Cuzco by Night

Cuzco is one of those places - full of foreigners who got there and thought “hey… let’s stop a while longer” and then don’t leave for years. It’s vibrant, beautiful, friendly and prosperous. See it while it’s still relatively unspoilt.

If you like this shot, you may wish to check out my photoblog, which I’m now going to make a more serious part of my website, albeit with its own style specific to displaying large images.

Argh - looks like an alien!

Please note this is a reproduction of the webpage I originally created for this story. I just thought it’d be better included in my journal rather than off on its own. Easier to manage too. The extraction happened in March 2006. Since then, thanks to B3ta, Digg, StumbleUpon and others, well over 100,000 people have visited and read this story - which is astonishing really. So thank you all.  In the near future I’ll be re-writing this page to make it more thorough and give more information.  In the meantime, enjoy!

Maybe it’s a karma thing. I dunno. I changed my plans and decided to go to the Peruvian jungle at the last minute because I was tired of mountains and deserts. But I’d forgotten that one advantage of dry mountain terrain is the relative lack of insect life.

The jungle was great, but one day I made the mistake of wearing a thin t-shirt made from a ‘technical’ fibre - ie, cooling and comfortable in the humid heat of the jungle. Mosquitoes struggle to bite through thick cotton, but these fibres are just so easy for them. In one day with this shirt on I managed to acquire about fifty bites, mostly on my back. Interestingly, the locals, even without deet repellent, receive far fewer bites.

One of these bites didn’t heal quite right. A week or so after I’d noticed it would hurt quite a bit, like a needle being pushed into my back. I guessed it was a little infected. This was late February. After a week or so of this I went to my local clinic where the nurse had a good look. She’s travelled tropically herself and was impressively clued up. After enquiries she felt it was likely to be a bug inside me. There then followed a slightly confusing phase when nobody seemed available to help me out, but eventually, after a few visits, a doctor at the famous Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine offered to take a look. He couldn’t find anything at the time, or extract it, sadly, but the pain continued and the now bigger wound was starting to hurt for longer periods of time. This, apparently, is the botfly larvae moving around and snacking on my flesh. Eventually it was a friend (who is also a dentist, which helps) covered the wound with vaseline and watched carefully for some time through a loupe. It soon became obvious that a botfly spiracle was popping up for air every now and again.. Which meant this bad boy was inside me:

The larvae, if left alone, would live inside me for up to eight weeks and grow up to 25mm long before leaving in order to pupate into the adult fly. I believe the fly can then live for up to two weeks, purely on the stored energy from its larval stage - it can’t eat as an adult. The adult then has to mate, and the female with then capture a mosquito in order to lay its eggs on it. When the mosquito bites someone, the eggs fall off and the warmth of the host causes those eggs to hatch and in a very short time the little grub will burrow in and get snacking.

Nice!

My friend Geraldine is having a baby and has shared the video of its ultrasound. Not wanting to feel left out I thought I’d share my own little ‘baby’ video with the world! But also I felt this page may help people who get the same problem - there are other resources, but none struck me as that clear to the layman, and there are none with a video to show you what to expect.

Some information that I’ve been able to find - the scientific name is Dermatobia Hominis. It has a mouth with scraping hooks, a main body with rows of hooks to hold onto its host, and a spiracle through which it breathes. Symptoms are an enlarging lesion (spot!) that has a small pinhole in the centre for breathing - this hole will not heal as long as the bug is alive. Occasionally you’ll feel sharp stabbing pains, lasting up to half an hour, as it moves or eats. It won’t burrow especially deeply and is unlikely to cause any real damage even if left to mature.

Extraction - we’re currently trying to persuade it out by covering the wound in vaseline. This forces it closer to the surface as its spiracle searches out air, and it may even come out completely. See the video above. As this story progresses I’ll update this page. I also plan to add some links to resources. Watch this space!

OK - I just gave birth to a baby worm. I always said I wanted children, but… not sure if this is the way.

Removal of the botfly larvae:

It wasn’t easy. Squeezing didn’t seem to work, and is said to be almost impossible if the larvae is still alive. So we settled on trying to kill it or weaken it. However, although there are approaches that give you an almost instant kill, the method we used helps to encourage the fella to come closer to the surface.

We needed some kind of dressing that was flexible enough to go on the back and able to keep as much air out as possible. We settled on the lid from a tube of jaffa cakes, filled with vaseline, and thoroughly taped in to place. After a night’s sleep I could feel the wriggling in the morning. Eventually the lid slipped and I removed it completely to see a lot more of the larvae sticking out. Result! I covered it once more, and quickly went to see my friend who was then able to gently tweezer the tip up enough to get another pair of tweezers lower down and slowly extract the bug. Mechanical removal like this isn’t usually advised, but as the larvae was weakened by this point after a night of struggling for air it seemed to be ok. My only concern now is that it might have a twin! But the wound is healing well, which is a very good sign. There’s still some inflammation but it’s improved.

