Vagabond Tales: Nobody plans to visit a hospital in Uruguay

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Filed under: Stories, South America, Uruguay, Travel Health

About the last thing that anyone wants to have happen on their vacation is to end up in the hospital. This much nearly all travelers can agree upon.

What's even more fun is ending up in a hospital in a country that speaks a foreign language, realizing your vocabulary doesn't yet include the translations for words such as "syringe", "infection", and "spinal tap".

Luckily for me I found myself in a hospital in a country where I actually do speak the language (Spanish) and I didn't need any of the aforementioned words listed above. Also, perhaps even luckier is that I wasn't actually hurt, but instead was simply in search of some prescription drugs.

Allow me to explain.

Punta del Este, Uruguay is a South American beach oasis that's part South Beach and part Las Vegas. Furthermore, it's safe to say it's one of the premier party spots for global jet-setters who may be interested in obtaining some prescription drugs for a big night out.

It also just so happened to be the beach town that my wife and I found ourselves in on our honeymoon when we realized the Xanax she had been packing for the trip home was actually long-expired and completely ineffective, and we had 21 hours of flying coming up before we were safely back home in Hawaii.

It's been well documented here on Gadling that many people frequently cope with a fear of flying in their own personal ways, and the seriousness of this situation was not to be taken lightly. With the issue of the expired Xanax making itself known, we were really reduced to only two options: buying a used car in Buenos Aires and driving back to California without being kidnapped by FARC rebels in Panama's Darien Gap, or finding the nearest hospital and getting another prescription whipped up and bottled with our name on it. Stat.

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Vagabond Tales: Nobody plans to visit a hospital in Uruguay originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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