For every reason you think of to stay safely at home and to not visit Peru, I hope I already gave you others that will change your mind. In case you missed my two previous articles about this beautiful country, I recommend you to read the one about 

my experience at the hospital and the excursion to Colca Canyon

About those reasons though, I think you’ll be persuaded to go by the end of this article. It’s the last one about my stay in South America, the most memorable combo vacation/internship ever. Obviously, any report about a trip to Peru would be totally 

 without shared thoughts and experiences about this Wonder of the World. I will now introduce you to the beauty of 

 we had a 10 hour overnight bus drive from Arequipa with 

 This is a highly reliable bus company, you won’t experience any problems with them. I’m giving you the recommendation because you should be very aware of which bus company to choose for your excursions. In Peru, fatal accidents with busses are everyday occurences because of untrustworthy companies or drivers, particularly in Winter!

Anyway, at our place in Cuzco the first thing we did was taking a long, hot shower. In Arequipa we were forced to shower in ice cold water so you can imagine how happy we were. It’s a moment you regret to take little things like hot showers for granted!

. These are two archeological sites, dating from 

 times. We were impressed by both because of the incredible views! Near The Sacred Valley we visited a little town, where two ladies demonstrated how they color the alpaca wool with natural ingredients. Really awesome to see!

 In a little van, we drove all the way up to over 2000 meters through the Andes and Amazon forest (where I drove myself for a while, such a cool experience!). I must say that the road to Machu Picchu is almost as spectacular as the monument itself. We stopped several times to take photos of the misty Andes.

After a boring dinner (chicken instead of pizza or something, 

), we had a short night’s rest. We were more than ready for the climax of our Peruvian adventure! There are several organised trails and treks to Machu Picchu such as 

. Unfortunately us girls were too late to book one of these so we got there by train. I must admit that after all, it was the best option for us haha!

“And welcome ladies, to Machu Picchu”

, said Daniël. I remember like it was yesterday, how he stepped aside when he spoke those words to give us a first glimpse of the huge site. This was what we had been looking forward to so much! For once, rumours are so right: it’s even more impressive in real life. It’s hard to believe that the Inca’s built it at such great height with stones that weren’t even there. Yet proof there is. Machu Picchu’s purpose will forever be a mystery. Probably it served as some sort of sacred place to be closer to the Gods and have better connection with them this way. It was a place to simmer down and find peace within yourself. A bit like yoga schools nowadays, how cool is that?!

Sad to leave after walking through the site, we got down again by following the train tracks. A hike of 3 hours long, just a matter of feeling sporty after all! It had been a long day, so Daniël proposed to go to 

 together. Aguas Calientes are natural hotsprings, not far from Machu Picchu. The water was nice and warm, stimulating our muscles and whole body to recover. Unfortunately, the fun was short-lived. Once we got out of the water our legs and bums started to itch like hell. Only the day after, the nasty bites showed up all over our bodies. While scratching for several days, we wondered wether the many mosquitos or hot spring parasites were responsible for this. Until today that question stays unanswered, luckily the spots have faded!

In my opinion this was our most memorable and fun excursion of all three. Secretly I’m hoping that one day I can go back to Machu Picchu and show my companions what I saw many years before. Knowing that my eyes will sparkle the same way, sincerely, as they did the first time.

To end this series of posts about Peru, I’d like to share a thought from Daniël with you. His intentions were to inspire us on our trip together and make us familiar with the Peruvian way of life, but also way of thinking. We will carry it with us for the rest of our lives:

“While you have the beauty of your eyes still open, enjoy as much as you can. Because when you will die, you’ll have time to sleep and rest forever”

The Road To Machu Picchu

As promised last week when I told you about my adventures in hospital Goyeneche and Colca Canyon, today I’ll be discussing another excursion we did. Colca Canyon was the last excursion we did before catching the plane back to Europe *sad face*. But what about our two other adventurous journeys?

Well, our very first weekend trip, right after Spanish class, was one to 

. A particularly poor and everything but beautiful town, about 6 hours away by bus from our safe haven in Arequipa. My friends and me met a Dutch girl that was also staying at our house and doing the internship, and we got along very well. So that’s why she hopped on the night bus to Puno, together with the rest of us. The set-up of this nocturne: visiting the famous Titicaca lake, the great water between Peru and Bolivia. Because in contrast to the town that it surrounds, the lake is beyond any kind of beautiful I’ve ever seen, without exaggerating!

