Do the Shuffle, the words reverberate like they did when I was twelve, Van Morrison had it going on then.  My shuffle today needed to be the Stingray Shuffle.  We slept on the beach again last night, this time at Buenaventura on the Sea of Cortez instead of on the Pacific.  The temperature was perfect, we even had a dog that slept right outside our tent protecting us.

Just before dawn I thought swimming sounded like my idea of heaven, and it was too.  The water temp was just right, the sun hadn’t yet peaked over the ridge, just that lightened sky, a light breeze in the cove there.  I swam for a while and then started in to shore.  It’s very shallow along the cove, you can be 75 feet out and still touch bottom, very sandy and clear, there is a ridge of rocks that only run about 15 feet right near the shoreline.  I was just getting my feet under me when I felt like I had stepped on someone’s home, I flailed and tried to look at the bottom of my foot, all I could see was that it was bleeding and hurt like hell.  I stumbled on to the shore and Rich met me with my towel, he noticed the blood right away.  I hobbled back to our camp and the pain started to intensify.  Within half an hour I was writhing in pain.  It hurt so bad and I couldn’t figure out how to stop it, there was no comfortable position, nothing I could do.  It was like my toes had a permanent charlie horse, the intensity was that strong.  I managed to get dressed and packed up, but the thought of riding in the car was making me nauseous.  When my toes started to swell and red streaks run through them, we decided that maybe something really was wrong.  Rich went in to ask the locals, they knew right away, I had stepped on a stingray.  That little barbed tail and jabbed right in to the fleshy part of my foot.  Fortunately, they knew what to do.  Aside from the shuffle to avoid getting stung in the first place, we put my foot in 112 degree water and let it soak.  The relief was immediate, thank God.  Mark, the local, kept telling me I just needed to stick it out, it was going to be hot, but it was important it was that hot.  I figured out 112 is about what my bath water used to be.  The paid subsided, the swelling went down and I’m not even hobbling.  I am thankful they knew what to do.

Things I learned today, avoid getting stung, hurt worse than having babies; carry a pan to heat water in, you never know where it might happen; check this off my list of things to do, I think I can count it as one of my 50 firsts this year, never happened before, hope it never happens again!