Amazonia
Hot. Iquitos is hot. Who would have thought? My face is bright red and I'm exhausted - and all because I spent 5 hours in the field trapsing around with the Proyecto Dengue team, a visiting US Navy Commander and a US Army Colonel. The team were extremely impressive, and I learnt a lot. The two guys that I was stationed with made sure to point out all of the herbal remedies for the various tropical diseases afflicting those in the Amazonian basin. I saw lots of monkeys and parrots, the kids were super-cute, and it was great to be able to stomp into their houses and have a look around (though there were a few shocks - and more than a few illegal plants). I saw a girl with the most shocking varicela; she had pustulous pox all over her, and a secondary infection that caused rivers of purple exude to run down her face.The Commander and the Colonel (both MDs and PhDs) were fascinating, and we spoke of Latin American politics (Peru is abuzz with talk of Hugo Chavez's stronghold on the east and a possible Colombia - Ecuador + Venezuala war), how substandard the American education system is and challenges to medical capacity building in LMEC (I love nerdy talk!). After work we went and watched the Proyecto Dengue lads play football - they were pretty impressive (if you know what I mean)! I am thinking seriously about moving here permanently. I would probably go stir crazy after a while (it's incredibly isolated - a flight to Lima is the only way to get out, other than a 1 week boat trip to the Colombian border), but it's such an unique opportunity. We'll see.