Baja is the SH*T

                                        ****Guest Blog!****Guest Blog!****Guest Blog!****

          (Presenting a guest blog, written by my friend and fellow traveler, Melanie Somercik)

Let's just be honest here--there is a certain fear that travel to Mexico is associated with these days.

Fear of the drug cartel.Those frightening headlines--pun intended--of decapitated people.

Fear of not knowing the language. Why did I take four years of German in high school?

And come on, you know what's coming next...the fear of...Montezuma's revenge...dysentery...flux...the trots...dehli belly...in medical terms - the abnormally frequent intestinal evacuations with more or less fluid - get ready for it - stools. Yes stools, people!!! For you Spanish speaking peeps: diarrea.

Being a nurse, diarrhea – here on out referred to as THE WORD - inflicts a certain fear. Think of what nurse do. There is not a nurse on this planet that doesn't mind so much when a patient pukes but say THE WORD and a really great day turns into bad one. And there really isn't a traveler that enters Mexico who isn't aware of THE WORD. Compound all the fear and worry with someone who has a intestinal disease and well you just have to worry about how many times it will come up in conversation if you are traveling with that person. I am THAT person.

So when my writer/nurse and my hilarious funny nurse agreed to travel with me to Cabo I was a little surprised. I didn't think they knew what they were getting into. But I was pleasantly surprised. I must admit that the subject of bowels came up sometimes but not as much as I thought during our trip because the writer/nurse and hilarious funny nurse are nurses. Nurses are trained to know what a patient needs before the patient asks for it and it is this training of my most excellent nurse friends that avoided many conversations of THE WORD of doom.*

Now I'm not saying that THE WORD was not hanging there in the wind....waiting for it to present itself....CONSTANTLY.... but we were able to avoid actually experiencing THE WORD. Every meal was a fear for me but my traveling companions and most gracious hosts were there to guide me in food choices and make sure that I drank lots of beer and only bottled water. (DISCLAIMER: this blog owner does not take responsibility for amount of beer drank or any resulting facebook posts which may or may not have occurred on this trip. She will witness to the fact that the guest blogger was very very brave and did try the sashimi tuna but passed on the ceviche, which was delicious.)

And after all that worrying and fear the trip to Cabo was fantastic!!!! The three of us have a crazy streak and we played off each other's craziness through the entire time together down to the tram trip at the Denver airport when it was suggested that writer/nurse could use the standing pole to practice some moves prior to the reunion with her husband. Nothing says sexy more than a pole and stripping down to that money belt.**

I would like to thank my friends and fellow nurses, my great traveling companions for one wild ride!!! You provided me with some lovely memories.

*'doom' when used in all lower case letters as an expletive or manner of voicing displeasure is a trademark of Jenny Tucker, non-nurse but Professional Person Of Science.

** (DISCLAIMER: The blog owner was not the one wearing a money belt. No pole dancing actually occurred on the Happy Tram. There may have been some singing of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody while in the back seat of the truck but seriously, when you have three people in a back seat, how can this not happen.)

When not guest blogging, Melanie Somerick aka 'CrapMonkey' aka Birthday Girl  provides excellent anesthesia care at a Top 10 hospital here on the Coast of Illinois. She is also an advocate for stray rescue and spends a huge amount of her free time taking photographs which are used to promote adoption of stray and abandoned pets.

She should never be allowed unsupervised access to antibacterial wipes or sunscreen.