As we pulled away from the university some of my friends waved goodbye.  I was having some
trouble seeing.  Here are Gaspar, Heydy, Yessenia, Sunilda, Karen and Ana.

Back at the hotel we said a quick goodbye to the managers, and Enrique at the Internet place, then it
was into the truck and off to Lima.  This was my last look at El Pedregal.

One of my best friends in El Pedregal was this street dog.  He looked for me and I looked for him.

Don Pablo delivering his speech to the assembled students and faculty.
Here is the text in English and in Spanish

This was the official photo that appeared on the certificates.

Names of the Seminar Attendants

Paola Marbel Arellano Cusihuallpa
Yaremí Aragón Silloca
Lily Carola Gallegos Martinez
Yessenia Liliana Picha Torres
Patricia Mabel Tapia Rojas
Richard Nelson Torres Quintanilla
Karen Gutierrez Benavente
Ana Luisa Morales Centeno
Sunilda Ybarguen Panuera
Heydy Socantaipe Murillo
Andrés Justino Huamaní Quispe
Hugo Taype Llamoca
Isabel Condorcahuana Alcasihuincha
Gaspar Saúl Condori Alcasihuincha
Joel Regoberto Cayllahua Cayllahua
Ronald Santiago Leyva Romero
Raúl Revilla Rojas
Edmer Chirinos Meneses
Artemio Concha Cahuana
Yovanna Soledad Chávez Cáceres
Fredy Dávalos Estrada
Leonel Mantilla
Luis José Valdez Rospigliosi

Gaspar Saul Condori Alcasihuincha y yo.

This is Rocio Alayza Camarero, the young lady who has been my official translator for the ET seminar.
Rocio is very capable and she has done a great job with the translations, both spoken and written, but
she also has found many other ways to help us all.  She made the template for the diplomas that each
of the students will receive and she anticipates when extra hands are needed for any purpose.  She and
I and Luis Jose and Alejandra have become good friends during this time.  Rocio has a sunny disposition
and her sense of humor has kept us all laughing, sometimes hysterically.

Searching

Saturday, October 22, we flushed our first alpaca donor and found this beautiful hatched blastocyst,
about half a millimeter in diameter.  Several things went wrong during the flush, but luckily it turned out well.
Yessenia did this first real flush, assisted by Gaspar.  They did an impressive job.  There are so few animals
that were cycling normally that we will only have eleven flushes in all.  At least this good result on the first
flush means we can't be shut out completely.  We transferred this embryo a few hours later (Isabel assisted
by Yovanna) and the whole group gave themselves a spontaneous round of applause.  This is a great result.

The volly ball games are becoming more competitive and I get to play sometimes.  I'll try to show
you a photo of me making a spectacular play eventually, but now there aren't that many.

Yesterday, Friday, I was trying to do a first test of the autoclave and let it run dry.  The reset button
popped out, shutting the unit down but then it wouldn't restart.  I spent most of the aftenoon fiddling
with it before I told Luis Jose about the problem.  I thought he would want to send for a technician
from Lima, but instead he suggested that he and I should take it apart to have a look (my kind of guy).
We found that it had been put together wrong and the external button didn't line up with the reset
switch.  With just a little creative re-engineering he got it fixed and we were back in business.

Each day in the middle of our morning and afternoon sessions the girls from the university cafeteria
bring us a snack of little sandwiches and bottled drinks.  This provides us a very welcome break.

Alejandra oversees the intense practice in passing the cervix with a catheter.  Now everyone
has done it successfully at least once.  Tomorrow will be our first embryo flushes.

This young alpaca female has such a beautiful face I couldn't resist taking her photo.

Some of the students study the breeding records while others prowl through the repro photos
on my computer.

Alejandra had the idea of working with two animals at the same time so more people
could get practice with the palpations.

Sunilda, Heydy y yo.  Two of our ET students.  Check the hands.

Paola looks over the shoulder of the representative of our host, Minera Ares.  This is
Luis Jose Valdez Rospigliosi, a very competent and nice man.

A competitive game of volly ball after our day of work.

Overnight our helpers put up this enormous shade cloth over the llama and alpaca pens.

The name of the town where we are all staying for the ET seminar is El Pedregal (it means "lots of
rocks").  Just below the Hotel sign is the staircase.  I see in the upper right corner of this photo that
this is the Hotel Plaza.  The little pickup truck is our transport to and from the university about 4 miles
away.  The bus transports the students for the seminar, almost all of whom are staying here with us

My Internet guy, Enrique.  He helped me solve several problems so I could send files to our server.
It cost 50 centimos (about 20 cents) to use the computer here for about an hour.  I tipped him an
extra 50 and he thought I had made a mistake and tried to give it back to me.

Practicing rectal palpation.

Carola takes a turn.  This 1000-yard stare is typical when you try to see through your fingertips.

The university cafeteria, where we take all three big meals.  Between meals the staff here
brings a mid-morning and afternoon snack of soft drinks and sandwiches to the lab.

This is the first group photo of the participants in this embryo transfer seminar..  There will be more.

The animals are mostly young alpacas, with a few llama and huarizos included.
We think about 20 more llamas will arrive on Monday.

This is my little shower, with 220v on-demand hot water heater.  This unit delivers steaming hot
water, but it hums and the lights dim.  You have to turn on the water before throwing the switch,
because if you touch anything metal after the juice is on you get a good shock.  I'm not sure this
system would pass inspection back home.

These animals are ready to go back where they came from, about 7 hours away in the high country.
They were pregnant when they arrived here, so couldn't be used in the seminar.

The entrance to the University compound.

The central plaza of the University. Notice the big sunshade.