[EDIT: here is the blog we will update with pictures and video as we travel: http://www.scarlettvisionmedia.com/blog]
[EDIT: Now a week away, any more advice on things to see or bring??]
Lima, Peru (aka parasite-town apparently) and i’m going backpacking around South America with a couple friends.
Any suggestions? Places to go? Things to bring? What to watch out for?
We’ll probably spend a good amount of time in Peru, and hopefully hit up Columbia, Bolivia, and possibly make our way up to Panama and cross the Panama canal.
60 Comments
jimmyheartcore said 6 months ago
Look out for Botflies
MadeByMAS said 6 months ago
man Im jealous, have fun man!
Randomentity said 6 months ago
Drink some yage!
njonas said 6 months ago
yage? what is that? botflies? what???
i am clearly unprepared
AndrewOliv said 6 months ago
watch out for the gypsies.
Randomentity said 6 months ago
yage, aka Ayahuasca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yage
Aniast said 6 months ago
Don’t worry to much about botflies. If you get one go see the medicine man. They will put some sap over it so the larva starts to suffocate and will emerge early. Or you can let it grow into the fly, I hear it hurts pretty bad when they come out, I know a couple of people who have gotten them.
jaynajaynajayna said 6 months ago
hahahaha I was totally going to say find them shamans and hit them up for some ayahuasca. They seem like pretty cool dudes and talk to plants and stuff.
njonas said 6 months ago
jesus that sounds awful
Aniast said 6 months ago
There’s nothing you can do to stop it from happening. I know people that have done it intentionally. I also know people who kept their own fleas and lice on their arm hair in a little cage. That was pretty gross.
Cole said 6 months ago
what the hell nick, you are fucking weird.
Hays said 6 months ago
!hahah
Aniast said 6 months ago
I know. That’s what happens when you do research in the tropics and take a shit-ton of entomology classes.
Randomentity said 6 months ago
we are so awesome, sure you don’t want to be my emptees girlfriend?
Aniast said 6 months ago
what you need to really watch out for are screw worms and hook worms.
Randomentity said 6 months ago
about those screw worms : The Cochliomyia hominivorax larvae will dive head-first into whatever food source is nearest, and burrow deeper, eating into live flesh if available. This results in a pocket-like lesion that causes severe pain to the host.
yeah, going to south america and hiking sounds like a great idea....
greggrillo said 6 months ago
Kinda how a "botworm" is removed
http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/139414/amazing___live_maggot_in_womans_head.swf"
Aniast said 6 months ago
One of my TA’s was telling me about his friend who got screw worms of the sack. You have to pop them out like you’re popping zits.
Hybrid said 6 months ago
I’ve got... TWO TICKETS TO PARAAADISE!
Randomentity said 6 months ago
i don’t know which is more disgusting...
i hate you both.
Aniast said 6 months ago
One of my friends found her bot fly when she got back. She had surgery to have it removed instead of suffocating it out.
Cole said 6 months ago
'tanyas maggot is now history'
Randomentity said 6 months ago
This thread’s title should be changed to "Just bought a one-ticket to parasite-town"
njonas said 6 months ago
haha what the hell, are there any good aspects to doing this trip?!
is there anything I can do to avoid these hook/screw worms? I know i’ll probably have to take a series of vaccines before I go into certain countries, but other than that, any preventative measures other than just watching what i eat?
Hybrid said 6 months ago
Sell your ticket?
That would work.
Cole said 6 months ago
roll around in the dirt and mud whenever possible. it will form a maggot-shield around your body.
and drink the water. if the locals do it, so can you! us Americans are invincible.
njonas said 6 months ago
well i thought i was invincible until i started this thread
heavyprints said 6 months ago
The wikipedia article said that the Botflies don’t affect a large enough percentage of people to be a big deal. Something to that extent, anyway. I think you should have a relatively good time.
If you’re worried bring a big ass jug of DEET. Haha.
Randomentity said 6 months ago
hahaha
is that shit even legal anymore???
and i mean, yeah, you should be alright, just watch out for cannibals.
