Description

The waves in Nuevo Vallarta (Bahia de Banderas) have been bigger and stronger this week than I have ever seen here before - I've visited 11 times in the past 14 years.
I was in the water - boogie boarding Sunday and Monday. Monday was rougher and I went under several times and was flipped and spun around a few times and definitely swallowed some water - and inhaled a bit too. I' was feeling 100% healthy Monday morning but have been coughing with feverish body aches and joint pain for 3 days now. Since Wednesday my nose has been all plugged up too. No vomiting or diarrhea but my appetite has come and gone sporadically. Advil - 400 mg - helps for a few hours but not all day or all night. I'm back on Claritin too for 2 days now and it doesn't seem to be helping yet.
The water here is never clear because they're always dredging the channel to the marina and pumping the discharge over the retaining wall to our beach. We generally stay about 200 yards away from the wall, but there's always tiny black soil fragments and/or wood fibers for at least a 1/4- mile down beach. It's never caused me problems before but this year the waves got the best of me.