The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) hosts the Rabies Directors of the Americas biannual meeting which Claire Harris and I had the privilege to attend this year. We were put to work to deliver a pre-REDIPRA seminar on surveillance, which provided us with a fantastic opportunity to get to grips with the challenges the region is now facing: having been so successful in their rabies control efforts, there is now increasing pressure to stop vaccinating in areas which are now rabies free. But what if they are not free? And what if they are free, but their neighbours are not? And what about the few focal areas where rabies still persists? What are the obstacles that are hindering progress in these places? And how does their progress affect the region as a whole? These were the kinds of questions that we were asking and are now being asked of us - very exciting but also very daunting! Full details of the REDIPRA meeting can be found here.