The Beach / The ER

Saturday morning we took the bus to La Libertad and then El Tunco, just a short distance from San Salvador. Both are surfer beaches and not great for swimming. I got in the water at El Tunco and it gave me a beating. The beach has rocks that move with the waves and can deliver quite and ankle bruise!

Later we discovered Playa San Diego a few km east and it had no rocks and is a very pleasant place to swim if you like a strong undertow and a crashing surf.

In La Libertad we looked at one hotel on the beach. It was pretty dreary with gnomes and a waterslide. I would have rather just returned to our cushy place in San Salvador, but in San Diego we found a fantastic place called El Roble that was much nicer.

After a swim in the pool, my left ear had almost no hearing. I dug out sand and wax with my finger, but that just made it worse. (Duh! you say.) I had trouble sleeping and was panicky. I don't like being shut inside my head. It continued all day Sunday until that night, in desperation, I sought out an emergency room after having returned to the city.

I hate emergency rooms, but San Salvador shuts down on Sundays and I was thinking that I should get the ear cleaned out to avoid long-term damage. We chose the Hospital Diagnostico over the Hospital de la Mujer because of its name and that a friend of the hostel's owner recommended it. She warned that it would be expensive.

At nine p.m. Pily and I entered. I was immediately weighed and had my vitals taken. The doctor saw me a few seconds later, looked at my ears and let me know it was only wax. However, because it was a soft was, he needed to call a specialist to clean out my ears.

The specialist arrived in 15 minutes and performed a lavage, a procedure that I've had done by a nurse before, but I was so relieved to be able to hear again! It was well worth the $150 total bill!