is a gorgeous city. It's so beautiful it's almost surreal. The architecture is amazing with tons of churches. We passed a parade of some sort with people carrying a huge religious relic. We ate Chinese food for dinner just because. It was pretty good. The migraine from hell hit me this night though. Recipe for disaster between high altitude sickness, stress, lack of sleep, neck pain, possibly MSG, motion sickness with nausea. I ended up taking my one and only shot and nausea medicine. The vomiting with the headache is brutal. I thought we were going to end up at the hospital and miss our train.
Day 10
We took a shuttle van to the train station. I was still do nauseated and horrible feeling I was worried about going but after some sprite and saltines I felt better. Then train ride was about 3 1/2 hours to Aguas Calientes. Beautiful countryside. Very rural with lots of farms. I was surprised by how dessert it is here. I didn't expect it. They even have cactus. It was a pleasant ride luckily. At the end you could see the Andes mountain peaks with snow. Gorgeous country. Much of it reminded me of Colorado or Utah terrain wise. Aguas is an absolutely stunning little tourist town.
Day 11
We woke up really early and ate breakfast in the hotel (big mistake), then stood in line for the buses. I got sick in front of hundreds of people. Go me. The bus ride was twisty which added to the misery. We arrived at Machu Picchu and walked across the complex in the fog. We could barely see the ruins yet. We arrived at the trailhead of Wayna (Huayna) Picchu (Machu Picchu mountain) and hiked up the mountain. It was a very difficult hike with many many stops. I had a rough time especially after being sick. We finally got to the top. Took me about 1 1/2 hours. The top was just a bunch of rocks. When the clouds finally cleared the view was absolutely stunning. I have no words to describe it and pictures do not do it justice! Incredible. We hiked back down and back to the gates where we met out guide, Miguel. We spent about 2 1/2 hours with a guided tour. I was so fatigued and crappy feeling it honestly wasn't very fun for me but was interesting to learn about the Incans. I met my friend, Kim in the ruins (from IMR) and we took the train back. Stairs were a serious trial. We took showers and totally crashed when we got back. I had a migraine that took forever to go away. I'm totally beat.
We had "pizza" tonight with no sauce. It was ok. I haven't had anything on this trip that I felt totally comfortable eating and that tasted really good, unfortunately. Ugh I'm so sick of filtered water.
Day 12
We wandered around town, went to the craft market, bought some souvenirs, and ate lunch today. Then we took the train back to Ollantaya. The train doesn't do round trip so we had to take a shuttle back to Cuzco. This time I took high altitude meds beforehand. We'll see what happens. We didn't get back until after 7 then went and wandered around Cuzco a bit. Most shops are closed though. We ate dessert for dinner and it was GOOD.
Day 13
We got up wicked early to get to the airport and flew to Lima only to find out we can't go to Costa Rica from Peru without our yellow fever vaccine cards. Neither of us brought ours of course. So we changed our tickets and are flying home tonight. Cost me a bucket load but I'm ready to go home. A fourteen hour layover is no Bueno though.
This trip was not everything I ever expected it to be. I struggled. I was super lonely and often felt left out. I thought about not sharing that as I don't want to diminish the experience that it was, but it feels dishonest to leave this part out. I felt as if my part in helping these people was minimal if anything at all. I'm pretty sure I helped no one personally which was not what I set out to accomplish. I'm overwhelmed by home much needed to be done and how much I actually did (or rather didn't do).
I have yet to do another medical mission as I still feel as if the "help" we gave was just a band-aid and my desire to help others is on such a deeper, more meaningful level. I have yet to find a way to serve in the capacity that I want.
I've grown a lot in the past two years of travel nursing with the help of an amazing therapist and some good friends and family! But, this was a part of my journey (a part I'm not particularly fond of, minus some good moments)and I felt the need to include it. When I look at myself now, I see a very different person from the one who went to Peru with a carry-on.
Cuzco
Machu Picchu from the top of Huayna Picchu
Belin
Boat ride of the Amazon (and tributaries)
Pharmacia
My team
Aguas Calientes