Cole said 6 months ago
keep an eye out for cannabis too
heavyprints said 6 months ago
And Cartels.
Randomentity said 6 months ago
and black market organ harvesters.
Cole said 6 months ago
bring me back a kilo of 100% columbian cocain. we can get rich.
andrE w. said 6 months ago
we could cut that into like 3 kilos of really good cocaine, thats moneyy
sittingduck said 6 months ago
make sure you drive around in a brand new 1979 beetle too.
heavyprints said 6 months ago
I saw Denzel Washington do it one time. No shit. He got rich.
jaynajaynajayna said 6 months ago
are you... are you a lady?
Aniast said 6 months ago
the dude that got sack screw worm was an entomologist, so he was probably doing some things with insects that are slightly unnatural and probably in some pretty remote places.
heavyprints said 6 months ago
lol 'Unnatural' 'Sack Screw Worm' 'Remote Places'
That is full of win.
Aniast said 6 months ago
Entomologists are fucking crazy.
Randomentity said 6 months ago
i fixed it for you.
ummm no...
Ben Danger said 6 months ago
My friend Sam went to south africa last summer and went through the gnarliest shit I have ever heard of and after reading his account, I didn’t even want to leave the house. Here it is for your review. Have fun on your trip!
Well, here it is. Not for the faint of heart. This may be graphic at times and is the account of September Vacation to the beautiful country of Mozambique, of which I will return to and settle up on unfinished business…..
Keep in mind all of the communication is incredible rough as they speak Portuguese and I was only able to speak Spanish. So most of the interpretations are from hand gestures and significant words that were able to be exchanged.
Here I am, sitting in the back of the bus, hangin out, counting down the less than 4 hours left until Tofo. Apparently a MiniBus driver in front of us abruptly stops, the bus driver slams on the breaks, all go flying forward, and I manage to catch the top of the seat in front of me just in the lower left abdomen. Its 4:30 pm. No one else even breaks a nail.
We get to the Xai Xai hospital just before 5 and proceed in. I lay on the wooden waiting bench while Ollie and Alex go to sort out where I need to go to get the process started. We make our way into the reception office, which turns out to be the first location of diagnosis. The lady behind the desks tells me to lean forward in my chair and proceeds to violently punch my in the back left and right. I cringe in pain. She looks at us and tells me that I don’t have malaria and to go. I was sure of that as well and after long and rough conversation, it is made clear that I need to see someone else. We are then led to a room with 6 or 7 empty beds. I lay on one and we are in there for 3 or so hours without anyone coming. Finally 2 nurses covered in masks and gloves wheel and bed in containing a man, laying in the fetal position, clearly unconscious and sucking thru and IV bag. They put him in the room and leave. We have no idea what is going on, but just sit there.
Finally a well dressed, professional looking man comes in and speaks Spanish to me (it turns out that he was trained in Cuba). I make it clear to him that I had an impact to my spleen/rib area and he says that someone will be right in to do X-Rays. This guy was awesome, really nice, and seemed to be the one running the hospital. About an hour later (we have now been there for about 5 hrs) he comes back and asks if anyone has taken X-Rays. I say no, I haven’t seen anyone since him. He gets pissed, finds a nurse who takes me thru the hospital to the X-Ray room. She is clearly pissed because she has to unlock 12 doors to get there. I get the X-Rays, go back and have to go to the bathroom. I walk in and notice that there is no toilet paper. A nurse is standing there, so I ask for toilet paper. She looks at me as if I am from Mars. Paper towels? Again the look.
Back in the room, the Cuban guy comes back to check the X-Rays. Nothing broken, as I had figured. At this point my stomach is incredibly swollen and I have been having symptoms uncannily like the first spleen rupture. The Cuban man looks slightly angry, leaves, and comes back with the original receptionist who said I didn’t have Malaria. There is a bit of chaos as he is calling her stupid for not listening to me. She starts tapping on my abdomen, and again I cringe. As I cringe, she jabs me with her two fingers right in the spleen area and storms out of the room.
