great weekend!

this weekend i went to tiwanaku on saturday and mountain biked down the world's most dangerous highway on sunday! tiwanaku was really interesting, there are a few sites with incan ruins and a museum with artifacts. in addition, there was some sort of festival in the church plaza and we got to see an awesome parade, so colorful. however, i stuck out like a sore thumb, and was asked if my name was barbie ha! the people in the parade were more interested in taking pictures with the blonde girl than i was in taking pictures of their costumes! we were really in the middle of nowhere in the mountains so i can understand their fascination. in fact, we were so high up i had some sort of reaction to the altitude and my hands BLEW UP. so puffy. i had to take my rings off because i was worried i was going to puff up around them. i guess my body is still adjusting to the altitude.

the world's most dangerous highway was in the top 5 best things of my entire life. it was absolutely breathtaking, just the right amount of an adrenaline rush, went with awesome chill people, ended up in some animal sanctuary and played with monkies and parrots. none of my pictures do the trip justice. and i managed to befriend our tour guide so now i have more people to hang out with bolivia! at some points, the road was 10 ft wide of rough gravel and rocks and to my left was a 600m drop. apparently 2 people have died recently falling over the edge and many people get sent to the hospital. when i signed up for this mountain bike ride i had no idea it was so intense. haha.

clinic wise, this morning i had a rotation at hospital arco-iris (rainbow in english). i did rounds with the medical students porque mi espanol es muy bien :) and then i got to be in the OR for a operación cesárea (cesarean section). the wawa (baby) was muy pequena (small) and had to be immediately whisked away to the pediatric floor. i clearly thought the entire ordeal was beyond cool and would've stayed for 20 hours if i didn't have homework for my medical spanish class.