my posts are starting to bore me, too

Funny, this has turned into a forum for not-terribly-interesting medical updates.

It's our last day in Manaus, finally. Amber made her sixth and final hospital visit yesterday--virtually all of her blood counts are back to normal, except that she isn't allowed to drink alcohol for another couple of weeks. Apparently dengue inflicts some weirdness on the liver.

But that's fine. There's no fernet in this damned place, anyway. Believe me, I've asked almost every bartender and liquor store owner in the city. We even spent a night at Manaus' only 5-star hotel (rumored to be a haven for imported liquors) to celebrate Amber's birthday and dengue recovery. It was luxurious by our recent standards (great view, rooftop pool, and our first warm shower since September 25) but strongly resembled a HoJos off the Jersey turnpike. And of course, no fernet. Bastards.

You might be interested to know that I have a friend who reads this blog exclusively for medical updates. She skips the part about dengue fever, though; turns out she's just waiting to hear that I have worms in my feet.

Not yet--those are in the Northeast.

But we might have an encounter with piranas or candiru fish in our next stop. We hope to spend at least a day or two in the jungle, but much of our time will be on the beach in Alter do Chão, rumored to be the "Caribbean of the Amazon."

I hear good things about the place, but after spending a few weeks in the Caribbean...well, I'm highly skeptical.

But about the scary fish...Piranas aren't actually all that dangerous, unless they're unusually hungry and you happen to be bleeding profusely. Candiru fish are the little spikey fish that supposedly really like urine. Rumor has it that they will swim up a stream of urine if you try to pee in the Amazon--I think I might have mentioned them in an earlier post.

Part of this is utter bullshit. No, they can't really swim up a stream of urine. But an exposed pee-hole might be appealing to them.

Anybody wanna come for a visit?