Just Go With The Flow

After four effortless trips to the can, I popped two store-brand immodium and hoped for the best. It is not uncommon for me to have bowel issues within the first week of arriving to warmer climates. I had the runs within the first few days of arriving in Sarteneja, Belize in 2010, and some funky gurgles in Delhi, India in 2012, so this was not entirely unexpected. Also, I was not so worried because this time the diarrhea was not accompanied with profuse sweating and abdominal pain, the kind that ended me up in the hospital in Dominican Republic and laid up in our 60 square foot room for five days in Antigua, Guatemala. Such is life on the road. However, since we had planned to take a bus and then a ferry to get to the island of Utila, which we knew only had a small clinic manned by one volunteer American ex-patriot physician, we thought it best to wait this one out in Tela.

Couchsurfing is more than just scoring free accommodations and the odd free meal. It is about building an international family. We did not want to appear to be taking advantage of Andy’s generosity but when we offered to pay for this extra unexpected night, Andy insisted that family does not pay for accommodations. Andy has started a neat tradition with his Couchsurfing guests. He takes a photo of each of his guests, has them developed, then has the guest sign it before they leave. Andy has a growing wall of photos, a testament to his character.

Asher crashed hard for what we call a three hour “growth spurt” nap, so we took that time to organize our packs, do some laundry and rest ourselves. We have been in a wifi drought so we walked around town looking for a place to order a ginger ale, update our blog and keep in touch with home. We also popped into some other hotels to check out prices and were surprised to see that you could rent a fully modern two bedroom apartment just a few blocks from the beach, with AC, a kitchen, living room and bathroom for only $32 a day!

When we returned for dinner, I managed to rig up the Jolly Jumper in our room so Asher had the best jump session since we arrived. When dangling outside in the heat, Asher’s jumps were more like lazy leaning bobs. While Asher jumped, we jammed on the uke and busted out some tight harmonies, boiled some water and put the finishing touches on our packs. The immodium seemed to have worked and we were all ready for our 7am departure to Utila.