Dangerous Day Off

We had two days off last week before we really started to buckle down and edit the show.  Friday and Saturday.  So all the editors hired a driver and left Thursday night for Puerto Viejo, a small town on the Caribbean coast.  The Brits, who have been doing this for years, call it the "dangerous day off".  Why?  Because every year someone gets hurt.  This trip was no exception.

But first, a little about the town.  Delightful.  Great jerk chicken, great people, sloths in the trees, crabs on the beach and warm water to play in.  We watched the sun rise the first night and spent the days exploring the sleepy town filled with rastafarians, wild dogs and surfers.  One of my favorite moments in a long list of them was while exploring the beach  me, Pete Ritchie and Jon Emerson found two coconuts still in their outer shell.  We spent 45 minutes bashing them against the rocks like monkeys.  Seriously, I think we were hooting and howling.  Once we the outer shell open the lady who owned our hotel gave us a machete to crack the coconut open.  Then we feasted on the goods inside.  Delicious.

As for the accidents?  One editor cut up his feet as he drunkly ran into the ocean on the jagged corral.  Another drunkly dived into the ocean and hit his head on the floor.  And me?  Well, I rented a bike for the weekend and a few hours before we were leaving took a spill on the terrible gravel pothole filled roads around the town.  A bad spill.  I tore a giant hole in one knee, have a huge line of road rash on my right arm, tore up both my palms and lost some skin at the tip of the middle finger.  

There was a local doctor who promptly gave me six stitches in my knee.  Also helpful were Pip and Pete who came to the doctor with me.  Pip is the girlfriend of one of the editors here.  She was kind enough keep me sane while the doctor jabbed a needle six times into my knee.  All is looking good, though it is a little tough to edit.  The good thing is that I go to our medic at work and he cleans my wounds every day.  Also, the whole thing was recorded by Pete on his camera.  He even got some OTFs.  So maybe you will see a video one day.

So now I am back at the hotel, healing.  The show is going well.   We premiered last night and work has been really smooth.  It is crazy that the things I edit in the morning get on TV at night, but it is somehow working.

I am also working like crazy.  I leave here at 5AM, go to the medic at 6AM, start work at 6:30AM and work until around 6 or 6:30PM.  Then I take the 40 minute bus home.  Though the day flies by it leaves me tired and unlikely to write on the blog.  Sorry about that.

I leave you with two photos.  One of my bedroom (or at least one of the bedrooms)  and one of the view from my ample porch.  Even with my injury and the hours of work, this place is paradise.  I hope to do this again soon.  And since I can't really swim or hike the next day off, I think I might be able to find the time.