Here’s some pics of the little blighter. Someone could probably make a rather neat little animation. You can see the movement of his mouth parts as he wonders where the hell his meal’s just gone. The goo is just vaseline, by the way.

Pics and video of the little fella:

Click on the images for larger versions.

Botfly Larvae in host video

It could have been worse though… but don’t look if you’re either sensitive or don’t like seeing people’s, erm, hidden bits…. http://sti.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/80/3/183.pdf
- membership now required.

I’ve done a separate page about it here.

Not Dr O’Dempsey. Nice bloke though he is, he had an ulterior motive.

You see, since New York I noticed that a mosquito bite had been getting larger and sometimes painful. It was like a stabbing feeling in my back that would last up fifteen minutes. As time passed it would ooze a little blood, and the pain was getting sharper.

My first port of call was a local clinic (I no longer even bother trying to see a GP any more) where she poked around at it. This nurse however, is one of the sharper bunnies at this clinic and she did actually listen to my symptoms and take a good look. After I left she thought about it, rang the world renowned School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool, and then asked me if I could go back later in the week. It might be a larvae that I had.

Cool! This would make a great anecdote!

Various checks were made, vaseline smeared on, and so on. But nothing popped out, and the doctor was left with just one course of action. Cut an X in my back and take a peek inside. Let me say now, that even with a little local anaesthetic, this still hurts quite a lot. Still, after a bit of poking about he found nothing, apologised and patched me up. He couldn’t dig as deep as he’d have liked to as there’s a risk of getting too close to the lungs, and so although there’s a possibility there’s something in there there’s not a lot, short of general anaesthetics and a surgeon, that can be done.

If something’s in there it’ll probably die now and my body will absorb it in due course. If there’s nothing there… well at least the pain’s stopped.

For information - the symptoms that made them think it might be a bug:

Pricking sensation at times.

Inflammation and a bump, but no real sign of infection such as pus.

Getting larger over time.

And I got the bite in the Amazon.

Anyway, now I have a nice X on my back to remind me of a great holiday ;o)

As a regular overseas traveller I always felt, but hadn’t really researched properly, that ATM’s and credit card transactions were best - in spite of 2% commission charges.

Then I learned Nationwide makes no commission fees.

You then have the currency spread - ie, the difference between the price you buy and the price you sell. That’s pure profit. A lot of money changers in airports are working on up to a 10% spread. That means they’re taking 5% of your money each time you change. That’s a significant hit. If you expect to spend £1000 on your trip, £50 might easily make for an extra night somewhere, or a nice meal one day.

So after seeing a forum posting about this subject I decided to do some research and responded as follows:

Hmmmm… my experience of Travelex has been that they have a large spread on the currency prices, which usually means there’s a big profit somewhere. But interested by Stepehen’s claim I thought I’d investigate the website.

So, to the pound:

EUR = 1.4122
HKD = 13.1911
USD = 1.7021

Now let’s try my favourite with all things travel-money related. Nationwide:

EUR = 1.3937
HKD = 12.8700
USD = 1.6737

It’s a significant difference. However, I know Nationwide are using Travelex to provide their exchange service. So we have to pay extra to give both parties a profit, by the look of it.

But interesting.

Then my usual method - VISA debit card from Nationwide either to pay for things or from cash machines.

EUR = 1.46
HKD = 13.57
USD = 1.75

Though that’s what the website says, it looks like the figures are rounded in all those cases.

So far it seems to suggest that the mighty old card is better. Even if you take the usual 2% that most banks charge, you’re still better off with the ATM. Just. Having said that, the VISA site isn’t clear as to whether you pay more if you withdraw from a cash machine than if it’s a transaction in a shop.

Incidentally, the forex rate right now appears to be:

EUR = 1.45935
HKD = 13.498
USD = 1.73880

Which VISA actually appear to be bettering, though VISA’s prices may only change daily.

Shows to me that the exchange rate for actual cash is significantly more expensive than using cards.

I should now look at the exchange rates I get from banks for Euro cheques! Never looked so closely really and I’m convinced we get fleeced.

But you know, I’m feeling kind of lazy at the moment, so I’ll describe things in the way of a five year old. That might make for less typing:

The jungle was dead brill!!! There were big snakes and we caught piranhas except I didn’t coz I’m a vegetable and so don’t do fishing and we had bats and a python in the roof of the lodge. The toilets were dead stinky too and coz they don’t have proper plumbing like what we do in cities and everything the showers were cold which was horrible in the morning. I think I heard French people squealing about it. And there were these two nice English people and they were called James and Caroline and they gave me some of their wine and I got a bit tipsy!

I don’t like mosquitoes. They bit me. A lot. Little bastids. Oh sorry I’m not supposed to use words like that.

I was really really sad leaving South America. It’s so beautiful and nice and the people are great. I’ve got lots of new friends there and I think a little piece of my heart will always be with that continent, and with Peru most of all. I’ll be back.