Next, a tall man with a large belly and Hawaiian shirt comes in. We find out that he is the specialist on call for the night. Thru all of this, Sean (in the room in Mozambique with me) and Quinton (back in Cape Town) have been trying to coordinate with various insurance groups and Medivac groups to get me out of there. Eventually the American insurance group gets a Portuguese translator and American Doctor on the phone and they explain to the Mozambiquian specialist how to test to see if I am bleeding internally. This basically consists of sticking a large needle into my stomach and watching the blood squirt out. The specialist (Dr. Mtubmba) makes a motion with his first two fingers in a scissor like manner, and then follows it up by a chopping motion like using a machete. I know that this means surgery.
Now I have to call my parents, who I couldn’t have called early as they were in the funeral service for my Gramma. It is about 11:30 pm in Moz. I tell them I am going into surgery in Mozambique, and hang up. It’s a very uncanny conversation. I am honestly very skeptical that I will live thru this. Thoughts of death and family and friends fill my mind.
I take everything off, get good luck bids from Ollie and Sean and get wheeled into the Operating Room, which instantly smells exactly like a slaughter house. Off to a good start. I get onto the table and they proceed to strap my arms down so I look like I’m on a crucifix. It takes them a few tries to finally get me Anesthetized, and lights out.
Surgery was supposed to be less than an hour. I went in at about 12:30 ish. Ollie and Sean are waiting on the wooden benches and have both fallen asleep. At 2am, the power goes out in the hospital. 2:15 still pitch black as a bed with a covered up something gets wheeled by them. They are speechless, and have no idea if its me. 2:30 still no power. Eventually they finish me up with (I am guessing) the 2 ft portable fluorescent light that they would bring around in later nights when the power went out during medicine distribution time.
Post surgery I am infomed that I had 3 liters of blood in my abdomen. Had I listened to the doctors originally and gotten back on the bus headed to Tofo, I would have died. That would have made for an akward trip for the rest of the group.
I wake up in a room (apparently was the second room I had been in….no recollection of being in the first one) with about 8 other patients, most with IV’s, but illness unknown. There are really no nurses or anyone around to take care of the patients or change empty IV’s on time, so sometimes you would go for hours with an empty IV above your head. My mouth is incredibly dry so Sean, Joel, and Sly bring me some water later in the day. I drink a bit. Mtbumba comes in to check on me and sees that I have drank water. He gets real pissed. They then attempt to insert a catheter the size of a garden hose in me. I say “Lo siento, pero soy blanco”. The other patients (all guys) get a real good chuckle out of that one. Making friends. They come back and jam a catheter in me and just rap it up in medical tape, not really securing it to anything. And it leaks everywhere - all over my bed. They tell me that is normal.
They then come with another tube, take my pillow away and shove the tube up my nose. It starts going down my throat (turns out to be a stomach pump) and I gag a bunch. It then gets looped in the depths of my throat and I can feel it bunched up. I try to tell them in between fits of gagging but as I try to talk it makes me gag more. The nurse has her had firmly on the tube and is not taking it out. So I start to throw up violently all over myself while laying on my back. And keep puking. I finally shove her hand away and rip the tube out. The nurse takes it and leaves. Now I am laying in 90+ degree weather in a bed of my own urine and vomit. I stay like that for hours. I tell the guys next to me “estoy una fountana”. They laugh again. They like me.
At about 1:30am that next morning, I feel and see my stomach getting very bloated again. I ask the guys next to me how to get the nurse and he says to yell for them. I start trying to call for a nurse. You could hear them right outside of the room talking and laughing. After nearly an hour of this I am getting terrified and thoughts of dying yet again fill my mind. I call Sean. He comes. Things get sorted out (which means they gave me an injection and knock me out).
There is no pain medicine in the hospital. Just some shot that they seemed to give everyone at night to knock us out. At about 4am, the nurses would come thru, wake everyone up to wash us and change the bed linens. They washed us with a rag that was probably 10 years old, and I am not sure if they changed the water between patients. It was brutal. You just couldn’t think about it.
