Sea Urchins

So, we had an eventful day yesterday that ended with an evening at the local Urgent Care where Bill got sea urchin spines dissolved out of his foot. He’ll write about this more fully in his post. We went for a night snorkel, but our snorkel guide didn’t show up so we went out with a very young boat captain who took us to a place where the water was too shallow for snorkeling. At night, this is particularly problematic because you can’t see very far ahead to know whether you are in an area where the coral is too close to the surface. Bill smacked his foot on a sea urchin because there was so little room to maneuver around them.

We made it back to shore and I went to our hotel to get passports, credit cards, allergy medicine and money while Bill waited for the snorkel place to send a car and take him to the urgent care down the road. On the way there, I overheard parts of the conversation between our driver and the owner of the snorkel place. I think the person who was supposed to be our guide had been smoking weed and failed to show up. The owner said something about weed being a pathway to the devil that Christians should not engage with. We were at Urgent Care until about 11pm. Bill soaked his foot in hot water with industrial-strength vinegar to dissolve the spines that couldn’t be pulled out. At least now, we know how to treat sea urchin spines. Last night, we didn’t know if they were venomous or caused allergic reactions. They don’t, which is good. We are planning to put together a small medical kit to take with us in the future for events like this. We have a lot of stuff already, but I think a dedicated bag that could come with us on the boat would be a good idea.

Bill had to go back to Urgent Care this morning for a tetanus shot and we got a prescription filled for antibiotics but he doesn’t think he will need them. I had a short conversation with one of the paramedics while Bill was talking to the doctor. The medic sees a lot of heat exhaustion, dehydration, divers with compression problems from coming to the surface too quickly and other people who get hurt in various ways on the reef. It was definitely a unique experience. We got a free scooter rental from the snorkel place, and we may get one for the rest of the week. It’s nice to have some faster mobility.

Otherwise, we did a tour of part of the island yesterday. There wasn’t a lot to see and we were in some really poor areas, but we did go to West Bay. I definitely don’t want to stay there, it’s all big resorts with lots of people. But, there is a potentially good snorkel location that we can get to with a water taxi. I think we are going to try that this afternoon. Our driver also stopped at a couple of fruit shops so I have some fantastic mangos and a pineapple that’s also probably very good. There was another group of Americans who went to a private zoo where people are allowed to hold the animals which seem to be mostly monkeys and sloths. That’s crazy unethical and bad for the animals. I would love to hold a sloth, but I’m not willing to pay to fund the illegal traffic in animals for these kinds of places.

This is our apartment. It’s really lovely and very comfortable. We’ve been fixing breakfast and should probably do the same thing with lunch.

The food here has been really good! Yesterday, I had shrimp in a garlic sauce with rice and beans, a salad, some sort of pickled purple vegetable, and plantain chips. For supper, I had fried shrimp with French fries. They also make really good lemonade here.

As part of our city tour, we went to a rum distillery. It was on top of a hill so there was a beautiful view of West Bay. Apparently, when the weather is clear, you can see the mainland of Honduras. Bill bought a coconut rum cake that is surprisingly good. It doesn’t have a strong alcohol taste at all. He said the rum samples weren’t harsh either, so not too bad.

It is super hot and humid here! It’s still hazy but it’s been much sunnier for the last two days. I burn fast so I’m glad it was hazy for our long snorkel trip the first day.

I got this very pretty lemonade for lunch with colorful sugar over the top. It was delicious. There is also a French bar and grill that has a bakery where I got chocolate pie a couple of day ago. It is owned by a French couple.