I was covered in cuts and bruises on Monday from the Ball Buster and decided to forgo the final hangover run on Monday morning despite the promises of it being a short trail around the beach and hotel. I hung out around the pool with Yark, Rumble and Cosmo Monday 3rd September 2007 I was covered in cuts and bruises on Monday from the Ball Buster and decided to forgo the final hangover run on Monday morning despite the promises of it being a short trail around the beach and hotel. I hung out around the pool with Yark, Rumble and Cosmo
and then watched the down-downs and circle after the run.
I took it pretty easy most of the day, but in the afternoon there was a Post IAH party hosted by the Toronto “Hog Town Hash” down at a bar called “Si Senor” in the centre of town. It was pretty busy, in the bar which was on multiple levels up the side of a hill we drank for several hours until the beer ran out. I then led a group of friends including Yark, Rumple, Lick’mm, Lonely Brain Cell, Cosmo and many others down to the Burro Bar (where I had studied for my PADI exam).
It was a little further than I remembered, so I got teased about how far it was and the fact I kept on saying the bar was only a few more metres away. When we eventually got there we were givien a great table right down on the beach. We had a load more beers and margaritas as well as some excellent shrimp. The weather was still a bit cloudy and there was a heavy surf.
For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to go for a swim in this 2 metre surf; I stripped down to my underwear and ran down the beach and plunged into the water. Almost immediately I was bowled off my feet and knocked around a bit by the huge waves – it was very very exciting! When the waves retreated and left me on the beach I retreated a little way up shore and was surprised to hear English accents – there were 3 girls also trying to swim in this crazy surf and they were students from London working with a charity helping local kids. After a brief chat with them I plunged back into the waves. I got a bit further out when the next wave got me – it turned me head over heels several times before depositing me on my feet on the beach facing inland – all my friends thought it was some kind of trick and applauded!
I decided to have one more attempt to get out into the waves and to do some body surfing. This time I timed my entry carefully ducked under one wave and finally got out beyond the surf line. I waited for the next big wave and as it passed me started swimming for the shore to body surf in – but I overshot and fell off the front of the wave (all 2 metres of it) and landed head first in about 25 cms of water as the wave then broke over me and bounced me up and down on the bottom.
I honestly wondered if I was going to drown and I remember thinking it would be rather ironic to drown on a beach having just passed my PADI certification. After a few more bangs on the head and right shoulder the wave retreated leaving me gasping and coughing sitting in the sand. I decided I had had enough and went back to my friends. Only then did I discover that I had cut my forehead – fortunately it was only a graze but it did bleed quite spectacularly.
After a few more drinks we left the Burro Bar and I lead my friends down to the other beach bar close to my first hotel where I had a much need coffee and a not so much needed brandy. I was amazed to find other hashers already there.
We had a fine time and at some stage I decided it was time to head back to the hotel leaving the hardier and less foolish members of the party to do a pub-crawl around the town.
Tuesday 4th September 2007
When I woke up I realised I hurt even more than I had done on Monday as well as all the damage to my body from the Ball Breakers run I had added a sore shoulder, a cut head and a very sore left foot (I had torn open a whole load of blisters in the surf the night before). I was in a real mess.
I went to Starbucks for breakfast and to check out my emails on their free wireless internet. On the way there I saw a couple of huge iguanas that lived in the tree outside the Krystal Hotel. I tried to get some shots of them using my mobile phone but their camouflage meant I got some great pictures of the tree.
I hobbled down to the hotel around lunchtime as Higgins was holding a birthday party in his suite (which had a pool). This time because I had my camera the iguanas were nowhere to be seen. I started off very quietly at the party sitting inside in the cool as I was feeling more than a little fragile. The main party was in the pool and eventually after taking a few photos I did go in myself.
It was a great party!
Later on Hemmy invited most of us on a pub-crawl stag and hen party downtown as he and Oily Hole were soon to be married. I visited a couple of bars with the rest of the crowd, but my heart wasn’t into partying for some strange reason so I left them to it and headed back to the hotel.
Wednesday 12th September 2007
If anything I felt even more beaten up and battered when I woke up. My left foot was extremely painful and I seemed to be unable to lift my right arm anywhere above horizontal. I wandered down to EZ Over’s suite as Hemmy’s and Oily’s Hash Wedding was to be held there. As I arrived a “Diva” hash run was leaving. I hobbled along behind round the mercifully short trail around the hotel to the beach where all sorts of shenanigans went on including a couple of renamings and a his and her strip-o-grams for Hemmy and Oily Then it was back to the pool of the hash wedding. As well as my photos below one of the other guests took some video and has posted it on YouTube
After the ceremony everyone was kitted out in identical teeshirts – a tuxedo teeshirt for the men and a wedding dress teeshirt for the ladies
and then we all took cabs downtown to the Blue Shrimp a great bar where Hemmy and Oily Hole had laid on an excellent reception with a load of beer and magnificent and plentiful shrimps. We had a great time, especially because of the wacky decorations… The place was done out like it was underwater – the entrance to the ladies loo got a whole load of unrepeatable comments made about it!
(inside the gents)
the ladies
the roof of the restaurantThe party stated to pall on me – I was getting hot and felt the need for a change of scenery, so I left about 6pm and went and did some souvenir shopping and then feeling odd I decided I must be hungry and went for some ribs – which I couldn’t eat. I took a taxi back to the hotel and almost immediately I got there I started feeling terrible and without going into the gory details realised that I was suffering from Montezuma’s Revenge. It was a long and unpleasant night. I managed to get some Sprite from the hotel bar and spent most of the night either sipping on that or in the toilet pointing one end of my body or the other at the loo. At around 10:30pm I was sitting in bed when I felt it move about 3 inches in one direction and then back again. “Earthqake!” I thought – but there was no noise, no screaming, and nothing fell down – so I decided it was me that was wobbling rather than the room. It was only a week later that I discovered that it really was an earthquake (see news article).
Thursday 6th September 2007
On Wednesday I was really worried that I would be too sick to travel home, but I was feeling a lot better when I woke up on Thursday. I packed and having an hour to kill went round to the Krystal to see who else was around.
EZ Over and Spare Rib were in evidence as was Higgins, but everyone seemed to be strangely quiet. I bade them farewell and headed back to my hotel, checked out and went to the airport. I even remembered to pick up my diving DVD – I posted the edited highlights in another blog. The flights back to UK via Dallas were uneventful really. My stomach behaved (most of the time) and I reached cloudy old England on Friday morning having been subjected to 3 more showings of “Shrek the Third” on the in-flight movie.
I don’t think you will be surprised to hear that I needed quite some time to recuperate from my adventures!
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