Cuzco

Our group traveled to Cuzco to learn high altitude medicine and see the different tropical diseases of the "high jungle". Course we experienced our own altitude sickness as well jumping from sea level to 11,200 feet in just a one hour flight - thankfully we took medication for prophylaxis and mostly did ok. Cuzco is such a beautiful city which evokes a certain mysterious sense of centuries of untold stories beneath its old stones. Enjoy the following pictures and add Cuzco to your bucket list if you get the chance! I'm so thankful for this opportunity!

 View of Cuzco from the airplane

 Hospital rounds

To read the story of this blue little boy, click here

 Lady now much improved after treatment for an amebic liver abscess (original CT scan below)

Amebic liver abscess

 Cuzco

 Quechua family

 Patient with mucocutaneous leishmaniasis - healed lesion on leg and elbow and collapsed nose with nasal perforation and hoarse voice from mucosal disease. Leishmaniasis is a tropical disease caused by a sandfly bite that can produce very debilitating disease. It seems to be quite common in Peru as we've seen many patients with this condition. 

 Qorikancha - Spanish church built on top of an Incan temple

Note the ruins of the Incan temple below the arches of the Spanish church

Impressive symmetry by the Incas

Thankful for a beautiful afternoon in Cuzco despite the rainy season

Saturday, we enjoyed a day off to visit Machu Pichu - traveling by van, bus, train to get there (didn't have time to hike the Inca trail - maybe another time). Took this train picture for my nephew Sam who loves trains, but actually, we rode in luxury inside. :)

View from the "Vistadome" train window 

Following are pictures of Machu Picchu - the "Lost City of the Incas" - built around 1450A.D. and undiscovered by the Spaniards during their conquest of the region. In fact, it wasn't discovered by an outsider until 1911 - long after it was abandoned by the Incas.

 

 

A friendly (and wet) llama

Several of my Gorgas classmates with our tour guide

We experienced a wide variety of weather as you can tell from our clothing in the pictures, but thankfully enjoyed incredible views throughout the day of both the mountains and the ruins. 

 We weren't the only ones enjoying Machu Picchu :)

 "High Jungle" - we left before the bugs started biting. Sometimes you can know too much about potential tropical diseases! :)

Mountains en route back to Lima