Melbournite Aaron Martin floats his boat where few tourists, let alone dentists, dare to go and tells how good medicine can heal the healer, as well as the patient.

Iquitos's tiny airport is more like a dinghy in high sea than an international terminal. Serving the rontiers of Colombia, Brazil and Peru, the rickety structure is gateway to one of South America's largest jungle cities and will certainly do as a port in a storm. Which is just as well.

In a rainforest where an afternoon shower can send a metre-deep tide of water through streets where houses, shops and coconut sellers perch on stilts, there is no surface that doesn’t move. In an established city such as Iquitos, built in the 1750s and made grand during the rubber boom 100 years later, everything, even the architecture, has a certain liquidity.

Heading from the airport to town by mini-bus, lake-size puddles and potholes are reminders that the river is not the only thing heading to the sea. The streets are alive with 3-wheel taxis named mosquitoes for their signature whine and erratic road sense. They weave maniacally through the deluge while the crumbling street's cargo of hefty yellow buses and battered sedans dodge pedestrians running under plastic bags and more resigned souls, elegantly soaked, in shirt sleeves and tailored trousers.

Of all destinations in the wonderland of South America Iquitos is the most amazing quirk. A once elegant city built in the world’s most vast jungle – it’s a genuine frontier with the advantages of cosmopolitan ‘luxuries’ like real beds and shops. The fact that such a city even exists, thousands of kms from anywhere and with no roads to get there, is a wonder worth seeing.

But that’s not the reason Aussie dentist Aaron Martin found himself puzzling over what to pack for his flight to Iquitos last year. After reading about medical outreach work with indigenous people along the Peruvian Amazon, the Melbourne dentist put down his copy of Australasian Dentist, leaned back from his desk and pictured himself in a little canoe jetting through the latte-coloured waters of the world’s greatest river. He imagined joining a small international team of doctors, medical students, nurses and translators to set up mobile clinics in the jungle, and considered what he could offer to the hundreds of villagers dependant on such expeditions for their only source of medical care.

It was a vision that inspired an email which confirmed Aaron a place on a team heading to the remote area of the Achuar Indian villages along the Upper Pastaza River – but he had to be willing to leave in just a few weeks!

Chatting from Melbourne where he works at practices in East Malvern and Ivanhoe, Aaron laughs at how a couple of emails took him from his sophisticated urban life to a world completely untouched by clocks, cars and all of the cares of the Western world. "I’ve always wanted to visit South America," he explains, after reading the article I thought this looked like a volunteer project that would give me a chance to help as well as see some off-the-radar parts of the continent." As a dentist Aaron offered unique skills that are hard for medical outreach teams like Amazon Promise to provide without specialists, and as the fifth member of a tight-knit volunteer team he provided the extra body needed to make the expedition worthwhile.

"It was a last minute trip for me, but it all fell into place. I checked Amazon Promise out online and saw their videos on Youtube (see Celine Cousteau’s video at www.girlsontop.net) so I had a good idea where we were headed. I read lots of warnings too, from Patty who runs the expeditions, about how remote we would be and how tough it could be. I have to admit I was pretty nervous when I headed out."

Iquitos is a hub for intrepid types setting off on cruises of the Amazon River, fishing expeditions, tours with shaman (plant healers) and stays at Indian villages. Amazon Promise head into areas beyond those tourists see, and the biggest challenge of the forest is learning how to ‘do’ jungle.

"In reality, it wasn’t a scary experience at all," says Aaron. "It’s no picnic though and there is some pretty hairy stuff out there but the heat is the first thing that hits you and once you’ve acclimatised to that, the humidity, and the bugs, you’re ready to go and experience a very beautiful place – I loved it!

"Yes, we were hot! Very hot a lot of the time, I don’t think I’ve ever taken so much water and rehydration salts as I did in those 2 weeks," he laughs. "But we were completely safe and you couldn’t ask for a better group of people to travel with. It wasn’t as tough as I imagined and my main fears actually were only half about the region and what to expect there, and half about whether my skills would be relevant."

Aaron’s expedition was the most remote of all Amazon Promise’s trips, and depends on a complex and delicate relationship between army, oil base, tribal elders and medical crew. It is one of the great credits in Amazon Promise’s already impressive legacy of achievements (they have taken hundreds of volunteers on trips, reaching thousands of indigenous people, are endorsed by medical pioneer Patch Adams and leading surgeons from all over the world) that they have created such a unity among diverse interests.

"We saw the world there as it was before "the world" arrived. It was incredible! Beautiful! Sometimes hard to believe, and very humbling too," says Aaron. "Some tribes are actually untouched which, in a way, is better for them. When you float past in a boat it seems idyllic: peaceful wooden homes, little smoking fires, fishing nets, children swimming, women doing their laundry in buckets on the Amazon, but in reality it’s a hard life and you find that out in clinic.

I spent about half my time as a dentist, 40% as a pharmacist [at Amazon Promise’s portable dispensary] and 10% as a dog’s body and I’m glad it turned out that way. There is an extremely high need for dental care and other than what we can give there is basically no medical treatment at all for these people. As far as dentistry goes, those areas where Coke, alcohol and sugar products arrived are just a disaster. There is a poor understanding of the cause of tooth decay, there’s just no connection between sugar and holes and no awareness of prevention, tooth decay is basically seen as bad luck."

On his trip Aaron saw about 80 dental patients, mostly multiple extractions, and assisted with general medical support for over 1000 others. "Mostly I helped with acute pain relief but without power, rotary instruments or backup dentistry is too physical for one dentist to keep up with and I enjoyed the other roles. Professionally, it’s so far removed from work in Melbourne it’s ridiculous! You’ve got to do what you can with what you’ve got. Improvise, and draw on your life-skills and experience. It’s a fantastic experience that way, great for building confidence and for knowing that what you’re doing is the real foundation of the work. In private practice day in and day out you can get blinkered, you get into a routine and this will break that pattern," he guarantees. "The diversity is great and reconnecting with the value of your profession; well, this is an extremely powerful experience in this way because it opens your eyes to just what we can and do for people’s lives."

Typically, combined teams of surgeons, doctors, a dentist if they’re lucky, students and medical assistants treat villagers for a mixed range of conditions including parasites, burns, fall injuries and malnutrition. "The teams are mixed in terms of ability and aptitude but after a few days you slot into what you can and can’t do and everybody gets a little niche," says Aaron.

"If you’ve got an open mind, adaptable attitude and can cope with the unpredictable then this is a fantastic experience that will open your eyes and change your ideas about what matters in life. It’s incredibly beautiful and you’ll see a way of life where what we think of as needs; the sunglasses, the money, the designer clothes, just don’t exist and the people live entirely free of the desire and the stress of it. Where there’s no advertising and no currency – and you can see how much better off people are without it.

You’ll see that you can help with some of the problems they do have and that the people have a difficult life but it’s one that has been intact for thousands of years and meeting them and seeing just a little into their lives you see that they have a view of reality completely different to ours. To be honest, the hardest part was coming home."

To join an Australian expedition travelling with Amazon Promise this October contact amazon2010@rocketmail.com <mailto:amazon2010@rocketmail.com> and visit www.girlsontop.net <http://www.girlsontop.net/> .au

To check in with Aaron email him at aaronmartin2004@yahoo.com.au