Since our boat tour started at 7 in the morning, but our bus arrived at the terminal at 4 am already, we were ought to kill three horrendous hours of time. We found no better solution than just lying on the ground and trying to sleep, wrapped up in thick hiking jackets and blankets, waiting for the minutes to pass. God, I can’t even describe how cold we were back then! It’s the only bummer of the trip I can come up with. Anyway, having experienced it first-hand, we now know what it is to be homeless. Let’s conclude that it pretty sucks. Luckily, once we got on the boat and got a glimpse of the lake, we forgot about our 

 and enjoyed our little get-away for the rest of the weekend.

, where people actually live. They wear traditional, colorful clothing and have solar panels to provide them of light in their cabins. You’d think they must be real primitives but I’m sure they must know a lot of ‘the mainland out there’, since their biggest source of income is tourism. We were approached by some cute kids to show us the handmade carpets, bracelets and all kinds of textiles, hoping that we were potential buyers. I really loved to see how these people sort things out their way. Afterwards we took a ride on some sort of 

 and set sail to the next island where we would stay until the next day: 

Amantani wasn’t floating at all, it was a mainstream island. But not the boring kind of mainstream you’d expect! We introduced ourselves to a local woman who would lead us to her house, where we would spend the night with her family. She made the most delicious quinoa soup (they grow quinoa here!) for us so we would regain forces for our next task: hiking up the hill all the way to 

, or in more understandable means ‘temple of Father Earth’.

And that was way harder than I initially thought it would be. Lake Titicaca is the world’s highest navigable lake with a surface height of almost 4000 meters. I think it didn’t even took a minute for the dyspnea to kick in while we were marching uphill. The thin air caused our longs to hurt with every breath and our hearts beated terrifyingly fast with the slightest effort. Just chewing some coca leaves (they serve for better tolerating the height and getting energy) wouldn’t help us now. We fought our exhaustion and were so proud when we finally reached the top. Together we watched the most beautiful sunset ever at the temple’s foot and went all the way down to our repective families to enjoy dinner. One of the things about Peru that struck me the most is that how poor the people may be, they will always stay generous and share everything with you. I only realised this the moment we got a double bed for each of us while the family members themselves slept in a tiny room all together. Also at the dining table, they offered us their chairs and table while they chose to eat on wooden blocks on the ground.

The next morning we said goodbye to our host family and continued our journey to the last island, 

. After again, a little hike, we visited a UNESCO world heritage market and had rainbow trout for lunch with the most amazing view. An old Peruvian man took advantage of the opportunity to play some tunes on his banjo and to demonstrate how the locals make ecological shampoo from plants. We had so much fun, but unfortunately all good things come to an end. It was time to go home to Arequipa!

So guys, enjoy the pictures I made on this one of a kind trip! They are -apart from those I took at Machu Picchu and the way to it- my favorites from the Peru collection. Have you already been to Lago Titicaca? I’d love to share experiences.

Lago Titicaca: The Most Magical Excursion

I guess it has been quite obvious that last month I hung out in no other place than South America’s 

. Together with two girls from college I did a medical elective in a town called 

. The organisation that makes all of this possible is 

, which is UK based. They organise electives for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursery and midwifery students in Africa, Asia and South America. After hesitating whether we’d apply for an internship in the Philippines or in Peru, we finally made a decision and went for Peru!

There was one barrier though. A language barrier. It was necessary to follow a five day intensive Spanish course before our placement would start, since practically nobody speaks English in Peru, except for some young interns at the hospital. When we applied for the elective we weren’t really worried about our lack of Spanish skills to be a problem, and just followed our 

 programmed minds. Anyway, I must admit that with our take off to Peru coming closer and closer, we began to think more and more about the 

 (an app to learn Spanish step by step) on our iPhones, but that’s when realisation kicked in. We would never ever master the Spanish language before our intensive course would start!

