Category Archives: Culture

Off to the Caribbean (again)

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There are lots of good things about having Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday in the U.S. For the obvious reason, it celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the last enslaved people in the state were free. The sad part about this is that through the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in January 1863, so over a year and a half earlier, it wasn’t until the end of the Civil War in 1865 that the Union Army could enforce this in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas. Concealment of the Emancipation Proclamation was no longer possible after June 19, 1865.

Since former President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday, that means that now, I can get a total of four summer holiday days off from work: Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, and Labor Day (I never complain about having another day off or holiday). Memorial Day and Labor Day mark the beginning and end of summer for me (at least, mentally speaking), and now Juneteenth can be the beginning of our annual summer trip. Kaia ended Pre-K yesterday, so today is the official start of her summer! Today, we left early in the morning for a direct flight to the first of four islands on our Caribbean trip: Barbados! We’re so used to connecting somewhere during our trips that it felt like a little luxury to be able to fly directly from New York to Bridgetown today. We arrived just past noon and arrived at our hotel, which is the very first all-inclusive resort experience we’ve ever had. This means that all food, drink, and activities onsite are included. It even includes things like made-to-order coffee, the mini bar items in the rooms, the onsite ice cream parlor, any and all meals onsite, as well as the kids club, which runs activities for children age 4 and up from 9am to 9pm every day (and acts as an onsite, included childcare center).

We’re not really relax-at-resort people and never have been, so this is a different experience for us hotel-wise. Before Kaia, we may have used our hotel pools a few times, but that was really it. At a resort we stayed at in Cancun when Kaia was about 1.5, we did have a good amount of pool time, but that was balanced with exploring the real Cancun outside of the tourist area, driving around the Yucatan, and seeing Chichen Itza. We’re interested in local culture and food, and we’re definitely seeking to get that — off property. It was funny for me to hear about things like all alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks included, including specialty coffee drinks, and an ice cream parlor, though. I am used to hearing ridiculous costs for at-hotel food and drink items.

So while we did have drinks and lunch at the resort today, as we approached dinner time, we took an Uber to Oistin’s Fish Fry, which is in an area that was originally an old fishing village turned into a fun hangout for both locals and tourists alike. Oistin’s Fish Market is just steps away from the Fish Fry area, and it’s a true Barbados institution. Oistin’s stretches along the water with multiple little bungalow-like buildings where different vendors grill and fry fish, meat, and vegetables to order, as well as local popular side dishes, like macaroni pie, rice and peas, coleslaw grilled breadfruit, and fried plantains. And of course given we’re in Barbados, there are many rum drinks and bar options everywhere. There’s a huge stage in the middle of the outdoor market area, where music was being played, live music and performances happen, and people can congregate and dance.

We ended up choosing a spot at Oistin’s called Yvonne’s Bar & Grill (my namesake has to be good, right?). After reviewing multiple vendor menus and coming to the conclusion that everyone had the exact same fish selection, almost the same sides, and all the same drinks, we figured that there was no way we could go wrong. We chose a whole grilled red snapper, which was grilled perfectly with super moist, flaky flesh, and smothered in a really delicious and addictive Bajan seafood seasoning blend. I kept licking my fingers after taking bites of the fish because the seasoning was just that good. The fish was served with coleslaw, green salad, potatoes, plantains. and grilled breadfruit.

Kaia got to have breadfruit for the very first time here, and she seemed to like it. Though to be honest, by dinner time, she was clearly so exhausted and looked like she wanted to pass out. So she may have just been eating the breadfruit mindlessly… Breadfruit is one of the funniest fruits to me in that it really is exactly as its name sounds like: it’s a very carby, starchy, “bread-like” fruit that hangs round and heavy from large trees, and is eaten like potatoes or bread would be eaten. In the Caribbean, breadfruit is usually served grilled or fried. It’s not “fruit” like you would consider something like a mango or orange at all. It’s a hundred percent savory and not the least bit sweet! It reminded me of her former Jamaican nanny, who said grilled or fried breadfruit was on regular rotation at her house. Once, she even brought a piece to share with me; that was my very first time having it. And today at Oistin’s marks my second time ever having it.

