Investigating Medicinal Plants

 Last night, everyone headed out to the dock to look at the stars. We are so far from civilization that the sky is beautiful. I was able to see the Southern Cross and the Scorpio constellations. After that, our group headed to the patio where we danced to Spanish music. One of the guys from FL is teaching us all merengue, and attempting to teach us salsa. Good luck is what I say!  I was talking to one of our leaders named ChaChi. He is originally from Peru and has a lot of plant knowledge. He was telling me how he has cures for so many  issues, including cancers, acne, and migraines. He wanted to know what type of diabetes I have. I told him type 1 (insulin dependent) and he was really quiet. After awhile he said, ¨my people cannot cure this. They can cure type 2 diabetes in 30-45 days, but there is no possible way for you.´´ Well, I already expected that so I was not disappointed. If the modern world did not have a cure, I would not expect any plant from the Amazon to help me either. I find it so interesting how much ChaChi believes he has the actual cure for all these diseases. He does not just believe, he knows they will work. If these methods were actually tested, I do not think they would cure, but maybe that is just my scientific and American worldview speaking.

Today was yet another day in class. Our bus did not show, so we got to use motocars. They are glorified motorcycles that pull a covered cart behind them. We were at a place called MET, which was a research area for investigating medicinal plants. They have a thorough process and try to make everything standardized, however, the resources are what the US had in the 1930s. For them, this is top notch, but to us it is pretty primitive. They showed us the rats and mice they were experimenting with. They gave all the rats type 2 diabetes using Alloxan, and are trying to find medicinal plants to help cure them. It was a grotesque process, because they draw blood samples from the rat´s tail using a scalpel-type instrument. The rat was screaming the entire process. I can only stand that for so long. Outside they have a huge garden where they are growing all sorts of plants. We got to see more that were presented on, but this time it was the entire plant and not just a branch or fruit.