I Love the Smell of Deet in the Morning

One of the big drawbacks of Roatan is the biting bug problem. I had read about it and people strongly suggested that visitors bring lots of bug spray with deet in it, and so I did.

We typically travel with plenty of bug wipes to use during dusk and dawn hours where mosquitoes can often be at their worse, especially in any tropical environment but the warnings were strong enough to make me actually bring a full can of OFF w/deet.

We discovered quickly during our first week on the West End that even if you just want to have coffee out on your deck in the morning, you better put on your deet. The problem here is 2-fold though, there are tiny mosquitoes that will bite any tome of day if you are near trees and such off the water, then there are sand fleas that will gladly attack you while on the beach.
So, every time we went out anywhere for anything we covered ourselves in deet and for the most part we were pretty lucky. We only got a couple of flea bites every day and they took a very non-invasive course. The initial bite is not felt but rather you see a perfectly round red spot with a dark spot in the middle, that's where you got bit. They do not initially itch either and I had read that it sometimes takes a few days before the itching really begins, but again we seemed to be lucky in that the bites seemed to be almost gone within a day or two. The mosquitoes are quite small and you don't see them but you feel them. I am always a mosquito magnet and a couple of mornings I forgot my deet with my coffee and I had to go back in and spray because I was an immediate target for those damn pests. The mosquito bites itch like hell when you first get bit but within a couple of hours the bite is gone and it's like you never got bit at all.
Armed with our new bug knowledge we just keep trying to be diligent in applying our deet cover every day and things seem to be OK........Untill Monday afternoon that is.
In my previous post I mentioned that we spent a little time on a beach on Monday afternoon. In fact we spent most of the time in the water and earlier in the day we had deeted ourselves up and didn't think much of it but after we returned home we saw many of the familiar red dots and knew we had been silently attacked. I wasn't too concerned since our previous bites had pretty much gone away by themselves within a day but Dave's were a little itchy so we headed into town and got some antihistamine spray to help with the itch. It seems that was not good enough. Dave woke up in the middle of the night with his back itching the hell out of him. He tried the spray, neosporin and a bit of a cold face cloth and eventually he was able to go back to sleep a little.
On Tuesday we decided that we would hang out at the house and see if we could get Dave's back to calm down a bit. It was so itchy and the bites had become a bit swollen that his whole back was covered in these little red ant hills all over the place. It's a strange thing because usually I am the one that gets all the mosquito bites and if bugs are going to be bothersome, it would normally be me who is affected and while I was bit just about as much as Dave was, mine did not really bother me at all, thank goodness.
While Dave tried his best to ignore the itching, we took a water taxi over to a place called Tricos located in the Chech village (yes, where the Chechs live) for an afternoon of music, drinks and food. I think the atmosphere helped a little but once we got back to the house we decided to venture out and see if we could get Dave a benadryl shot to help calm his itching. The lady we are renting from said you can go to any farmacia and get the medicine and then take it to the doctor to get it injected, or you could also buy the needle and do it yourself....what??? We opted to find a doctor to do it.
So, we located the farmacia and there is a clinic right upstairs, perfect. We get the vile of the local product of Alergil which is clearly an antihistamine which costs us 57 Limpiras at an exchange rate of 23L to 1US this cost us just under $2.50US. Next we head up to the clinic but they close at 4:00 and it is already 4:30...what now. We go back downstairs to the farmacy and she tells use we can go the mall and find a doctor there. It turns out that at the mall is the local hospital so we go in and see if we can get someone to give Dave this shot. After speaking with the doctor in the emergency room she says that we will have to sign a waiver for them to do it since no doctor at the hospital has prescribed it. I'm thinking, no one has prescribed it, we just walked into the farmacia and asked for it...LOL. OK, Dave needs relief so he signs the waiver and we pay $10US for the administration of the shot and the cost of the needle (not bad). Back into the emergency room and this cute little nurse comes up with about half the contents of the vile we bought in a syringe and she gives me the rest of the bottle and tells me that we can save it and use the rest if needed (again...what??). Dave is all smiley with the young nurse and rolls up his sleeve and she laughs at him and tells him that she will have to give him the shot in his butt. Dave is trying to act all tough and manly but as soon as she sticks him you can see him wince a little, granted it was a pretty big needle. With his medicine successfully administered, we head out of the emergency room and the cashier catches us to tell us that they will not be charging us for the actual syringe and he gives us 8 Limpiras in change.
What a nice easy and cheap experience overall, less than our $15 doctor visit deductible in the states. So now instead of complaining about his itching, Dave is complaining that his butt hurts and all I can think is: "Yeah I know, I have a pain in the ass too...LOL". Just kidding, he was actually really uncomfortable with his whole upper back definitely swollen and itching but Tuesday night he felt much better and got a good night's sleep with hardly any itching at all.