Iquitos

The two things I consistently heard about Iquitos when I mentioned I was going there next:
1. The girls are really hot there and they will try to put pills in your drink and rob you.
2. The weather is really hot.

So far I've avoided being robbed, but everything else seems pretty accurate.

Iquitos definitely has its own personality, but also has a lot in common with your typical South American city. Instead of taxis, here they have motos, 3 wheel vehicles with a covered seat behind for passengers. It feels more touristy than Huancayo and it's much more common to see gringos walking the streets. The locals are a little more forward here and I made a couple of new friends my first night in town who were supposedly just wanting to practice their English. Who knows. It's also much more common to get hit up by beggars, disabled folks and hungry street kids. I try to help when I can but sometimes there are just too many. No clue how Jesus did it...

Cool random fact: about 5 hours away on the river is the leper colony where Che Guvara hung out in Motorcycle Diaries. I thought about going there, but apparently no one lives there anymore.

(warning, it gets gross here. no, really.)
The hospital here is great. Rounds in the morning are very educational and the cases are fascinating. I can add to my repertoire now dengue, malaria, leptospirosis, TB (with and without HIV) as well as your garden variety parasite infections. I also saw probably the most interesting/grossest case of an acute abdomen and surgery that I've ever seen. This guy came in with peritoneal signs and was taken to the OR for presumed appendicitis. Turns out he had an intestinal perforation in the duodenum... from an ascaris... that they found swimming in his abdominal cavity with a buddy. Apparently it's not unheard of, but quite rare. Also ran into a French fellow who was being seen for leishmaniasis and is here as part of a sanitation project for Belen, the floating shanty town a few blocks from my hotel. He was quite a character and we may run into him again to see what he's working on.

I was reading about leptospirosis on UpToDate today and found that the major study on the topic was actually done here in Iquitos. Random. Speaking of research, the two other white folks at the hospital here are doing some cool projects. One is researching malaria transmission from humans to mosquitoes in hopes of finding a vaccine and the other is researching tropical skin infections. She has a lab set up to do cultures and sensitivies and it was kinda fun to see how all that stuff works. It's usually just something that gets ordered and forgotten until the results come back. It's quite a process though.

Tomorrow is match day. I'm kind of excited needless to say, and have spent some good quality time hanging out with God today in preparation. It's all in His hands!