While the Caribbean islands have never been an area that has been on the top of my list of places I want to see, I do think it’s fun to see how different the culture, customs, and food are amongst all the islands. And I’m always happy to embrace the local food and fruit! After having locally caught red snapper tonight, I’m looking forward to having more local fish, including mahi mahi, flying fish, and marlin. And I will most certainly be on the lookout for interesting local fruit, and of course mangoes because it’s mango season here now!

Mangoes from the Dominican Republic

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In the U.S., the majority of the mangoes we can get here are imported from Mexico. They are usually either the Kent or Ataulfo varieties. There are also a few varieties I’ve heard of that are grown in Florida, but they are not widely available depending on where in the country you are, and either way, Florida has never been impressive to me when it comes to fruit. For example, when people talk about Florida oranges (okay, the rare times they do), I always roll my eyes on the inside; I think we all are aware that California navel oranges in the U.S. are the best when it comes to pure flavor nuance and sweetness, both for eating and drinking!

Every year as March rolls around, Chris gets excited as a mango lover as Ataulfo mangoes become readily available. Whole Foods usually has large stocks of these small yellow mangoes, which we always have a large supply of at home, ripening while socially distanced at our window sill. Mangoes are always, always at our place from March through July. This is generally when the Ataulfo mango season is.

So when some friends came over on Saturday and brought us some Dominican Mingolo mangoes from a Dominican market near them in Brooklyn, I was intrigued. These were larger, fatter, and heavier. The fragrance was evident as soon as you held one up to your nose. And they seemed quite ripe already! I cut them, and given they were so ripe, most were peeled and then disintegrated into some mango mush. While it isn’t as firm as Ataulfos, these Mingolos tasted a bit more tropical, more tart-sweet than Ataulfos, and were definitely far more juicy. I think they would be really good in desserts or just simple shakes with some added ice.

And the added bonus: once Ataulfos go out of season in July, Mingolos are supposedly still available (usually at Dominican markets across the city) until end of August! So if we are lucky and can source some from Dominican neighborhoods, we can still keep eating mangoes through the end of summer!

Golden Mall at FiDi

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Once upon a time, the Financial District was not a fun place to be at all. It was a place you went to and from work. It was an area of the city you’d go shopping at famous discount mega stores like Century 21. It was also a destination to see the New York Stock Exchange and of course, the famous Wall Street bull (and get a photo op!). I still remember once I went down there on a Sunday night in my early 20s to have dinner at a friend’s place. She was living in a luxury high rise in the heart of FiDi. And it was so incredibly eerie and quiet while walking from the subway to her place and back that I sped-walked both ways, wondering what lurked in the corners. The whole area on a late Sunday night gave me the heeby-jeebies.

That was circa 2008-2010, my early years living in New York City. Now in 2026, there’s a Printemps department store from Paris, a Los Tacos No. 1 outpost, a huge Whole Foods, an excellent Uighur style restaurant, and lots of delicious regional Chinese restaurants. We also have the much awaited opening of the Golden Mall, which is an extension and recreation of the famous, divey Golden Mall in Flushing, Queens, one that really recreated a lot of the hole-in-the-wall/mass eateries that I once remember frequenting when I was in China in 2006. The food was region-specific, authentic, and dirt cheap. Here, of course, the food isn’t dirt cheap since everything in Manhattan is expensive, and FiDi is no exception. Golden Mall FiDi just opened a few weeks ago, and so far, the line-up looks really good: They have Lou Yau Kee opening, of the original Hainanese chicken rice consultants to the beloved Urban Hawker Center in Midtown Manhattan; we have Good Coconut, a fresh coconut juice/pudding spot, Prawnaholic, also originally of Urban Hawker. And Joju, the Vietnamese sandwich spot originally from my original hood of Elmhurst, is also opening an outpost here (they wanted to match the quality of bread at the REAL banh mi OG in Brooklyn — Ba Xuyen!!). My friend and I met here to catch up over Xing Fu Tang bubble tea, and she also had some braised beef hand pulled noodles at a sparkly new Lanzhou-style hand-pulled noodle stall. It looked and smelled delicious and authentic.

