Rainy season has come to an end, and with the rains gone, the wind fills in. My roommate calls them the Christmas Winds - days so windy that doors rattle, trees bend in half, roads turn into haboobs (weather term, google it), and waves stack up overhead. I mention this because many things come out during this mini windy season....including scorpions.
For those of you who know me well, or even for those of you who follow my blogs, I am not a girl who goes squealing when I see a spider, nor do I faint at the sight of blood (though it makes me uncomfortable). Sticky situations can't stop me, and when someone says I can't do something, that makes the task even more possible. BUT. I do NOT like scorpions. They have the ultimate defense - they crunch when you smoosh them, ew. They have deadly (or at least threatening) whiptail stingers, pinching claws, and a prehistoric air about them. Just. NO.
Today was a regular day, full of teaching, laughing with the kids, working my butt off, and driving through the haboob on my quad. Oh, and grocery shopping. Normal, casual, grocery shopping, you think. NOT.
After parking my quad (excuse me, four-wheeler for those of you who missed that), I grabbed my rolling-suitcase-style shopping basket and started my shopping. In the first aisle, I was just minding my own business, checking out the wine "ofertas," when two store workers came up to me. But they didn't just come up to me....in a way, they snuck up to me even though I was facing them. Peculiar. If I was watching them, why were they sneaking up on me? Then, the first guy started to reach towards me! No words, no reason, no warning, and he was reaching towards my chest. Uh...whoa....are you about to grab me? They're going to rob me in mid-day!!! OR LIKE WHAT?!
As his hand gets closer to my chest area (ahem), I look down. (Warning: excuse me for my upcoming awkward language ha....). Upon looking down towards my belly, I see a couple animal/insect feet sticking out from under my boob shelf (haha see? awkkkk-warrddd but how else can I say that??). "Oh, just a tarantula," I thought. Yes, "JUST" a tarantula - that's what I get for living here for this long now. BUT OHHHHH NO....It wasn't a harmless tarantula.
I realized the man was just trying to grab the critter and not me...WHEW. Cool. Little did I know what kind of critter he was grabbing...YES, you guessed it, A SCORPION. AND A HUGE ONE. I'm not so sure exactly what he grabbed it by, but before I could blink, he threw it to the ground and furiously stomped it. (Yep, it crunched. Cue shivers.) A second later, I realized what had just happened. You see, I didn't know it was a 3-INCH-LONG scorpion until after it was securely pancaked on the concrete floor. THAT THING. WAS. CRAWLING. ON MY BODY. Whoa. Nope. How did it even get there?! I was in the grocery store for crying out loud!
Good thing I was in the wine aisle.
And the moral of the story is....I lived. And trust is a funny thing.
Overall, I've been surfing a ton. I've been working even more. Non-stop really. Last weekend, I up and rented a car for the weekend to meet Paco in San Jose (He's been living back in Puerto Jimenez where we met and had to work for a weekend in San Jose, so I went to visit just because we live in the same country. Because I can. Chikayeah.) That was a huge adventure within itself, and I wouldn't trade it. The last day of school before break is Tuesday, and I'll be heading down to Puerto Jimenez to visit Paco and SWIM WITH WHALE SHARKS OH YEAH! That will be an adventure for sure - I hope they're there, on schedule, so I can snag some sick GoPro footage and check that experience off my bucketlist. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my (awesome) man and seeing some old places and faces before heading back to the good ole U.S.A. for Christmas with the fam!
As always, stay tuned for the next chapter of this crazy/beautiful life of mine.:)
P.S. Paco visited me a couple of weeks ago...Arribada, the seasonal event when sea turtles arrive in droves to lay their eggs, was happening, and I woke him up early to go one morning. I didn't tell him where we were going, but we hopped on my quad before sunrise, drove through the jungle, and stepped onto the beach to watch the momma turtles make their voyage as the sun rose over the beach. Here's a picture that he snapped. So amazing!!!