Hmmmm… the five year old’s style is lapsing. Still…

As for New York City. What a place. It’s not really the assault on the senses that I expected. In fact it feels almost exactly how I expected it to, only quieter, cleaner and more polite. Shockingly expensive, however, but I stayed at the Chelsea Lodge in West 20th Street which was an almost but not quite reasonable $99 for a room with a shared loo but your own shower and basin. But it was very clean and charming, and it seems that for New York I did very well, so I shouldn’t complain. I did try to stay at the Second Home New York, as I stayed at Second Home Lima for my last couple of nights and thought it was brilliant. And relatively affordable. Oh well, maybe next time.

But it’s an interesting one about accomodation when travelling in a group. Essentially you need to settle for the lowest common denominator, or it’s unfair. Either that or the wealthier need to subsidise the poorer, but that’s not necessarily a feasible option given pride and so on. And there’s also the desire to stay in areas that may not be as attractive to you, but it’s important to cede to the group so long as everyone gets a say now and then. I thought we all worked beautifully as a group, but I’ll admit blowing $75 a night on a hotel room was a luxury I really enjoyed :o)

And it was still cheap compared to NY!

And then… it was home.

That’s it. The end of the trip. Done.

But don’t despair too much, I’m going to add a little content about some of the places I went to, with proper researched stuff and everything. But without the pressure of time it could take a while! Watch this space…. And photos will be added soon.

I’ve heard a couple of people whining and complaining in a Woody Allen style. Other times a conversation can go like this:

“Hey bro! What’s up?!”
“Dude! What’s happenin’ what’s happenin’?”
“S’good man… catchya later!”

Not sure what’s wrong with the English style of muttering ‘morning’ at someone you only know a little. Or even just trying to pretend you’ve not seen them, and so avoiding the embarrasment of trying to find things to talk about with someone whose name you’re not even entirely sure of.

Oh, one more thing… after two months hanging around the southern tropics during their summer, turning up here is a damn cold shock to the system! It’s below freezing, windy, and I’ve had to buy a hat and scarf to keep myself from dying. Right now I don’t think I like the cold very much. I wanna sit in a swimming costume!

I’ll post stuff about Iquitos, Barranco and so on soon, or when I get home. Internet access in NYC is proving to be either incredibly expensive or just plain unavailable. If I can buy a cheap pda with WiFi that might turn out to be a reasonable proposition and then I can sell my old one when I get back to Blighty.

Home on Monday, by the way.

Can’t believe it’s all coming to an end. In a few days I’ll have to think about finding some work. Ick!

These samples tend to come in small glass vials.

And in a rucksack, small glass vials aren’t so clever. They were safely inside my washbag, but sadly I didn’t notice they’d broken and several pieces fell out onto the bathroom floor. Eventually they found my foot. I just thought I’d stood on a stone.

Now, people have questioned my bringing a first aid kit, but it was damn handy for cleaning up the wound and disinfecting, so once the blood was stopped there was no further pain or infection.

Other blood letting, caused today, was when I patted a tree to say something about trees. I never knew palm trees sometimes came with sharp spines. I thought I’d slapped some fire ants or something, but no… it was the damn tree. Gonna be more careful what I pat from now on.

This is probably my last post until at least Sunday night, so don’t worry about the silence!

Oh, and in just a week’s time I’ll be in New York for a very different, and much colder, experience. Then a week Monday I get home. And I’ll be about ready I reckon….

But not when one of the b*stard things turns up on your neck. And talk about big… I’ve seen plenty in France and Spain, but this one looked capable of carrying off a small child.

Other wildlife I’ve met today includes a gian ant-eater. Comedy looks and big wet nose, but it used its claws on me so I’d get the hell out of its way. I’m just glad I was wearing jeans and not shorts. Then there was the tapir, a jaguar, assorted monkeys… all rescued by an animal sanctuary and all animals that people had tried and failed to keep as pets. Frankly, I can kind of understand the tapir - it’s funny and gentle. But the rest could easily be a liability.

And small monkeys… why do they always appear to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown?

And now in Iquitos I’m getting to enjoy using the motocarro which is the key form of transport around here so far as I can tell. Most are made by Honda, and you have to be impressed that a company as prestigious as they are doesn’t feel that such vehicles are beneath them. Could you imagine Mercedes or BMW making them? Or even the C50?

So, in the absence of Mercedes taxis I’m getting to live up to the advice in the Sunscreen Song, to do something that scares me every day.

I hoped that today I’d be able to leave for a lodge in the jungle, but sadly I’ll have to wait another day due to booking requirements. No problem, really. I can chill in Iquitos, read another book, and enjoy the vibe. I’ll also take the opportunity to charge up all my electronics, as electricity has yet to make it to the places I’m going. I daresay the mobile phone won’t work either. It’s kind of been fun answering calls from agents and saying that I didn’t want to talk too long because I was in the Amazon and it was kind of expensive… about 1.50GBP per minute so far as I can see, just to receive a call. Gits! It’s pure profiteering and next time I come here I’m going to buy local SIM cards and start using a non-geographic number in order to receive calls.