Every neighborhood is evolving and changing. Some like FiDi are becoming more fancy… and more Asian. And I’m all for that!

Being in a real clothing store again – the madness and the new technology!

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I have never enjoyed the process of shopping for clothes — looking, trying on clothes, and well, no one likes paying for clothes. 😀 So when I stopped having friends drag me out on mall or shopping trips, the only way I was going to willingly buy clothing was online. And yes, that was a dream, especially in cases where the stores had either free returns or in-store return policies for clothing bought online. I could buy the clothes online, try them on at home to check for fit and whether they looked right on me, and if they didn’t work out, either drop them in the mail back or return them to a store nearby. The vast majority of all clothing I’ve purchased in the last 16+ years has been online, and I do not miss the in-store shopping process at all. The only times I’ve enjoyed it just a little are when I am traveling internationally and see more unique items, like at one or two shops I like in Australia, or when I’m looking at clothing for Kaia (because baby/toddler girl clothing is always fun to look at).

So in the last couple days, I’ve been seeing some potential summer pieces at Zara online, but their entire online shopping experience… kind of sucks. I was thinking that I probably should stop being so lazy with dressing (this all stems from being 100 percent remote with work) and actually buy clothing I want to wear that looks good and fits well… instead of always wearing all my AFSP volunteer shirts and other things I don’t care much about just for comfort. Especially now that I am probably going to get more involved in Kaia’s elementary school, I should dress up a bit more and try a little.

Zara is good in that they have this nifty option to check for in-store availability closest to you (and so far, it looks pretty accurate), so I found out that two pieces I liked were at their Bryant Park location. So I used that as an excuse to get some extra steps in and walk there before picking up Kaia in Chinatown. I walked in and was immediately reminded of why I hate in-store shopping: the store, despite it being about 4:15pm on a Wednesday, was mobbed. People were speed walking and even running across the store to grab pieces. It felt like a competitive sport being in there! People were rushing to grab items before anyone else claimed them. It was a little insane. Employees were restocking and being bombarded with questions (and some even had lines for people with inquiries). And I just felt a little dizzy navigating all of this and trying to figure out where these two specific items were. I eventually asked an employee, who was super friendly and able to get someone to fetch me the item from their stock room since neither of us saw one of the pieces on the floor (this was very efficient!). I tried one piece on (on the floor out in the open, and not in the fitting room because the line was 20+ people long!); luckily it didn’t require me to undress. And when I went to buy the shirt in the payment area, I simply dropped the item into a bin, which immediately scanned the item for what it was, the size, and the price. I paid by Apple Pay by tapping, was texted the receipt, and that was it! It was just like the buying process at Uniqlo — the only other shop at which I’ve bought in store in the last few years. The “cashier” line was nonexistent, as it’s all self pay with an attendant checking in occasionally.

This is the reality of in-store shopping now that I’m just ignorant to since I rarely shop in person — things are more automated and efficient. There’s less in-person support for payment. The “lining up” doesn’t happen as much anymore. But it also feels more “competitive” to be in store with getting the items you want in the size you need and as quickly as you need them. That’s too tiring for me! The ease of online shopping is just so, so much easier.

Ronny Chieng at the West Side Comedy Club

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Tonight, Chris got us tickets to see Ronny Chieng do test material at the West Side Comedy Club, which was convenient for us given it’s just about 15 blocks north of us. We’ve already seen Ronny Chieng live numerous times over the years. One time previously in the West Village, we also got to see him perform test material. This was pre-pandemic, far before he was ever a “star” in a major Hollywood movie. But his fun, vibe, and dead panning remain amazingly the same. We sat in the front row around the stage, and he made a comment about my sandals (modern Crocs!) and how they are definitely fitting of the “Upper West Side,” and so we must not live in the area (I corrected him). “Well, I guess it’s all the new money in the area, then!” he responded.

Are we “new money”?

