You know you’re in the tropics when ….

Panadol Poster in a Chichi pharmacy

While in Chichi we spent A LOT of money (thanks to some very generous donations from various sources) on medications in a little local pharmacy called “Adinqui.”   In fact, I visited the pharmacy every single day I was in Chichi to pick up, order, or pay for drugs that patients had put on the clinic tab.  I got to be friends with the young woman, Mercedes, who works in the pharmacy.  She’s a very pleasant woman from Izabal, a city near the east coast, in the heart of the old United Fruit Company’s banana plantation region, where it’s hot and tropical – and where no doubt this poster advertising that Panadol is effective for the fevers and pains of Zika, Dengue Fever, and Chikungunya is very appropriate.  In Chichi, however, it’s not particularly relevant, because these diseases just don’t happen.  The elevation – in excess of 7,000 feet above sea level- just doesn’t promote easy breeding for the mosquitos that spread these diseases.  Or for that matter, any mosquitos at all.  Onoe of the things I love about the Guatemalan highlands, in fact, is that mosquitos in general are extremely rare.

Anyway, I thought the poster was interesting.