Clinic and Cavetubing!

Time is actually flying by here - I've been so busy with clinic activities in thev week, and then busy taking trips on the weekend.. I'm having a great time though - very glad I decided to come here.
So last week was a mixture of clinic at Hillside, observing at the government run clinics, and a mobile Hillside clinic to Barranco, a Garifuna village, which was a real highlight.
It's so good to get to see and treat my own patients and I'm definitely getting more confident about it as time goes on - it's something that you just don't get the opportunity to do at home, but here they need all the help they can get!
Barranco was so good because it was a proper rural experience - the clinic building only had one room with an examination table, and we had to dispense all our own drugs as we saw the patients. When we arrived in the village, we sounded the horn to say we were there, and people all came out of their houses and started queuing outside..
I've been eating pretty well - lots of local stuff, although I am getting heartily sick of rice, stewed beans and stewed chicken now, which seems to feature strongly on every menu!! I have had lots of very good fresh shrimp (Jane you would be jealous...).
This weekend we went to a place called Cave's Branch to go cave tubing (floating through caves on a river in a giant rubber ring!). We found a really good deal staying in the bunkhouse of a posh jungle lodge nearby, so lived it up a bit - we even had a swimming pool - and the food (especially breakfast!) was excellent, and definitely a chae from stewed beans and rice. It was quite a rustic experience as well - the showers were outside, and made from upside down buckets (there was hot water though) and we were very close to the sights and sounds of the jungle (a little too close to the giant frogs and insects in fact..).
We found our cavetubing guide in the Lonely Planet guidebook - he was called Vitalino, and he was excelllent - very enthusiastic and good fun. He picked us up at the lodge, and we went to the end of the river to collect our rubber rings,efore a walk through the jungle to get upstream. He pointed out lots of interesting things en route, and we tried eating termites (they taste kind of minty..) and saw lots of tarantulas (I kept a healthy distance from these..). We went for a swim in the river - very refreshing and really beautiful - and then set off floating in our rubber rings.
The caves were amazing - lots of different rock firmations and Maya carvings. We paddled ourselves for a bit (surprisingly hard work..) abd then all formed a line and got pulled along by Vitalino. Floating along was very relaxing. The river got faster towards the end which was exciting! When we got back we had BBQ chicken and copious amounts of rum punch provided by our guide! So we sang in the van the whole way back to the lodge, and then spent the evening relaxi by the pool and looking at the amazing stars.
This morning I made the most of the great breakfast, before some pooltime, visiting a swimming hole in the jungle, and the bus journey home.
Got another busy week this week, with 3 different mobile clinics, and next weekend we are planning on heading to Caye Caulker - a little sandy island.
I will upload some photos at sometime in the week (whenever I go into town). xxxx

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Part of trip: Elective

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