I really haven't been here a day yet. I got in late last night...the flight arrived at 11. I left the airport after 1 and got in bed after 2.
I sat next to a 6 foot tall Polynesian Mormon chick on a medical school spring break trip on the plane. Her and her classmates kept asking each other all the countries and their capitals to show off their smartness, while somehow working in med school tech terms like bilirubin, polytrisomethingsomething, and histrionic disorder (I had to look it up to see what it was).
I did really well at the world trivia. I think they were impressed. I forgot to mention that I had been to all the places.
They were going to Iquitos....which is supposedly the largest city in the world not accessible by road. Boat or car is the only way in. Its is at the end of one of the Amazon tributaries. Apparantly malaria is really endemic there. (I didn't fill my prescription so I'm staying away from the Amazon basin I think)
She told me to come visit. I told her there might be a reason it isn't accessible by road. "Obviously there is no big demand to get there. I think maybe that says something about the place. Good luck though."
Then she got out her medical bag to "get some practice", since they were going to help the community with basic medical care. You know those lighted gadgets that doctors use to look into your ear? Well, she took one of those out and looked at it like she'd never seen it before, then started pressing all the buttons, then turned to her classmates sitting behind her and asked them how to turn the light on.....
Me: Haven't gotten to that chapter yet huh?
Her: (no response)
Med: This is your first year of med school huh?
Her: Yes. (smiling)
Me: Can I give you some advice?
Her: (waiting)
Me (dead serious): Never, ever, do that in front of a patient.
Immigration was easy. I thought they might give me some trouble because I don't have any free pages in my passport. Some visas take up a whole page and immigration can be really strict if they are in a bad mood.
I remember once in the Philippines (I think it was the Philippines) there was an entrance tax of 11 dollars, payable only in dollars. I had a ten dollar bill and enough change to make 11.
Me: What if you don't have 11 dollars?
Aduana: You have to have 11 dollars.
Me: Can you pay in Pesos?
Aduana: No.
Me: There is no cash machine or currency exchange here. If you can't enter the country without 11 dollars and access to the money is outside the airport (which you can't get to)....what happens to the folks who can't pay? Do you have a room full of foreigners somewhere around here where they all just sit huddled together, without food or luggage, clutching a return ticket and wallet-full of credit cards.....waiting for 11 dollars to materialize from thin air?
(I didn't actually say it so eloquently....but I did say something to that effect).
Aduana: Here is your receipt.....Next please.
I had forgotten the sheer novelty factor of travel.
Posted by kelliottdykes at March 20, 2005 01:16 PM