Friday, June 4, 2010

Cliff Diving and Sea Urchins


Jax was such a trooper!
Story time! Wow its Friday morning at 8 am and I am beat! We went out for a little dancing the night before and I only got four hours of sleep not to mention I have been sick since the minute I landed in Europe so I am working on my fifth wind. The weather this morning was not what we expected in this tropical island, the skies were gray and drizzles of rain we coming and going all morning. After everyone wakes up and eats breakfast a group of eight including me, Danielle, Jax and Mike decide to rent a motor boat from Billy's boat rental and head to the other side of island to check out some caves and cliff dive.
After a lot of coordinating people to come out and rent boats for a better deal we were able to head on out. The boat was a bit of a joke, it went slower than I speed walk and it took us over an hour to reach our destination. However the views along the way were absolutely beautiful there were hundreds of cedar trees reaching high above the others and the water is the brightest and deepest blue color I have ever seen. Along the shore there were also private rock beaches with hugh resorts with old roman style architecture. I could easily live off these views.
We end up finding a small cove with three tiny restaurants right off the water line so we park our boat at their dock and stop for a nice Greek lunch before our day in the sun. I got Musaka here which was interesting to say the least. It was opened egg plant covered with olives, minced meat, cheese and white sauce baked. Yummy but not my favorite.
From there we walked along the rock beach and found a small trail which led up into the hills then back down to a set a cliffs, the perfect location for cliff diving. Also on the cliffs were a few other people from the trip. The cliff was easily twenty feet high and the water below was crystal clear and turquoise. Everyone took their turns jumping in and taking pictures then we all laid out to dry off.
After a few hours we decided to head back to our boat and get ready for dinner. We get in the boat, untie it, and set in reverse when suddenly the owner of the restaurant comes running out screaming something about the rope. We could not understand and eventually realized that they had anchored the back of our boat while we were away and we were about to tangle it with our motor. Mike was able to pull the anchor back in but while he was doing so the boat began to drift. All the girls sitting in the front of the boat sat there completely clueless as the boat started crashing into the surrounding boats. I had to run to the front and show them how to keep the boats from hitting (seems like common sense to me).
We were unable to roll up the rope and start the motor quick enough before it started to wash up onto shore. The main problem here was that the sea floor was all rocks, no sand and the propeller was scraping along them. Jackey decides to jump out (bad idea) and push the boat back out into deeper waters. She jumped off the side and instantly I could tell by the look on her face that something wasn't right. She kept saying "I stepped on something it hurts" and we had all thought she cut her foot on a rock. Nope not quite. She pulled her foot out of the water and she had a bunch of sea urchin spines sticking all through her toes and bottom of her feet, she jumped right on top of a sea urchin!
We pulled her back into the boat, re-docked the boat and tried our hardest not to panic. Mike pulled the spikes out of her feet that were still exposed but most had broken off at the skins surface. The owner of the restaurant was still standing on the dock and I yelled to him if he had anything to put on her foot until we could get back to our hotel, and the classic Greek answer? Olive Oil! He sends a bus boy for a bottle of olive oil and some napkins to soak her foot. They say it will soften the skin and make it easier to pull them out.
An hour later we are able to get back to the dock, pay for the boat, and get Jacky back to the room where her and Mike tried to perform surgery and get as many out as he could.
The spikes however are extremely brittle and as you try to grab them with tweezers they just crumble under her skin. For now they will have to stay in there either until w can get them our until the body absorbs them since they are made mostly of calcium carbonate (Danielle did some research on them as they were tried to pull them out in the room). The poor thing was such a trooper and managed to stay positive and smiling the entire time. For now she is sleeping it off until its time to go out later.


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