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We were in Honduras waiting (and waiting and WAITING) for a weather window. Dan was taking a newer anti-malarial drug - he couldn't take the ordinary quinine-based (?) drug that everyone uses due to potential problems with a recent surgery. We had brought enough for the trip plus 2 weeks extra supply as buffer ... and given our looooong wait for weather, we would be cutting it close.
So we tried to buy more of the drug in LaCeiba while we were waiting for weather. You don't need a prescription for the generic antimalarial in Honduras, a 30-day supply costs about $5 - guess their gov't is more interested in keeping the population healthy. But our designer American antimalarial? Nowhere to be found. I speak basic Spanish, and the people in Honduras were wonderful - we found a taxi driver who took us to a pharmacy where they had a catalog to convert drug names English-Spanish, but no luck. Then a bigger pharmacy, then the local hospital, all in vain.
Moral of the story? People were great and really tried to help. Maybe it would have been different if we'd had the Spanish name for this drug before we left the US, maybe not. Next time we'll figure out how much drug we need for a trip, add a couple week buffer, pack a little more, then double it.
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