When we were walking back down to our apartment, Chris noticed that Ronny actually was walking a little ahead of us. He was wearing his same outfit, with his test material notebook under his arm, and the same large bottle of sparkling water in his hand. I remarked to Chris that this was such a guy thing, to carry a loose notebook with important information in it completely unprotected out and in the open when it could easily get destroyed by rain (it had rained during the time we were inside the comedy club, and could very well start again given how summer rains are in the city). Chris suggested that I tell him this myself. So we walked a little faster to catch up to him, and that was how I greeted him. He recognized us from the front row, fist-bumped us for coming to his show, asked how we found out about the show and if we had seen him perform live before. So we walked together for maybe three to four blocks before we separated ways. He was on his way to another comedy club for another standup gig — always hard at work, doing what he is most passionate about.

With this interaction, he was nowhere as socially awkward as he was when we approached him at his test material night in the East Village. He seemed more confident, happier to interact with us, and genuinely grateful we’d come to see him live. I LOVE THIS GUY.

When you get home from a trip, it’s time to properly wash your whites

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After a trip, I have always been one of those maniacal people who need to unpack everything right away as soon as I get home. I want all the dirty clothes put in the wash. I want all toiletries put away. I need all souvenirs or edible things separated and stored properly. I also want travel things like travel bag compartments, totes, backpacks, and luggage put away, stat. The idea behind this is that I want to relax as soon as possible and be in a calm state of mind, and I won’t be able to have any of that unless everything dirty gets cleaned, and everything that needs to be put away is put away.

Well, I’ve added one additional thing to my list ever since I decided to start embracing white clothing a year ago: if I bring white clothing with me, I NEED to set aside time to wash them properly. This means whipping out my trusty Jamaican blue soap bar, scrubbing visible stains with the blue soap, soaking in a bucket, rinsing, and then throwing into the washing machine. It’s an additional step, but I am getting a satisfying kick out of this process. It really only applies to several garments of clothing, plus my white slip-on AllBirds, but I always love the feeling of looking at my whites after they’ve come out of the wash and laying them out to air dry and hopefully further be bleached whiter by the sun.

Maybe it’s a sign of getting older that I’ve embraced this little menial and annoying task that I avoided like the plague for so much of my life. I think the last time I intentionally bought a pure white garment was maybe over ten years ago. And before that, it was in college. And I barely wore those pants from over ten years ago because I didn’t understand how to clean it properly then, and I got so mad at how the stains would never come out in the washing machine on their own. Now, I take real ownership of my whites and do my best to keep them super white! I’m sure my former Jamaican nanny would be proud!

“Camp” setup at our San Pedro Sula hotel

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Once Kaia had outgrown a crib and pack-n-play, when traveling, we’d ask the hotels for a roll-away bed for her. All hotels accommodate this, of course, but occasionally, you get a special surprise at some properties.

We stayed at an Aloft hotel in San Pedro Sula. Aloft is known for their Camp Aloft, which encourages kids ages 2-12 to have fun by providing them with their own unique Aloft experience. They call it a “bed in a bag with special treats!” The last time Kaia had something close to a tent experience was when we had the Lovevery “fort” setup, but she quickly outgrew that because that was more for babies and younger toddlers. She’s also hidden in the tent at Chris’s aunt and uncle’s place in Melbourne, which she loved. So when we arrived at our hotel room on Saturday late afternoon, she squealed with delight when she saw her little tent bed. After taking off her shoes, she immediately ran over to the bed to hide in her tent. She was obsessed with the little windows where you could play peekaboo. I love that she still loves peekaboo… and I still wonder how long this peekaboo love will last?!

The hotel manager also tried to spoil her by giving her a full-sized bag of M&Ms and a bag of Skittles… which Chris immediately confiscated. I think by the end of the trip, he may have let her have two M&Ms and two Skittles max. I love these experiences that Kaia gets when traveling, and I love seeing people treat children well. I hope she can remember at least some of these experiences when she’s older, as at the age of 4, this is the earliest time of my life that I have very vivid memories of. And even when she isn’t able to remember, we will have lots of photos and videos to document and share with her so she can relish in the fact that she was so spoiled in these travel moments.

