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Okay, so I had this great big, long blog entry done yesterday , and as soon as I went to post it, the internet went down, and I lost the whole thing... kinda peed off. Especially now, since I?m in some super slow internet place, which I think is the only one in this town. Grr. Anyways...
On Tuesday morning, we got up bright and early to catch a boat to a place called Playa Blanca. I think that Erika should tell you about the boat ride in detail, since it traumatised her a little more, but the short of it is that we ended up in a very stinky and quite sketchy fish market at 8 am, where we sat in a small, very overloaded speedboat for nearly an hour (overloaded to the point of us being about 6 inches above the water), and, when we finally left, we proceeded to break down a few times, since the motor couldn?t handle all the weight in the boat. They finally offloaded about 8 of us onto another boat in the middle of nowhere, and that boat got us to Playa Blanca.
Off the boat, we went to a place called Wittenberg, run by a Frenchman, Gilbert, and his wife, Ana, where we could sleep in hammocks for a few bucks a night. There were 4 other people staying there - Kevin from Ireland, Juan Carlos from Peru, and Kirsty and Richard from Wales. We chilled at Wittenberg for a bit, then headed off down the beach to find some lunch - fresh fish and beer in the sand! After lunch, we thought we?d check out the snorkling - you can go right off the beach there. I was wandering about in the water for a bit when I hurt my foot - it felt like somehow I?d hit it really hard on something, and it hurt quite a bit, but I didn?t give it much thought, since I am forever running into things. So off I went to snorkle for an hour or so - lots of fish to see, including a pufferfish (I wanted to poke him to make him puff up, but thought I might end up with a hand full of pufferfish spikes, so left well enough alone). Got out of the water and went off for a massage and got my hair braided, foot hurting more and more the entire time. By this point, I figured I?d scraped it on some coral, since the pain wasn?t going away, and was actually getting worse - I?ve never scraped coral before, so I don?t know what it feels like, I just know it?s supposed to hurt a lot. I decided that if I was going to be in pain, I may as well be doing something interesting rather than just sitting there, so I went off down the beach to explore. Got all the way to the end, where I found a lovely little secluded cove, complete with a man in camo, holding a machine gun, lurking in the trees. He didn?t look overly threatened by me, so I went for a little swim (being careful not to make any sudden movements, of course). On the way back down the beach, my foot was bad enough that it was hard to walk on it. I managed to hold myself together nicely until I saw Erika, at which point I broke into tears, and she helped me hobble back to Wittenberg. I told everyone that there was nothing to see, that it was just a bad coral scrape, and I was being a baby, as I?m not so big on having people see me cry. By this point I?d hurt my foot a good 5 hours earlier. After everyone cleared out, Gilbert came over to take a look at it. I expected him to tell me that there wasn?t anything to be done, but suddenly he runs off, and then some guy comes running up the path, sits down in front of me, and starts sucking on the wound and spitting on the ground, and Gilbert?s telling me that this guy is going to get the venom out.... yeah, turns out I?d been stung by a stingray... which would explain the little hole in my foot. I have to say, getting venom sucked out is one of the worst pains I have ever felt - Erika was holding me down, I was screaming.... not too pretty. Gilbert and this guy, Orlando, took turns until they felt they?d got it all. Then some other guy brought some sort of mashed up stuff that Gilbert said would help with the pain, and they put a tourniquet on and wrapped my foot up. Gilbert said I?m the first tourist this has happened to in 11 years - lucky me!
I couldn?t put weight on it for the rest of the day, so we just hung out at Wittenberg for the afternoon, ate some lovely fish and lentils prepared by Ana, and chatted. As we were all sitting around talking, we heard one of the dogs growl, and I turned around to see a kitten go flying through the air - the dog only bit its ear when it tried to get at the dog?s food, but being thrown was too much for it, and we all sat there in silence as this poor little kitten died. Kevin said he will never get the picture of me sitting there, with my foot up and unable to run away, head in my hands, and the kitten died on the ground behind me... lovely. Of course, Kirsty and Rich said it was all quiet and peaceful before I showed up!
We headed down the bach for a few beers later that night (Rich and Kevin carrying me... with Rich finally just chucking me over his shoulder), then turned into our hammocks for the night.
The next day was far more restful - very sunny, so we all headed down to the beach around 8:30. At one point, a few of us were floating in the water when a little boy who was snorkling came sputtering past us, yelling, and heading for the shore - he?d seen a really big sting ray... I think they?re following me! Otherwise, the day was filled with games of cribbage, books, fresh fish for lunch.... we all retired to our hammocks for a few hours in the afternoon, then roused ourselves for dinner. Headed back down the beach at night to drink beer and watch the fantastic lightning storm over the water. Would?ve been a thouroughly uneventful day... as we were leaving, I was a little behind the others, as I was a bit slow, and the guy who ran the bar, Hugo, came running up to me. He asked about my foot, and told me he?d brought me a little light, since he didn?t want me to trip and hurt my foot more. I thought this was very nice of him, and went to say goodnight, which is when he decided to try to kiss me... and that?s when I ran (or hobbled) away! We went to sleep to the sound of donkeys and cows, which had come out at night to graze, or something - very wierd going for a walk on the beach and seeing cows strolling in the surf!
Another early morning on Thursday, up with the roosters, and we chilled for the day. Kevin and Juan Carlos had left the day before, so it was just the four of us. We caught a boat back to Cartagena around 3:30. Our stay at Wittenberg was so nice - Gilbert and Ana are really love people, and the beach was beautiful, if a little crowded with huts and trash. We all went out for a nice dinner that night in Cartagena.
Erika and I are now in a town called Taganga - just outside Santa Marta, which is 4 hours east of Cartagena, on the coast. We?ll write more about the town, the trip, and such, but I?m off to find out about diving, and they?re painting or something in here, and the fumes are getting a bit much. Foot is feeling better - there is a patch on the top of my foot - my big toe, saome of the toe next to it, and some of my foot - where I don?t have any feeling anymore. It hasn?t come back yet and, given how long the venom was in there, I don?t really expect it to, though it may. Otherwise, it?s a bit swollen, and I?m still getting stomach cramps, which is apparantly from the venom, but I think it?ll be fine in another week or so. In the meantime, I will try to stay out of the way of venemous animals!
Love Hil
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