Well, I finished a great week in Arequipa. It was quite a different experience than Lima.
People from other hospitals had been invited to my "course". There was about 25 people all together. This included the therapist, the students that were there and also the rehab medicine doctors.
Patients had been cancelled between 9am and 1pm and this was the time I had to teach. Everyone was very receptive and would come back the next morning with stories about how well some of the teachniques they had learned had worked on their patients...as they all went off to see patients for the afternoon.
Much of the time was practical sessions and everyone enjoyed having a go at doing PAs on my spine! Manual therapy for the spine is an area they are craving for so they were all grateful to learn some assessment and treatment techniques.
As this was set up as more of a course, I did not get the same opportunity to see patients like I did in Lima. I did see one lady with a very stiff and painful shoulder...that she had had for the last 3 years. On exam it was apparent that she had a nerve palsy to the upper fibres of trapezius...as a result of incicions that were made at the back of her neck when she had plastic surgery 3 years earlier....a good reason to skip the plastic surgery! I was still able to mobilise the stiff shoulder and advised on some motor retraining exercises.
The last day I was there, lunch was brought in for everyone and we had a party! Hugs all around and everyone wanted pictures.
They found out that I liked dancing, so on Friday night a few of them took me out Salsa dancing....it was awesome...although my hips hurt for the next two days and I had sore leg muscles!
The team at the hosting hospital
The woman to my right is Tania. She is a peadiatric physio and was my main contact for the week. The rest are the students she was responsible for. The two girls on the far right of each row could speak some english so were my translators for the week.
On the last Friday afternoon, I went to Santa Catalina with a friend of someone I know in Canberra. He is Swiss, but had lived in Arequipa for 25 years. He was a great tour guide. This old nunnery was like a self contained city as the nuns were never allowed to go outside the walls or have contact with other people. It was a beautiful place...but I am not sure that I could live there for 60 to 70 years as some of them did. It had streets and avenues, bath houses, kitchens, clothes washing areas...everything you needed.
One of the cells or rooms where a nun would have lived.
Then it was off to Cusco...the sacred Inca city.
This is the famous cathedral in the main square or Plaza de Armas
Flower stall at one of the city markets
Cusco is surrounded by hills and there are many narrow steep hills to negotiate.
Every Sunday there is a religious procession, but for this one it was extra special. Groups had come from all over the southern region of Peru to participate. There was a grand procession and everyone was dressed in costumes...an amazing sight.
Girls dressed in cosutme carrying baby lambs with them. Very cute and of course were happy accept a donation for having their picture taken.
I took a tour around the city to see the local ruins and important sights. Amazing to see how they built these walls. The corner stones are estimated to be 25 tonnes! This civilisation did not use a pulley, but rolled the stones on logs and used incline planes to get them to where they wanted them. They cut the stones into smaller pieces by making holes and filling them with water. At night the water would freeze, expand and then crack the rock!
Sacred Inca temple sight with view of Cusco in the background.
View of the Plaza de Armas from the lookout.
Burrows.
This is a view of the Valley and part of the Inca trail. It leads from the sacred city of Cusco to Machu Picchu and beyond.
There a few dogs around, but most of them look well cared for and are friendly.
Off to Machu Picchu tomorrow..stayed tuned!
