I took my parents on a 1 week roadtrip in Arizona... sort of a way of saying thanks to them for putting up with me for the past 2 years. It was dad's first time there and mom's second to a few national parks but they were both quite amazed by the sights. It was a relatively non stressful trip and I think we all had some fun (except for the few episodes of unnecessary nagging and parental remarks but I think we did okay). =)

We decided to splurge on our last day in Cuba and chose to stay at a 5-star (but as they'll all tell you, minus a star sign when you're in Cuba so it's really a 4 star) resort on our last night of the trip. Varadero Paradisus it was called and we wasted no time but to lay on the beach to get those last minute tan in. One day at an all-inclusive is nice but anything more than 2 would have been a bit too much for me (though Pam would disagree on this).

Pam & I survived the 2 weeks together... we could have lasted longer but there was just no time. It was good fun and it looks like there will be a return trip to Eastern Cuba sometime in the future =).

We spent a day in Cienfuego, a French colonial town that came across as being very clean and relatively prosperous compared to the rest of the country. We then made our way to Trinidad, an old city in mid-southern Cuba just 15 km from the ocean. We spent our 3 nights in another casa particulare - this time in a mansion of the colonial times. Rogelio was a retired veterinarian. He cooked us (a party of 4) a generous & delicious 3 course dinner all by himself. He also had to cope with life-long diagnosis of essential tremor for which he claimed a little Saturday night drink to be the best remedy... perhaps more than a little as we found him barely awake to sent us on our way out on our last day.

Trinidad was colorful and full of good energy. We strolled the cobblestone streets, watched a few afternoon thunderstorms, did a couple salsa lessons and caught up with Isma & Paul (UK travelers we had met a while ago in Las Terrazas).

I also played a little drum with a local artist (Alberto forgot his last name), and watched some locals going at a domino game on the street. It's all good fun =).

Not sure how Cuba made it on my list of places to visit as I was never interested in seeing the Carribean or Central America, but here we were on a 2 week backpacking trip in Cuba.

I was also not sure if Pam knew what she was thinking when she signed up to come on the trip with me... I was certain that I mentioned something about a developing country. She decided to be brave I suppose. =).

It turned out that buying an all-inclusive package to Cuba is cheaper than buying flights alone. So we ended up purchasing a 7-day package to Varadero and abandoning it the next day. The funny thing was that the hotel receptionist appeared very upset when we told them we were not coming back after just 1 night.

The half-day in Varadero was great. I hadn't swam in an ocean for decades and being in the blue sea and lazying around on the white sandy beach was more than what I had expected to enjoy.. in fact, I didn't want to leave. We took our time before catching the 2 hour bus to go into Havana... where the real adventure began.




A few things that I quickly found about traveling in Cuba:

Not too many people spoke English in Cuba. We managed to get by on my broken Spanish (remnants of some solid Spanish schooling eons ago) but it was definitley hard to get around without using Spanish.

Two Asian females are considered exotic items in Cuba. This had stood true for all the Latin American countries I've traveled to so far. It's an usual experience and we definitely got the stares and the bothersome pestering and verbal harrassment.. but I suppose that's just what an Caucasian would encounter when they go to an Asian country.

It's expensive to travel in Cuba. There's definitely the double-standard for tourists here. Everything from food, accommodation, entrance fee, transportation are a sorry 10x overcharge for foreigners. A dinner can easily cost more than at home (and the quantity or quality are not any better either).  Pam & I realized this early on and managed a strategy of 'doggy-packing' some leftovers from breakfast, granola bars for lunch, and buying produce from the local farmers market with the local's currency (technically not allowed for tourists).

Other than that, we did enjoy our time in Cuba. It was one of the most photogenic country. It's all about music, family and salsa. There is music being blasted on every street corners at all time. There were the neighbors doing nothing but people watching for hours long on their balconies. There were colors and lots of vintage cars. Tired looking old men and women, young children and the passionate teens alike all warped into an underdeveloped yet ageless bubble of intensified sounds and emotions. It was definitely different.

We took most of our time just wandering through the neighborhoods of Havana, catching a chance to chat with the locals and trying not to melt under the midday heat. We stayed at a Casa particulare (closest equivalent in North America would be a guesthouse or B&B but it was really just a room to stay in someone's house). The owner of the casa Emilio was a retired dentist in his 40's. He was also a homosexual... and so were many of the other 'guys' we met at the place, all of whom were very nice people. Alexandro, one of the guys who we believed also lived on his premise, thought we were some crazy Asian people from nowhere when we tried to take over the kitchen and couldn't even use the knife properly to cut up the potatos. It was good fun... he was singing and dancing to oldies (think Gloria Estefan, Whiteny Houston) while making us french fries and fried bananas.

4 nights in Havana was just about right. We were ready for some countryside scene by then and took the bus to our next destination - Las Terrazas & Vinales (Western part of the country).






Addendum: Pam is 39 going on 40 though most people thought she was the younger sister. Coming from a nursing background, she also had a 'fetish' of nurses in white uniforms with fishnet stockings... in fact we had to chase down every nurses with fishnet stockings we see on the street for a photo (as in the above).

Just for the record. Who knows what's going to happen at the end of 2 weeks =)

So I didn't enjoy the ID rotation as much last time and I didn't think this rotation would change much of my opinion about it this time around. But as usual, I was wrong about myself.. in a good way =).

To minimize the boring technical details, let's just say that I've never seen the full potential of pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics principles applied in clinical practice until now. In the past PK/PD has always exist as a theoretical entity but to be able to translate this sort of knowledge into patient care is pretty darn cool (yep, sounds nerdy I know).

The patients are nice enough to work with and the ID attendings so far (2 of them in the first 2 weeks) have been quite friendly. There was no residents or fellows on at the moment, so I am really the only intern on the team. Without even any questioning, Dr. R, an Israelie attending well known in the ID arena, passed on all the new consults to me. My first thought - this is exciting, but potentially devastating as I am nowhere medically trained to interpret diagnostic imagings. But he was nice enough to walk me through it... so it all turned out okay at the end. His bedside manner/patient rapport is not exactly the greatest, and he can come across as a cluess grandpa at times, but his experience and efficiency in honing on a diagnosis somewhat compensate for the confusion he leaves behind for the patients. "Do you have any fever? Okay, g'luck to you sir..."  The patients' usual response: "so what is it that I...?" and he's usually out of the door by the time they finish the question... it's entertaining to watch, even after 10 episodes of recurrent scenes. Anyways, that leaves me to be the one who go back and do some long-winded explanation (which usually still leaves them somewhat bewildered).

On another note, I'm already over my monthly quota of sweets within the first week. The fact that I don't use the filthy kitchen and have no source of storing food don't help. So I've been blowing my food budget and eating processed food for most of the time. There's also a surplus of decadent baked goods that are also relatively cheaper compared to real healthy food... so, the sugar is everywhere, it's in the cupcakes by the nursing stations on any given day, it's sprinkled on top of the 'low-fat' blueberry muffin sold by Tim Hortons, it's in the $0.99 chocolate brownie (but not the $3.00 sorry-looking baby carrots lunch package), it's in the 3 obese pedestrians out of the 5 that I walk into, and it's now in ME. And it's a nightmare for my vain waistline.