Today was excursion day. The plan was to leave the resort, go snorkelling, followed by a shallow ocean cove. Lovely stuff. It was looking a bit dicey when it started pouring rain half an hour before we were supposed to leave.
A new friend had asked me to go get something from her room, on the other side of the resort. So off I went. I was in aquasocks, so I wasn’t able to run. I started getting very wet.
And when I got back to the main building, I didn’t go all the way to the stairs, and instead hopped up the one foot tall ledge to the main floor. The floor that had wet tile. In my aquasocks with no grip. In the slip that happened, my left shin slammed into the corner of the ledge.
This was not a simple cut. There was an open wound with some depth in it, even if it was only a couple of millimetres. Fortunately, my friend George was having breakfast there at the time. He is a trained paramedic. And, an always prepared paramedic. He had the first aid kit on him and he started operating quickly.
It wasn’t too painful, and the endorphins kept me happy. I enjoyed being the centre of attention. He was thinking that sutures might be needed, but we ended up using a butterfly bandage. It acts like a stitch for small wounds. Although he had trouble getting enough light to work because everyone wanted to see.
I do have travel medical insurance, but nobody really wanted to go to the hospital for a small wound.
Of course, being who I am, I still wanted to go on the excursion. George didn’t have too much of a problem with this. We wrapped the leg up in bandages and cellophane and off we went! It had even stopped raining, although it was still cloudy.
It’s a good thing that George was here, because along the way, the bus/truck stopped for beer. An American, used to thick American bottles, tried to open his bottle be banging the cap off on an edge. He claims that he fainted, not from the glass cuts, but because he was still buzzed from drinking the previous night combined with lack of sleep. All I know is that he was lying on the ground with ice on his head.
The snorkelling was in a small swimming hole. Very beautiful. Initial thoughts by people was that it was cold. I thought it was great. It had nothing on glacial lakes. It was clear and although it wasn’t perceptibly deep, you could see creepy tunnels that led deeper.
The ocean cove was the same as last year, except the weather was better. No rain, but still cloudy. It was a pleasant place with a weird thermoline. Variations of hot and cold water were happening all the time.
Then back to the resort. George looked over the wounds that had been received and replaced the bandages. Right now it hurts a bit, but nothing worse than I’ve had after an ultramarathon.
2013-10-29 19:44