My very first cacao fruit — in Honduras

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Few things excite me more than discovering new food, and especially new fruit, while traveling. I love that different countries and and climates have different fruits that can only be grown in certain areas. Some people are upset by this, as they believe that globalization should enable anyone anywhere to get whatever produce they want anytime they want, but I think that’s just unrealistic given how delicate and sensitive some of these fruit and vegetables are. Indian mangoes are a great example: while many are being exported to the U.S. from India, it’s a huge gamble which of them are actually intact once they make it to stateside. Many would have rotted in transit, and they all need to be sprayed to prevent infestation. The one time we bought a box of Indian mangoes in New Jersey and brought it back home, I still remember one of them never ripened, while a couple others were rotted and black. There’s a no-returns policy on these, so it’s fully at your own risk!

While in Guatemala on our day trips to Antigua and Lake Atitlan, I talked to our driver about cacao fruit, and he had mentioned that locals did buy it to eat the fruit around the cacao beans. We saw it at a few fruit stands there, but the road conditions and traffic were unpleasant, and so I never asked our driver to stop. In Ecuador in July, our driver who took us to Quilotoa Crater Lake told us that one of his sons absolutely loves cacao fruit and that it’s one of his favorites, so he gets it just for him. My interest was piqued; I needed to try cacao fruit at least once!

So when we passed several street-side vendors selling the fruit, I asked Javier our driver if that was in fact cacao, and he confirmed it was. So we stopped by a fruit vendor, and from there, I was given a cacao and chose the ripest possible mango (out of likely over 20 that were ROCK hard!) given we had less than 24 hours left here. I just spent over $2 USD on local Honduran fruit, and I was extremely, extremely thrilled.

Back at the hotel last night, I asked if someone from the kitchen could help me cut the cacao in half. I got it back and scooped out all the cacao seeds (beans), which were covered in a thin, custardy white layer — this is the fruit! Chris and I shared the fruit since Kaia seemed extremely uninterested in it, and I didn’t feel like pushing her given it was a potential choking hazard. The flavor was sweet first, then a little tart, with a custardy texture and finish. Chris remarked that he wished there was more flesh to eat, which I agreed with. The more I thought about it, the more the flavor and texture reminded me of the cherimoyas we had while in Peru. Cherimoyas are a lot less work and far more flesh to eat, though! The act of sucking off the flesh from around the beans — this was definitely reminiscent of the mamoncilla fruit we ate while in Colombia and El Salvador. Those seeds were extremely large and round (super big choking hazard!), with a thin, bright pink flesh.

Fruit adventuring while traveling is one of the best things. Now I can finally say I’ve tried cacao the fruit!

A day spent exploring the surrounds of San Pedro Sula, Honduras

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If you look at places to see and what to do in San Pedro Sula, you can tell almost right away that it was never a place built with tourism in mind. There’s virtually zero tourism infrastructure. People obviously live there. Many businesses are located and/or headquartered here, so people come for business travel. But when it comes to sightseeing, most of that is found outside of San Pedro Sula, at least an hour outside the city, where you forget “urban” even exists because of how green, jungle-like, and rugged the area outside of it is.

We didn’t want to rent a car or drive in mainland Honduras, so Chris tried for a while to find a driver who could take us on a day trip, but it was challenging. Some of the drivers he found and reached out to didn’t seem legitimate. Others were quoting such astronomically high costs that they would even be absurd if we got quoted those numbers back home in the U.S. Finally, and unexpectedly, we were able to enlist the hotel manager’s help ahead of time in finding us a safe, legitimate driver who charged a reasonable amount to be our driver for the day outside the city. We were warned he didn’t speak any English, but this was fine because we’d give him our desired itinerary ahead of time. And of course, there was always Google Translate (what a savior!).

