ziplines, kayaks, and a lot of eyes

So it was a weekend full of adventure. Saturday I went to the lake atitlan nature reserve which is located on the other side of the lake. I decided to go with 2 of my co-workers on Saturday as I had the day free since I was post call and had gotten a whopping 3 hours of sleep. We randomly ran into this jewish guy at a cafe here in santiago and took the 12:00 boat out to Panachel. Panachel is one of the more touristy towns and pretty much it is a starting point for ppl who are about to embark on the standard lake atitlan tour of the different towns. Not having much cash on hand we decided to stop at this place called 10quetzals para 3 translating 3 tacos for 10 quetzals (about 1.50 dollars). The tacos were pretty damn good and I went with the recommended option of the hawaiian taco that was in my lonely planet guide book. After lunch we headed out to the nature reserve which was pretty amazing. They had 5 d ziplines at various altitudes where u could speed above with the forest canopy underneath. Pretty kick ass.

Sunday, I decided to go out to the town of San lucas (which was an experience in itself). We took a taxi ride to the town which really wasn't a taxi if u consider hopping on the back of a pick up truck crammed with 10 other ppl and hangin on to dear life. It was pretty fun though.. what can i saw. theres nothing like riding in the back of a pick up truck going at high speeds, wind blowing in your face, light misty rain, and your zipping past the lake and volcanoes among thick foliage of coffee plants and various other lush flora and fauna. At some points, the pick up truck would speed up, as these were points where bandits historically had sabatoged and robbed these pick up truck taxis. In san lucas, we each rented kayaks for the afternoon (about 3 dollars for an hour), and we set off cruising on the lake. Needless to say it was pretty hard as this was my 2nd time kayaking. The waves were pretty choppy and I almost toppled my boat a bunch of times. After 3 hrs of y kayaking, and really really bad sunburn, we headed back which just about killed my arm. I had an awesome time though. def worth checking out again.

Today, we organized a free eye clinic to detect cataracts and pick out patients who needed surgery for cataract removal. Theres a surgeon in town who decided to do these surgeries on Sept 13th. It was a pretty interesting day as I saw a lot of pathology. We had a few patients where u could see corneal pathology with the use of an ophthalmoscope. There were some, were on ophthamological examination you would just see cloudyness with no glimpse into the back of the retina. There was one patient that stuck out in that she was 20 years old with a history of measles that went untreated during her childhood. As part of the sequelae to her infection she developed bilateral corneal abrasions that left her pretty much without vision in both eyes. So pretty much her entire life she has had no vision. Talk about being born at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's pretty sad when u think about how she probably never could go to school, to cook etc, missed out on her childhood secondary to not being able to see. plus u have to add on teh social stigma to ppl with physical disabiliites here as well. The only cure for her is a corneal transplant.. which would allow her to see again. unfortunately the only place where they do corneal transplants thats closest to guatemala is the united states. maybe i'll email some organizations or doctors at musc to see if they would like surgery or maybe assist her in coming to the states so she can get a new corneas. only caveat to docs coming here, is that it would be hard to bring a cornea with them.