1. Delfina and Bjorn on one of the last midnight patrols encountered the couch poacher in the act. the coach poacher refers to one of the local jamaican poacher who lives in a craphole a couple "blocks" away from us, and has no walls, broken doors, a ripped couch at the entrance, and carries the horrid stench of his recent turtle victim (smells like a plumbers worst nightmare). He has another oh so inviting couch on his "front lawn" (the top of beach), which at night we see the silhuette of together w his sketchy hammock, and sometimes with this intimidating person on one.. awaiting for his prey. Descarado.
delfi and bjorn were passing by at the right time (or wrong), and caught movement and flashing lights in the region. they called park rangers and police, flashed light, attempted to scare him off... todos agachaditos. and it appeared to work. so 15 minutes later they come up, and they see the mama coming back (yes! she wasn't harmed... probably just the eggs) and then this gargantuous man stands up out of the bushes. holy! they hide in return... the night continues poacherfree and turtles seemingly protected.
2. Borja and Delfi (if uve been reading past blogs, maybe youll start noticing a pattern here... delfina is unwantingly becoming the black hammer of poachers.... Haha, whenever shes out danger is near haha) morning survery in Boca and on their first 2/8 of the park, Borja starts following a track that led into the trees... he sees movement, he sees feet. and they see him and hide more. he calls out with his spanish accent, "holaAa," and out pop two men, "manos arribe" with a gun pointing at our most nondangerous crewmember. "ostia! (othtia)" turns out these were bored cops, turned conservation superheros (for now that tourism was low...) who mistook innocent b for a poacher. they lol'ed, delfi chuckled. borja did not.
3. Today, during my morning survey, i was tipped off by the midniters that a poacher stole a turtle on mile 2 1/8, so andy and i left prepared for battle (very scary with our clipboard, camera, and measuring tape. We found the very obvious burglar trail (which not funny enough, the cops were unable to spot. -Picture a foot wide tube being dragged flat on the ground long ways.... This is the shape a turtle dragged on its back makes :(. Pictures tbul soon). Anyhow this pair of tactiful poachmen dragged this mama post nest lay for a 1/16 of a mile turtle out of the beach, thru the tourist veg path, and into the spooky untamed vegetation. Gulp. There cld be a live turtle in distres... Andy goes in, as if it were a walk in the park. Gulp gulp.
I stop at this lovely deep jungle mark and i use this valuable time to empty out the kilos of sand accumulated in my shoes. 4 minutes and andy is nowhere to be found, nor replying to my inquiries of safety. in i go to save my patrolmate. ouch, uuu, eee, step crunch crunch... and all of a sudden another electric sting. U gotta be kidding me? could it be? a big leaf brushed against the top of my right leg, carrying another scorpion type stinger getting me thigh high and then the unseen it lands on sock. a double pointer. sting me once shame on you, sting me twice shame on me... i run further into the wild Ace Ventura style and find andy. no poacher's machete around his neck... all is ok. except my leg is burning. i keep cool, with the occasional R rated chin.. madre shouts in spanish, but im determined to keep going. (here, my previous bitew came in handy... knowing the guantanamo pain would only last for 15 minutes tops. ) this time the stings took turns, ouch por aqui, ouch por alla.
; could this have been something else? Andy assured me it wasnt a snake bite, and that there were no killer venemous spiders in this region... And he said it prooobably wasnt a scorpion : his theory (because being struck by scorpion twice is sooo rare) is that is was some kind of mighty vampire aunt... that he's read about. i think a scoprion sting is a much better story, but ill wait for him to send me a photo of the ant and rate his visciousness and we can decide together. anyways, i Refused to go back thru the path of death and found a non jungley way out, ending up behind a hotels maintenance area, and then trooped my way back to the 2 1/8 marker. and finished my last dozen nests of measuring and okaying.
Insects are deeply being carved into my shit list. If only they understood that im really just minding my own business and wld apreciate the same in return. including towels, shower curtains, shoes, soda cans, bed!
It has been comforting the last coupke days to have talked with my family, almost all fornthe first time! But it did remind me of my life on pause. Sniff sniff. My sister sent me a photo (nonmalisciousky but either way pinched me deep) of my room back home, and then a couple days later of georgie cooked and decorated meals.... Ohhhhhh the life. So Happy to be here, but also happy to know a fresh and crispy, bedbug free bed exists out there w my name on it, and that i can safely get dressed somewhere without shaking every deadly insect out of it. Oh and the shower spider, aka godzira spider made a second appearance thistime on my gals during their routine 5 am showers. They said it was even bigger than my 3/4 of gigi hand description, and bjorn, our swedish compa fascinated by anything small, jumpy and creepcrawling, added it is "quite the venemous kind". Uuuu. Caught and released. Unfortunately not on camera.
Perfect ending before my evening nap time... :/. Still luving it, hiwever i do miss you,my fellow civilized, not-sticky-by-repelant-all-day friends and family!
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