Who Had 16 Days?

Well only 16 days in and I have already visited a hospital. I suppose I should have continued my Cipro longer but the instructions state to stop when the symptoms subside. Oh well, as the immortal Alanis Morrisette so poetically put it, "you live, you learn". So after writing my last post I returned to Hostel Europa to experience stomach craps and the regurgitation of my desayuno. After several hours sleep interrupted with visits to el baño, I decided I should visit a doctor just to be safe. Feeling like crap for the last 10 days kinda sucked so why not.
Arriving at the hospital I found the emergancy room empty. The only sound was that of a woman on the phone in the next room. So I waited... about 15 minutes later the woman appeared and after giving her the international sign for irregular bowel movements (thanks pepto-bismol commercials!) I was ushered into another room with a doctor.
Now, trying to explain that I have to call my insurance, seguro in case you ever find yourself in the same situation, before receiving any treatment is quite hard with a language barrier. I gathered they we telling me that they don´t deal with insurance companies, but I could not explain that I needed to call them so I would be reimbursed, not them. For those playing the home edition, "reimbursed" is not in the Oxford Spanish Minidictionary. Luckly, Jon, who can speak a fair amount of spanish, showed up and helped sort things out. What was trying to be said was everything was going to cost me less than $20 dollars so calling my insurance was kinda a waste of time. So what do you get for $20 dollars at the Puno Hospital?

1. a tour of the hospital where you first, carry an invoice to the central stores, then carry a bill to the cashier, and finally carry the receipt back to central stores to pick up your newly aquired merchandaise.
2. a comfy bed with blood stained sheets, which I pray were bleached, but then again, should bleached sheets retain their blueness?
3. a rusty tin bed pan for which to deposit your stool sample. That's right Ryan, no fancy sterilized stool sample containers here.
4. a polite, but ungloved, nurse to start your IV session.
5. a hand-written lab report
6. and lastly, a precription for Cephlosporin that can be pickd up at any local Peruvian Pharmacy. I'm a fan of InkaFarm personally.


Getting My Electrolites On

So, all in all, not a completely revolting experiance. When Val, who was also there, inquired to the doctor about the blood stains on the sheets, the doctor gave a wave of dismissal and muttered somthing below his breath, so I'm fairly confident it was all good.

In other news, some people have inquired as to where exactly I am travelling in South America. Well, being the last minute person I am, I have been hesitant to outline an intinery. None the less, here goes a shot at my next few weeks.
- Copacabana
- island of the sun daytrip
- Rurrenabaque
- couple day river/jungle trek (canoe/hiking)
- couple day wet-lands trek (jeep)
- La Paz
- Cochabama?
- Villa Tunari?
- Visit Val doing his volunteering at animal life refuge
- Surce
- Potosi
- Uyuni
- 3 or 4 day jeep trek in the Salar de Uyuni

Obviously I am gunna have to cut some out to get it all in so we'll see... later for now...