The next day I ask to take the catheter out and show them my bed which is still covered in urine. They say yes and yank the tape off which was strategically placed only on areas with hair. This feels good. Then, just a swift yank and out comes the catheter hose full of blood. Really comforting. The next morning I wake up, look down at my sheet and notice it is dotted with blood. I realize this is coming from……yea…. you can imagine…Pretty terrible.
Thru all of this, Sean and Quinton have been on the phone for 3 straight days trying to arrange insurance and all that to get me a flight to Jo’Burg, eventually. Sean leaves me for the night on Monday, Sept 8 with the news that I will have a NetCare flight out of there probably around 2pm the next day. This is good news but not. The whole time I am barely clinging to life, in the most horrific pain of my life for 3 straight days. I go to bed and convince a nurse to take the IV out of my arm just for the night. The IV needle used was so large that it had sent shooting pains thru my arm the entire time and had hit some muscle in a way such that I was unable to even lift my arm under my own strength. I sleep like a baby. The best sleep yet. I wake up sometime in the middle of the night and can feel my body shutting down. I am not sure at this point if I close my eyes if they will ever open, but I am unable to keep them open.
The next thing I am woken up to the sound of English voices above my head and look the see these Space Invaders (the Ned Care Helicopter Rescue team wears neon green and blue jump suits, making them look like Space Invaders, which I suppose they were in a way…). They start asking me questions and I answer in Spanish. I had been speaking in Spanish so much that without realizing it, I was also thinking completely in Spanish at this point. So I get that figured out and start talking in English, although it requires extra thought.
They transfer me to a metal table on wheels and proceed to wheel me to the chopper, which happens to be parked across town. So I am getting wheeled thru the middle of town, across bumpy dirt paths and fields, which all feels fantastic with an already tender stomach. We get the chopper, they get me in, go to close the door, and it falls off. The pilot starts swearing and eventually gets it sorted out. Another good start. But at this point I am so relieved to be getting out of there it doesn’t matter. Sean, Joel, and Sly come to give me my passport and stuff, and once again, bid good luck. They shut the other chopper door and Sean notices that my IV hose is hanging out the bottom. They get that sorted out shortly.
We take off, blasting with sand the large group of children that had gathered around the chopper, and fly down the coast of Mozambique. I have an amazing view, see whales off shore and wildlife running thru the bush. It was spectacular. I made sure that I didn’t fall asleep, even though they had finally given me pain meds. The flight was less than an hour to Maputo, where a Jet was waiting to fly me to Jo’Burg. They proceed to unload me from the chopper, and set me on the tarmac while my passport gets processed. The chopper crew wanted their stretcher and the plane crew wasn’t quite ready, so here I am, laying on a bed sheet on the tarmac at the Maputo Airport.
Everything gets in order, I am loaded into the jet, make it to Jo’Burg where they proceed to open me up again because my Hemoglobin levels where around 6.2 (they shouldn’t get below 18 I am informed). So I am very near death at that point. Had I not been airlifted that day, I would not have made it out of Xai Xai with my eyes open. It was a complete emotional relief arriving in Jo’Burg, where I was fed healthy quantities of Morphine and other pain killers, and received the beautiful gift of another catheter…..don’t know if I will every have babies now.
Some time after the second surgery (in Jo’Burg) and speaking with Dr. Eyal (surgeon in Jo’Burg), I am informed that the sutures used to tie up my insides in Xai Xai would have disintegrated in 6 days. So basically the insides of me would have just fallen apart,…beautiful.
Other than that, just an incredibly painful recovery in Jo’Burg due to 2 abdominal surgeries in 4 days time. But fairly uneventful. Now I’m back in Cape Town. Regaining my strength day by day. Got my pencil drain out today, Sept 20 (which was about 14” long). I have 31 staples from by sternum to belly button which come out on Tuesday. So things are happening.
As crude, unusual, and painful as it was, my life was saved in Xai Xai and for that I could never even begin to be upset about the rest of the story. They saved my life once and I was able to hang on just long enough to make it to Jo’Burg, where I was put back together yet again. No animosity, all thanks.
And that’s the story. Sorry its so long and detailed. Thank you all for the love and support. Peace.
