Jeanette and Pat go to South America

We can´t finish our story of the Inca trail without telling you some of the natural remedies that Marisol told us.
Many times when she spotted a flower or herb along the way we would hear what it was used for: Stomach ailments, headaches, preventing colds and so on. But there were two tales which really will stay in our minds.

Jamie, our NZ companion, was a little worried that his hair was thinning. At 28, he thought this too young to be going bald. Marisol told him of the "guaranteed cure", with total sincerity.

Every night for a month, you must wash your hair in urine, leave it in overnight, then rinse it out in the morning. Marisol did warn that rinsing out the smell was almost impossible, but the effort would be worth it. Darryl initially offered to have his evening pee over Jamie´s head, but Marisol was not impressed! You see, it must be your own urine! Amidst much hilarity over dinner, we discussed the pros and cons of the solution, and Jamie considered that now would be as good a time as any to try it. His girlfriend was home in NZ, and Darryl was his travelling companion! Darryl was not looking forward to sharing his tent with Jamie! We haven´t yet heard how the treatment is going, and hope to hear from Jamie soon with news of a full head of hair!!

Marisol´s second therapy also involves urine. Apparently if you want to stay really healthy, you should drink a teaspoon of your own urine each morning and evening. This is because your urine contains your "information". This led to a discussion about studying for a maths test, and bottling (and labelling) the information for retrieval as required! When we get back to work and you see little vials of yellow liquid in our desk drawers, you will know that these are our Peru answer to "yellow stickit notes".