CPR, Parties & Broken Toes

Toby had told us that Saturday night would be doubly busy as during the day a marathon would be taking place with the finish line directly on the beach. A marathon in the afternoon heat of Monterrico seemed a little silly to me, surely no one in their right mind would want to be doing that kind of thing. Well we were wrong about that, alot of people entered despite the crazy heat. It was a very official affair with sponsorship from Gaterade and a giant inflatable finish line.


The inflatable finish line... and the chaos is just beginning to unfold


As I say it was a very official affair however the only thing no one seemed to have thought about was some form of medical assistance should anything go wrong... but why would anything go wrong, its not like we're nearly on the equator and you could pass out just walking to the pool... oh wait...

So as we watched the runners cross the line the chap who came in third didn't look too good. Infact he ended up having to be helped across the line and almost immediately collapsed. He was spark out on the floor in front of us with a number of people around him, one of whome appeared to be taking control of the situation. They layed him out on the flat of his back and the guys are rubbing ice all over his body. Now the little I know about first aid tells me he shouldn't be on his back. Mia is a nurse and is watching on getting more and more agitated by what they are doing. Also the guys condition seems to be deteriorating quickly now, his eyes have rolled back in his head and he's not responding at all. Mia later explained that because they were icing him down his body was thinking he was cold and was speeding up his heart still further, which then sent him into shock.

After a couple of minutes Mia couldn't watch any longer and had to step in. With the help of a spanish speaking American they tried to explain the first aider (who turned out to be a life guard with no form of training) was quickly killing the guy. To begin with they completely ignored them, two western girls telling a local male he was doing things all wrong didn't go down too well. Eventually after things got pretty heated Mia was finally able to take control and with Kate's help they got him into the recovery position (where he was immediately sick) and got some sugary fluids onto his tongue. Within minutes he began to come round but he wasn't out of the woods yet. He was taken to the local pharmacy, in the back of a gas wagon that happened to be passing, where he was hooked up to an out of date drip.

The guy was from the US, down in Guatemala studying, and just hadn't got enough fluids in him whilst he was running. We later heard he was in hospital for a couple of days and quickly made a full recovery. I'm pretty sure he'll never know how close he came to not making it or that it was infact two Australian girls who saved him. Good work ladies.

After the chaos we were more than ready to party and forget the stresses of the afternoon, as such some cheap rum was purchased and we got the party kick started.

Stop playing with your beard



Rum time chills



After the chaos of the afternoon we went back to the hotel and I was pleased to see some beach football was just getting started. I wandered down and got involved, to say it was tiring was an understatement to say the least. Mia and Kate came pretty close to having to perform their second life saving of the day, after 10mins I was dying... and we played for a good 40 mins or more (I subbed myself off in the end). The sand was like running in treacle and the ball never did anything you wanted, this coupled with the fact most of the locals play like Robinho made for an entertaining afternoon. In the evening all the locals from the game were out and partying too which was alot of fun.

Me, our goalkeeper and the opposition attacker


Haha


Below is a photo of another one of our Guatemalan friends from Saturday night. Worryingly he was a medical student from Guatemala City. The photo shows him attempting to breath under water by putting his head in a big black plastic bag, I'm scared for the medical system in this country.

Like scuba diving but different


The football of Saturday was repeated again on the Sunday and Monday evenings as well. Each time I felt my fitness got a little better (stop laughing Mia and Kate) until finally disaster struck. Now at this point I could claim it was a huge Guatemalan defender who took me down, or I could just admit it was a 50 50 with a 14 yr old... either way it broke my toe.

The field of dreams


After Monday's game, I do not look good

War wounds


A fat purple foot

One week in and already a potentially broken bone, I've made an executive decision not to good to the hospital. Instead at about 3 in the morning after too many drinks I got Mia to strap it up, five minutes later I removed the bandage after realising it was so tight it was cutting off the blood supply haha. A couple of weeks of limping and it'll be fine, they can't do anything for broken toes anyway.