Brazil Feb/March 2007 Day 6

We had a day off today which has been great.  At the time of writing Nadeem, Raj and I are still in the hotel.  I'm not sure where the others have gone.  There was talk of long taxi rides of three hours or so to various places including Rio de Janeiro, Isla Bella, Campos de Jordao etc.  They all sound very nice but I couldn't face a long taxi ride today so I've just been hanging out at the hotel, catching up with the website and watching football with Nadeem.  Manchester United and Liverpool were on live Brazilian TV this morning so we spent a couple of hours watching that.  We had lunch in the hotel, a bit of a siesta and then sat around the pool for a bit looking at some cases and having a general chat.  In the evening Nadeem, Raj and I went to the same restaurant in Pindamonhangaba as the previous night and stuffed out.  We had a crazy taxi driver with no teeth.  He screamed up behind a young couple on a moped just at the railway bridge into Pinda.  I was convinced they were gonners.

When we got back we met up with the others who had been to Isla Bella for the day.  This sounds like a beautiful holiday resort island.  However Deirdre did tell me that they were thinking about me on the way because it took them 3 hours along winding mountain passes to get there. She says I would have never made it.  I am sure she is right.  Her partner Keith also suffers from motion sickness so she is sympathetic.

For today's diary then, here are a few bits things that I haven't fitted anywhere else.

This is "Le Cafe Mohammed" right next door to the hospital which is on the left.  In the doorway are Margaret and Mohammed.  He has to visit several times a day for his caffeine fix.

Mohammed also needs a regular nicotine fix.  The health warnings on cigarettes here are serious.  This is a dental one which you don't see in the UK.  The writing says, ""The Minister of Health warns: Smoking causes mouth cancer and loss of teeth"

I saw this crawling around outside the hotel.  I was tempted to tell Alison that I found it in my bed but thought better of it.  This was a massive creature.

This was the view from my hotel window when I was on the second floor.  (they call it the third floor here but they're wrong of course)  I don't have such a nice view from here but probably its just as well.  I might have flooded the whole hotel from up there.

Raj is winning the mosquito bite competition.  At the time this photograph was taken he had 43 itchy mosquito bites of which 18 were on his left arm.  I only have 3 at the moment which don't itch at all. Ha!

Nadeem and I sat around the pool for half an hour or so as the sun went down.  It a hard life this implantology business.

Dinner in the evening with Raj and Nadeem.  Raj holds forth on the subject of occlusion.