Seen in Costa Rica, day 2-3
24 February 2009
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- The carcass of a dead, recently squished scorpion, behind a table in the living room. Who killed it? It was clearly a recent kill, as the juices were fresh (ewwwwwww). Maybe a cat? Loki had a watery nose and eyes yesterday – could she have been the one to smush it? Would being stung by a scorpion cause a cat to have watery eyes and nose? This is my first real, almost-alive scorpion sighting. Pretty gross. I’d hope it would be my last, by I know that isn’t likely to be the case. Oh well. They are less gross than cockroaches.
- Ants. Fucking hormigas. I was intellectually prepared for this, but still. They are seriously gross. I seriously have to figure out how to kill these fuckers. I voiced the suspicion to Arp last night that I think it’s possible that they are actually intelligent. I mean, we’ve been really careful about cleaning and keeping food in its’ place, but they still swarm! Have you seen the classic film Them! ? (If you haven’t seen that one, go out now and rent it! It is a seriously good flick! Well, unless you live in a tropical country. In that case, I’m guessing you’ve seen enough hormigas to last a freakin’ lifetime.) These ants are kinda like that, only smaller. Are they following us around, translating English to hormiga-speak? I am hereby making a vow – tomorrow I head to the ferreteria and I’m going to buy some toxic crap to get them with. This is my role right now, and I’m determined. (Don’t worry – I’ll have Arp wield the toxic stuff while I wait in the sidelines. My role is mostly thinker/director.)
- Crazy driving. No need to rehash this – just read this post.
- Muchos pajaros. The birds wake us up at sunrise and it’s just lovely. Arp and I can’t sleep for long once we hear them. We caught sight of some kiskadees this morning, and a few hummingbirds too. I haven’t been able to do as much identification as I was able to do in Cahuita so far, at least yet, but it’s still great. Arp also walked me and the kids over to the internet cafe in Atenas this evening so that I could meet their resident pet macaw (or is it a parrot?). It was a beautiful creature. Some guy there told me that I could pet it and that it wouldn’t bite, but I wasn’t brave enough to do it yet. But I don’t doubt he was friendly, as he didn’t bat an eye as J ran by him several times. As always, I’m on the lookout for toucans. Not sure if we get them in Atenas, but I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.
- Bug bites. I had some big itching on the back of my left thigh, just under my butt. I couldn’t see past my huge belly to look at them, so I asked Arp to take a look. He counted something like nine bites, clustered all together. I think I must have gotten them sitting on the cement steps in the back of the house. Thank goodness for Benedryl gel.
- Stars. Muchos estrellas (I’m practicing, so bear with me). Tons more than I ever saw in New York. Well, we did see a lot of stars all the way up in the adirondacks, but never so many in New York where we lived. Even an hour and a half outside of NYC they were seriously limited. But here, even the lights of the Central Valley, which we can see out the back of our house, don’t infringe on the stars very much. We’re looking forward to getting the telescope that M got for Christmas when it arrives in one of our barrels.
Give in to the ants. They will not go away, trust me, I tried. You will eventually get used to them and may even come to love them — no need to clean the floors, the ants do the job for you!
It’s so fun to relive our first impressions and experiences through your move. Enjoy it. It’s amazing how quickly the shock and awe wears off and it just becomes normal life — even the driving. Scary that we pass like the Ticos now.
Yesterday we were in a short procession behind a bus, and all the bus stops were at blind curves. We marvel/cringe at the ones who throw caution to the wind and go for it, and one guy ended up staring straight at a speeding truck and luckily had some space to pull off the road across from us. This guy was REALLY lucky and … we laughed at the rare come-uppance.
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