We visited a number of interesting places today that made us forget about the city completely. Our first stop was at D&D Brewery and Restaurant in the Pena Blanca area. It’s this little brewery/restaurant/inn that you’d totally overlook when driving passed it because it’s so tucked away. It’s physically inside a rainforest close to Lago de Yojoa (Lake Yojoa). Given they are a craft brewery (that uses mountain spring water), we got a pineapple and raspberry beer along with a slice of very light and fluffy chocolate cake to appease Kaia. We also walked around the property, which really did feel like we were right in the center of a jungle. It was a really beautiful spot with friendly service despite the language barrier.

Our next stop was at Los Naranjos Eco-Archaeological Park, which contains pre-Columbian ruins of a major Lenca city dating back to 800 B.C. That is even older than Copan, the famous Maya ruins also in Honduras that is likely better known. Copan dates back to 400 A.D. There, we got to walk along a long wooden boardwalk that curved through these huge wetlands at the edge of Lake Yojoa. I loved all the unique bird songs we got to hear while walking through it — how beautiful it would be to be able to fall asleep to those nature sounds at night! I also appreciated how relatively covered we felt by the endless large trees from the UV rays (I am officially in my forties now, after all…).

Just past midday, we went down to Lake Yojoa and took a calm, relaxing boat tour of the lake and surrounds. This time, our driver Javier came with us, and he occasionally pointed out interesting things to us, like the famous Goblin’s Cave and the turtle shaped island in the middle of the lake. While on the boat, I was reminded of this time last year when we were in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, for a day trip. And the mountains in the distance here and the faint mist over them reminded me of that time. There are so many beautiful bodies of water in the world to see and explore!

We passed so many street side fruit vendors that I had to take advantage of this. So I asked Javier if he could stop by one so I could check out some fruit. I ended up getting a local mango and my very first cacao fruit — all for 70 Lempiras; more on this tomorrow!

A typical lunch by the lake will include fried fish, fried fish, and fried fish, all caught from the lake, with a side of freshly fried plantains in the same oil. Chris managed to find us a teeny tiny little quaint spot overlooking the water called Comedor Mayra, where a very nice lady was able to communicate with us and get our order in. I asked if she had juice, and though she didn’t have any, she was eager to get it from a nearby fresh juice vendor once we told her what we’d be interested in. We ended up having a hibiscus and mango juice. The fish was delicious, as were the tostones and the juices. And I’m still in shock from how cheap the meal was: an entire whole fried fish with tostones with all the cabbage and pickled vegetable fixings, plus two large fresh juices for just 250 Lempiras — that’s not even $10 USD!

Our last stop for the day was at Cataratas Pulhapanzak (Pulhapanzak Falls), meaning “white river overflow in Mayan. “Pulha” as it is known is 43 meters/140-feet tall, located on Rio Lindo about an hour’s drive outside of San Pedro Sula. The area served as a pre-Hispanic center, likely overlapping with the Mayan civilization. Before the Spanish arrived here, the falls were deeply revered as a sacred, mystical site by the indigenous Lenca people. Now, it’s fully set up for tourism, with the option to do cave walks, behind-the-water splash adventures, river tubing, and even multi-course ziplining. There is a big “Pulha” sign for photos with the large waterfall in the background, complete with a large platform to which you can walk up to get the perfect photo opp. It felt like mostly locals and maybe domestic tourists when we went. A lot were getting into the water and swimming in calmer, shallower areas. The whole area felt like a big family-friendly outdoor hangout, and a very natural one at that! I do not recall seeing a single obviously foreign tourist there other than ourselves. The falls were beautiful, and the mist went much farther than it appears it would. We had a feeling that we probably came on a lower flow day because the actual fall itself was relatively small.

We packed a lot into today, with the day planning done by Chris and Claude/Gemini, and some occasional help and friendly pointers from our driver Javier. We ended the day with yesterday’s Power Chicken leftovers (a very popular fast food spot with HUGE portions all over Honduras that should be visited if you ever come!) and a good night’s sleep. And luckily by midday today, my right butt cheek stopped hurting and burning, so I hope I’m on the short road to recovery from these coral reef scrapes.

