Day 607: Our trip to Manu National Park

We spent seven days traveling through Manu National Park. It was an amazing adventure that took us from 4,000m to nearly sea level, deep in the lowland tropical rainforest. We observed tons of wildlife, including almost 200 species of birds (of the 1,000), a half-dozen species of monkeys, white-lipped peccaries (kind of like a wild boar) and caimans (alligator cousins). It was a great treat to visit this beautiful part of the world.

Andean Cock-of-th-Rock displaying in a lek for potential female mates

this is a male white-chinned sapphire hummingbird

this is a white caiman submerging its body in the Manu River

these are white winged swallows

Hoatzin in flight; this bird is a vegetarian, eating leaves full-time - totally weird and awesome!

Our group de-boating and preparing to enter the dense tropical forest to look for monkeys.
a typical tropical tree

Day 603: Our Family Trip to Cuzco... Land of the Inca

This is the famous rock wall!



Here we are in Cuzco's Plaza de Armas.

Day 597: The Bixby-Kane Family Reunion in Peru

In the Blue Room...
With the kids up in Cayoc after a long hike to Armapampa...

On our way to Armapampa with beautiful Huandoy in the distance...

On a hike up above Musho on Mae and Cole's first full day in Musho...

In the blue room...

Outside our house in Musho...

Day 596: First Aid Course with Health Promoters

With the expertise of visiting medic Mark Bixby (Lib's pop), we offered two short first aid courses to adult and youth health promoters, as well as a few local health post staff. The best part were the simulations of real accidents where participants had to apply the skills they had just learned.

Here we are in the Health Post giving our introductory Power Point... The course included about 4 hours of classroom material and 6 hours of simulations.



Here Rosa and Miriam are examining the "bleeding" leg of Elsa... in the simulation Elsa was pretending to have been hit by a drunk driver in the shin, resulting in heavy bleeding and requiring that her "First Responders" apply well-aimed, direct pressure to the wound and continuously check her distal circulation and movement.

Our friend Edgar (our number 1 English student) fills out a SOAP note on his victim... Norma was pretending to have fallen off the roof when the drunk driver crashed into her ladder. She was discovered "unconscious" at the scene of the "accident."

Here the youth health promoters examine the "drunk driver" who had died on impact after being thrown 5 meters from his taxi after crashing into the ladder. The First Responders had to first assess scene safety, then check the major body systems (circulatory, respiratory and nervous) to determine a methodology for treatment. This patient was unconscious, had no pulse, and no respirations upon discovery.