Luckily, on our first day we noticed that our teachers were really friendly and patient. We learned that actually no one speaks a word or really few Spanish before their arrival in Peru! You can imagine our relief. Each day we came home to the Work The World house with our housemates, we were so exhausted. Spanish was digging holes in our brains to stock all knowledge we built up during those five days. I was surprised by how quickly we adapted to the language. Afterwards it was getting easier and easier to understand Spanish speaking people. And yup, it was finally possible to make ourselves clear by the time we started the placement!

I initially chose for a placement on the 

 department, but from day 2 on I decided to go have a look at different departments also. Why? Because first of all, sometimes I had the feeling that -however I’m a proactive and spontaneous person, an absolute MUST for the placement- the staff I followed did not always like to teach me something. It happened several times that they wouldn’t let me do something that I had hoped for to do while my internship there. Some doctors but also nurses preferred to do something theirselves instead of letting me help them in order that I would learn and improve the skills I had obtained during internships in Belgium. Luckily, not everyone in the hospital shared that kind of mindset, and in time I found the right people to follow that actually DO wanted to tutor/show me. I did rounds on gynaecology and helped whenever I could, watched some echo’s, deliveries and a cesarian. In other words, I went on a hunt for the interesting cases. Afterwards I went to the operation room every day, and during my second week of placement I also visited the emergency department where my friends were placed.

We spent our day at the hospital every day from 8 am to 1 pm, afterwards we went into town for drinks or sightseeing together with the other housemates. The thing I like about Work The World is that there is room enough during your stay to do some trips or to get lost in town, because you can go to the hospital whenever you like and as long as you want to. Even at night!

I listed some restaurants and bars that are worth a visit when in Arequipa.

: cosy chocolate bar. Try their banana-chocolate smoothie or the good old hot chocolate. You can also follow workshops to make chocolate here!

: two great rooftop restaurants located in the same street.

: NOT A MUSEUM haha, I entered the establishment saying that ‘we would like to do the tour’. You should have seen their faces! You can taste Pisco (typical peruvian alcohol, similar to tequila) here anyway if you ask them. Beautiful café with the possibility of eating tapas.

The perfect words to describe my time in Peru are definitely 

 It’s true that I had hoped for a more practical-related learning at the hospital, I’m not going to lie about it. But however, I think that I got something in return that is way more important in life: I got to see with my own eyes how health care is like on the other side of the world. I saw how doctors, nurses, midwifes and med students like me gave their all trying to heal people, even though they don’t always have the high tech equipment we ought to be normal and basic. Sometimes I talked with the patients about their anxieties and their hope for the future. It’s something that I could only imagine myself by watching movies or documentaries. But 

 is far from the things you see on television, lying in the couch. So yes, I did learn a lot and I grew as a person. I won’t say the whole Peru thing massively changed my life but I definitely became a slightly other girl than I was before. I don’t know why, it’s hard to explain. Maybe I see things differently right now.

And if they’d ask me if I’d do it all over again, knowing what I know now? I wouldn’t hesitate a second. These are the once in a lifetime chances we should take!

Now that I told you something more about my placement and experience with WTW, I’d like to take you with me on one of the weekend excursions we did! We did three in total: 

. I’ll tell you something more about the first two in the upcoming weeks, can’t wait to show you the beautiful pictures we shot!

Colca Canyon is the 2nd largest canyon in the world. You can go hiking in it from the top to the bottom and back, but it was our last weekend in Peru and we were too lazy for that, 

. Instead, we did a tour with stops in several little villages around the canyon. On the way, llamas and other animals walked freely around so ofcourse we stopped to take some pics! We slept in a -shitty- hotel that night without warm water or heating, so when we woke up we were not in a really good mood. On the program that day: spotting condors flying over the canyon! We were hoping for the best since we heard it’s possible we wouldn’t even get a glimpse of them. Luckily the odds were in our favour: I think we saw at least 20!

This canyon is really a must-do when in the neighbourhood of Arequipa. It’s not that far by bus (3,5 hours) and definitely worth it, but if you’re in a good condition I would recommend you the hike instead of a guided tour. It’s gonna be way more memorable!

Enjoy the pictures and I’ll be back soon with parts II and III of my South American adventure.

South-America

Nov 06, 2016

Oct 23, 2016

Oct 10, 2016

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