Coral reef scrapes, the painful burn, and the 4-year-old who wants to ice mama’s butt

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Given that I am a city person through and through, I guess it’s no wonder that I’ve always had a fear of deep water, especially the ocean water. I’m a human being living on the land; by definition, the ocean is a foreign place to me because I cannot live in the ocean. And for all you people out there who love swimming in the ocean and think you are really a mermaid, reality check: you are not! So on the three previous times I’d been snorkeling and saw very, very deep water and can tell the ocean floor is extremely far below me, I occasionally have this tiny wave of panic come over me and just hope to some higher power that my leg doesn’t cramp up or my life vest does not suddenly fail. So then I take a deep breath and keep swimming.

This morning was our last morning in Roatan and our last chance to be at the beach before taking a plane to San Pedro Sula, where we’ll be until midday Monday. No one is going to complain about a last beach outing, and I wanted to seize the moment and go snorkeling one last time. So we went to the beach for a couple hours before packing up and heading to the airport. Chris did not share the desire to go snorkeling again, so when I went out, it was just me while he stayed ashore with Kaia.

This didn’t really bother me that he didn’t want to go out again. The water is pretty calm and virtually waveless. It’s really the perfect place to go snorkeling without supervision or help. So I went out on my own. For a long time, it felt really nice. I saw a lot of the same fish as yesterday, and this time, I saw even more schools of different fish varieties. But then suddenly out of nowhere, I got hit by a wave that I didn’t anticipate, and I got pushed into a really shallow (and seemingly dead) stretch of coral. Then, I got pushed into a sitting position — on top of the dead coral. This was a really shallow area — the water was barely even two feet deep here. I kept looking around to see where I could swim to escape the coral — it almost looked endless no matter which way I looked. How the hell was I supposed to get off this thing?! I eventually got out of the area and into open water, but I could tell that I had more than just a few nicks and scrapes. Something on my right butt cheek was burning, and it was definitely from stupidly sitting on the coral. I mean, it wasn’t like I meant to do that, but it just kind of happened…

This is why the ocean can be dangerous: you have no idea what is lurking out there that does not want you in its space. And they will do things to you to harm you if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I swam quickly back to shore, where Kaia immediately noticed scrapes bleeding on my right leg and asked me about my “boo boo.” I went to the restroom to properly clean my scrapes and examine my wounds. The scrapes were fine — they looked like any other scrape. But the wounds that were on my right butt cheek were another story: they were bright red, puffing, pulsing, and burning. And this feeling was not reducing in the least bit even after I washed the area and tried to pour clean, cold water on it. After a shower, the pulsing pain and burning persisted. So en route to the airport, I told Chris we needed to stop by a pharmacy to see if I could get an ointment for this. I explained to a pharmacist what happened, and she gave me a hydrocortisone cream to apply on my scrapes. When we eventually got to our hotel in San Pedro Sula, the hotel manager was really kind and made me an ice bag, and I applied that to my butt for a bit in our room before we went out for dinner.

Kaia insisted on helping me ice my butt: “Mama, I wanna ice your butt!” She shrieked multiple times. So I let her push the ice bag against my butt while I lay on the bed. She’s always looking for ways to be helpful, and I know she has a very strong, caring, nurturing side to her (I’ve lost count of the number of times she checks in with me on random “boo boos” she finds on my body, when she asks if something hurts, and when she cares for all the dolls at school when it’s activity center time). I find it really sweet and endearing, and hope she continues to be caring and attuned to others’ feelings.

After dinner out at Power Chicken (a local fast food chain favorite with huge portions!), we showered and slept. But I still couldn’t sleep. The pulsing pain and burning was not improving. And now when I scratched it, there was a very deep pain that would result from that. The ice bag was not a proper ice pack, so I couldn’t sleep with it without wetting the bed eventually. So after 1.5 hours of burning and pulsating, I finally came up with the idea of taking the cold plastic water bottles in our fridge and using them as a pseudo ice pack setup. The fridge was cold enough, so I was finally able to fall asleep.

And… I tried falling asleep hoping this wasn’t some insane outlier coral reef scrape infection that would end in sepsis and potentially kill me.