Utila - DAY EIGHT - Heading home, but not without some excitement!

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I had a comment asking about the food and drink and as far as that goes, unfortunately we were staying at an all inclusive dive resort so the only food and drink we enjoyed was what they made us. The Port Royal beer was good, but I'm no beer connoisseur so other than, "good," I'm not sure how to describe it. We ate a lot of excellent, fresh, seafood! The snapper was probably the most memorable. When we went into town, we had intentions of stopping at a local bar for a drink, but didn’t have time.

…Heading home today, but not without a little excitement at 4:30 in the morning. Lucky for Alex and I, we had just finished packing and put our bags outside of our room to be picked up when the power went out everywhere. I heard our fellow divers stumbling around outside because, without exaggeration, it was pitch black out. I thought, “there’s an app for that,” and pulled out my handy flashlight on my phone. What did we do before smart phones? Well, I’ll tell you….I shined the light to the left so our neighbors could find their way to the stairs, then I shined the light to the right, only to find our dive leader butt naked rummaging for his dive light in his bags he had already put out. I hear Marty, his wife, from inside, “John….do you have clothes on.” I responded, “Uhh…no…definitely no clothes on.” Of course, no dive trip is complete without seeing someone’s bare keister at some point, so it was fitting.

This time on the way to the airport, we had the pleasure of riding in the back of the pick-up truck while the others went inside the shuttle van. It was nice, to get the fresh air and I got a little video (below) so you can see. Keep in mind this is a "two-way" street...imagine the ride to the resort when it was filled with people and there was oncoming vehicles. I don't know how they do it.

The crew showed up on time for the plane, but our luggage was a separate trip for them so we had to wait almost an hour for that to show up before we could leave. I wore jeans, socks and sneakers, a jacket with the hood, and a gallon of bug spray….yet still got bit on my face and hands. Another uneventful flight….just how I like it. At the airport in mainland Honduras, I picked up a key chain and some cookies for my Spanish class. Alex got breakfast at Wendy’s while we were waiting for Delta to open up and take our luggage. Pretty close to what they serve in the states…..refried beans, tortillas, plantains….you know…the usual.

……….It was a long grueling day, but we survived the 18 hours of travel. These bug bites, on the other hand….I am ready to gouge out with a fork. Apparently the little millions of bites on Alex’s ankles are what the bites are supposed to look like (?), but naturally, my body over reacts to everything, and that is why I have huge welts instead.

I’ve been looking up remedies, after trying After Bite, cortisone cream, CalaGel, rubbing a bar of soap on the bites, baby powder…..pretty much anything I could get my hands on that had potential to help stop the itch, I put on at some point. I’ve taken multiple scolding hot showers, because the burn feels so much better than the itch and actually calms it for a bit.

Reading up on the bites, it has been suggested on a few sites to boil water and using a Q-tip, burn the bite (as opposed to my entire body in the shower). I did that to some of them. I read to put a salt mixture on them to help draw out the itchy ooze. I did that to some of them. Alex is picking up baking soda because we are fresh out and I’m going to try a paste on some of them. He is also picking up some Ivy Dry because in the past, that is the only stuff I ever found to really help bug bites.

For now I am a hodgepodge of bite remedy experimenting, but as long as I find something that works, I am willing to try anything. Of course, after burning bites with boiling water, that is probably obvious. So far so good for those bites, actually, but we’ll see.


……..Ivy Dry. My only saving grace when it comes to the relentless bug bites. I had a routine doc appointment and she was concerned about my bites getting infected because of some of them being scratched open (whoopsie). She gave me a prescription for Prednisone to help the bites heal quicker. I guess it worked. My scabs are healing. My bites, for the most part, don’t itch anymore (two weeks after getting home). This stuff is apparently not only used for skin issues, but leukemia, tuberculosis, and arthritis, just to name a few, so it has to be good? Looking forward to being healed.

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Photos

Reassuring...
Alex pointed out flaws of the plane before we boarded. Like the extremely worn tires, for instance.

Rainbow
There were actually two... "DOUBLE RAINBOW!" But I couldn't capture the second one; it was a lot more faint.

The back of my thigh
UGH!

Comments

[Mommsie]

Soooooooo amazing! The places you to - I'm so glad you have had the opportunities!! xoxox