I had seen them from the boat in the Xarraca anchorage, but the water was clear and there weren’t many swimming around. I decided to go for a swim. I scraped the boat at the water’s edge and cleaned the hull a bit, then decided to just swim around. There were plenty of jellies in the water, but they were easy to avoid. Until I tuned and apparently swam right into one. Wham, and I had a sudden pain around my neck and upper chest and then forearm and wrist – I knew immediately what it was.
It took a few minutes to swim back to the boat. Once onboard, I took a shower to rinse off, and slowly the pain started to build. Luckily we had cell service again and I started googling treatments. I knew that urine was a myth as a treatment, but was surprised to learn that vinegar is not recommended either. Instead, you submerse (or apply compresses) in as hot of water as you can tolerate without scalding yourself (exactly what Alejandro had told us back in Balandres). This denatures the protein of the jellyfish venom and slowly reduces the pain. After that it was a couple of ibuprofen followed by some cortisone cream and witch hazel wipes every few hours. The pain and swelling was gone by the time we went to bed, and I’m now left with red marks that hopefully disappear soon and do not scar. Lesson painfully learned.
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