Tales from Colombia - The Sea Urchin that Almost Killed Me

It’s been more than two and a half years since I travelled to Colombia to work at a hostel in the middle of the ocean. Casa en El Agua was an incredible experience, as the eco hostel was located in the San Bernardo Islands, a two hour boat ride from the mainland, Cartagena; the city is a beautiful and historic, up-and-coming tourist destination located on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

At the time, I never added more than a few blog posts when I worked in Colombia, as there was limited electricity and internet at the eco hostel, and then upon returning home to Canada, it seemed like a fast few weeks trying to find a place to rent for my boyfriend and I.

As I quickly approach 30 this week, I decided to try and fill out a few stories from sections on Stuckinyourtwenties Blog. Recalling my adventure in Colombia, I remember learning to converse in Spanish very quickly, waking up each morning to a beautiful sunrise and surrounded by ocean, and of course, the times I got sick and needed to travel two hours by boat to get medical care in Cartagena.

Below is an email I wrote from my phone to my boyfriend (who is now my husband) right after I stepped on a sea urchin, and at the time, being melodramatic me, I thought I was going to die.

Side note: If you know me, you’ll know I’m very accident prone, and hitting my head or bruising myself is very typical. At Casa en el Agua, it was no different, and my Spanish-speaking coworkers used to say “Siempre Lala!”, meaning “Always Lala”.

Hey Baby,

Today I worked the day shift for the first time, then right when I was finished, I went out to swim and stepped on a sea urchin.

I know you said you’ve stepped on one once in Cuba or something too.

I enjoyed waking up early this morning and going swimming as the sun began to rise. I love greeting guests as they come to Casa and being able to answer questions throughout the day.

Running around all day organizing is my thing. I’d love for us to open a hostel on a beach one day. Mauricio and Andrea, the couple who work at reception, are in the process of setting up a hostel themselves. They’re Colombians, so I think their hostel is going to be somewhere south in the country, where they’re from.

I much prefer doing the day shift to working nights and having to stay up past midnight. I’m not here to get white girl wasted or blow my money on drinks. I’ll save that for when I’m back home with you and we can make our daily trips to the LCBO (well, Friday and Saturday haha).

Old pic from the times when I’d spend all week counting down the hours until I could see him on the weekend.

So just after 4pm when my shift ended, I was desperate to go swimming after running around all day.

You know the other volunteer I told you about, the girl who makes everything difficult , well she waited until I was done my shift and she started hers, and got up in my face asking questions like usual, and I just had it. I just headed to the ocean and started to swim.

It’s funny, I know exactly where the dangerous parts are and have to warn guests not to swim out into the ‘dark areas’; it’s even part of my speech when I give the house tour. But I was so pissed off with this conversation and her pinning me down to talk when she can’t be bothered to help me out during the day, that I didn’t notice stepping on a spiky urchin of the sea.

I felt the pain like sharp spikes shooting through my foot and all the way into my body, and it got progressively worse within seconds. I started yelling out to someone to help, shouting “ I think I’m bleeding.” Luckily, a guest was a life guard; he dove into the water from the house and swam to me. I started convulsing as the pain got worse and he dragged me to the casa. He carried me up the steps and gave me to another guest (a guy who was the token ‘big obnoxious fat guy party animal’ the night before) and they laid me on the table.

I kept convulsing as the pain got worse. Not knowing what happened, the pain could only make me think “Oh my god, I’m going to die”.

Side note: After this experience, when I gave the house tour and stressed the importance of not swimming into the dark areas, I vividly described the convulsing and pain from a sea urchin, just incase it happens to a guest, they know they are NOT going to die.

I remember every single one of the guests was silent, and the house staff crowded around. The annoying girl came up in my face as I laid there saying “Don’t worry, the pain will go away” and I just said “Please go away”, thinking, this b*tch who chased me out to this sea urchin is the last face I want to see.

Then like some holy spirit leaning over me, Juan-Angel started rambling some prayer which was a blend of Spanish and jibberish; it actually seemed comforting in the moment.

Juan-Angel is the crazy bald man who lives here, he is the brother of one of the hostel’s owners, who gets in the tank with live lobsters and crabs and catches them for dinner, and he also [strangely] is a trained masseuse and offers massages to guests for a price. He started to softly massage me, and I squeezed his arm as he continued to ramble in Spanish Jibberish in a soothing voice to calm me. I was crying uncontrollably.

Crazy Juan-Angel in the crab/lobster tank

They said someone should pee on it, but I refused, and instead they soaked it in warm water and rum. I asked if I can have a shot of rum for my mouth lol. For some reason I didn’t get it.

They carried me to the massage table and Juan-Angel gave me a foot massage and put some soothing lotions on the foot which had been stung. I got a shot of tequila and laid there for almost an hour. I had to ask Marlene, who only speaks Spanish, to get my phone from where I left it so I could call you. That’s when I called and we spoke on the phone.

The pain slowly got better, and I managed to hop on one leg to showers later on. Being on the top bunk sucks with an injured foot.

What a day. I think it’s safe to say I have bad luck.

Miss you and love you

Xoxo
Sent from my iPhone