Throughout our travels in Central America, we have been warned by many people about insects and animals that can cause horrible pain, debilitating illness and death. So, in order of smallest to largest here is a partial list of critters that can terriorize most those who visit & stay in the jungle:
- mosquito: small itchy welts are the least of our worries with these guys. They carry malaria, and what seems more common in these parts -- at least among travelers -- dengue fever. Apparently the first time you get the fever you usually just get horrible pain in your bones, a fever, delirium and other flu symptoms. Get it a second time, and, most likely, you're toast.
-chi chi fly (beach mite): this little guy is indiginous to Bocas del Toro in Panama. Usually the bite they give you is harmless, but once in a while, they'll burrow under you skin and the bite will turn into what looks like a mini volcano. It's almost a right of passage for locals to get bit by the chi chi. A local guy from Bastimentos, with said affliction, was staying at our guest house so the house's owner could take care of him. The guy hobbled around in excrutiating pain, constantly talked about how he hadn't slept in days and how the shots he was receiving weren't helping. He was going to try the local remedy of burning out the mite. This required applying a burning hot banana peel to the wound. In the mean time, he was taking copious amounts of hardcore pain killers. Nice!
-punching wasp: Lives in the Panamanian highlands. The sting they deliver feels like you're getting punched. Hard. Hard enough that you're supposed to lie down when you get bit because you're going to fall down anyhow. These wasps aren't deadly.
-shooting ant: Lives in Costa Rica. A bite from one of these ants feels like you're getting shot with A GUN! What the hell?! I'm not sure how that is possible. Haven't many anyone who was bit by these guys. Perhaps a jungle legend?
-black night wasp: A woman who volunteers at the rescue center told us about this little jem of a bug. Her friend was stung and her face went slack & she couldn´t feel her arm for a couple hours. Who doesn´t want to spend the evening with stroke-like symptoms.
-scorpion: they are all over the place down here and not the big ones, but the small deadly ones. Joysie found one on our window sill in the jungle hut on the second day. Fortunately, it was just a skeleton. It´d been dead a while, but we still tucked in our mosiquito netting at all times.
-spiders: various kinds. Some deadly, some not so much, others just hurt (trantula bites, mainly)
-SNAKES: At the Jaguar Rescue, Sandro, the owner, is a snake guy, so there´s emphasis on snakes during the tour. There are roughly 140 kinds of snakes in Costa Rica, roughly 15 are poisonous and of those 15, 7 of them live near our jungle cabin. I don´t know all seven, but the most common are also the most deadly. Ferdilanz (sp), a nasty brown, cream & white colored bugger is both agressive and territorial. It will bite if you come to close. The Bushmaster, a big sucker (6 feet long), deadly but not as territorial. It won´t chase you like the Ferdilanz. The JUMPING Pit Viper it poisonous and can jump at you. Yay!
This list will get added to as we remember and as others recount their own insect, arachnid and reptialian nightmares.
Sleep well kids.
PS - We just arrived after three weeks in the jungle to San Jose, Costa Rica for a much needed stay in a hotel with running water, hot water, TV and a pizza joint next door. Whoo hoo. Tomorrow, 3-22, it´s off to Nicaragua where we resume budget travels, Joy continues to live with cold showers and we meet up with Mandy & Eric on Friday. Can´t wait.
PSS - The next post will include a detailed account of our work at the Jaguar Rescue Center. It wasn´t all babysitting monkeys and feeding bald squirrels. It was hard work, and I´ve got the blisters to prove it. Stay tuned.
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