-Sam Woolf
jaynajaynajayna said 6 months ago
courtney is a lady’s name
njonas said 6 months ago
that story is crazy!! all because of the bus driver slamming on the brakes...
Randomentity said 6 months ago
cuz i haven’t heard that since kindergarden.
aaaaaaaand reason #461 why i’ll never go to any country like that.
njonas said 6 months ago
there’s something enticing about escaping the safety and comfort of what we have here and risking it all in third world countries like that. i’m going to keep a travel blog while i’m there so everyone can follow it. i did the same thing when i went backpacking in europe with friends, there’s both video & pictures:
http://www.scarlettvisionmedia.com/blog
heavyprints said 6 months ago
You’re way more interesting than I am. Damn you.
Randomentity said 6 months ago
oh i saw those videos, they were called hostel, part one and two
k thanx bai
njonas said 2 months ago
one week away from leaving, any more advice??
does anyone live in peru, bolivia, panama, or costa rica??
jaynajaynajayna said 2 months ago
my room mate actually left for peru on monday
Robert Ottinger said 2 months ago
holy crap the bot flies are nasty!!
http://view.break.com/347374
Perudoesitbetter said 2 months ago
well....
I could give you some advice lol...not that i’m an expert or anything. Where exactly in peru are you staying in Lima wise?
Lima is not a bad place, having been there many times to visit family. Like any capital in south america it has its bad part, really bad parts, and pretty nice areas.
Steer clear of Barrios Altos...one of the places I visited family in...bad news.
Do go see, Mira Flores...very ritzy area of Lima. Check out Mira Mar...very cool plaza overlooking the pacific coast.
Where else are you going in Peru?
Cuzco? Macchu Picchu? Trujillo?
how’s your spanish?
njonas said 2 months ago
thanks for the advice - we’re going to lima, then cuzco, then macchu picchu, then lake titicaca then to la paz to fly out to panama. This is the hostel we’re staying at in Lima, I think it’s in a town called Barranca - http://www.thepointhostels.com/lima.html#1
and my spanish is pretty rough, but one of my friends is fluent.
what’s your roommate doing there? we’ll be in lima next thursday.
Reliique said 2 months ago
There is lots of ''activities'' in Columbia for sure :D :D
Perudoesitbetter said 2 months ago
Well you’ll definitely love cuzco. I’ve only been once, but sometimes that’s all it takes. Awesome city with old colonial buildings and stone streets.
Look into the Inca trail...I have always wanted to do it, if you are the hiking type. It’s like a 3-4 day hike leaving from cuzco along the andes ending in Machu Picchu. Some pretty sweet jungle side treking and great views. On the last day you reach Machu Picchu right before the sun comes up and all the noisy tourists arrive sitting overlooking the entire city. I hear it’s an amazing time.
Barranca should be fine. So no worries, but be on guard either way. That goes without saying though.
oh and please drink some Inca kola...you’ll undoubtedly find it everywhere. It’s pretty much the national drink....Rivaling Coca Cola. So its a pretty big deal.
other drinks...Cristal and Cuzquena (alcohol)
have fun!!!
njonas said 2 months ago
thanks dude. we are booked for the inca trail up to machu picchu, really looking forward to that.
chalk said 2 months ago
don’t wear camo pants/shorts in those countries - you can be mistaken for a rebel
SteveOramA said 2 months ago
you should go to salaverry, peru. it’s pretty fun there.
also, i highly recommend skipping the part about going through the panama canal. yeah, it’s the canal but it takes too long and it’s really boring. there’s nothing to see but bushes on both sides. you wait until the locks fill up/drain out and then you go into the next one and do it again and again and again. instead of that, balboa, panama is awesome! make sure you go across the bridge of americas and then fun and the sights await on the other side.
SteveOramA said 2 months ago
and don’t worry about "botflies" or maggots. that one woman was probably sleeping on the ground or in a tent close to the ground and didn’t shower. i was in different south american countries for weeks and didn’t come back with any creatures on/in my body. just inspect yourself before bugs wreck yourself!
njonas said 2 months ago
okay, here is the blog if you guys want to follow pictures and video as we travel!
http://www.scarlettvisionmedia.com/blog