Tag Archives: Doggies

Ah, Nature!

Wildlife encounters for the week:

  • Had to slam on my breaks to allow a decent sized lizard to cross the road. Apparently the signs warning of such things aren’t kidding.
  • Found Chick-fil-a waffle fry-sized roach in kitchen sink first thing in the morning. Allowed husband to deal with it.
  • Waited a good 45 seconds for 4 ducks to follow each other, single file, across the main road heading toward the grocery store.
  • Saw a large flying something come down from upstairs into the living room. Husband was in shower and unable to assist. Proceeded to hide in closed bedroom. Did not hear from husband for 7+ minutes after he set out to investigate large flying something. Called out, fearing the worst. Husband replied that large flying something was dead and seemed to not want to explain further for fear of losing his wife to the next American Airlines flight to Miami. Lessons learned: 1) Giant roaches can fly and are even more terrifying than originally perceived. 2) Husband will understand if I need to return to Raleigh sooner than he does.
  • Near simultaneous salamander scares. Entered master bathroom which, admittedly, is Sammy the Salamander’s territory. Frightened Sammy, who fell off the ceiling, landing directly in the trash can. Would have been hilarious, but I was too busy screaming due to previous scary encounters with cucarachas. Upon hearing my scream, husband ran upstairs to see what he needed to kill. Upon arrival, admitted that he too had just been startled by another Sammy the Salamander (yes, they are all named Sammy) who ran up the wall behind his desk as he sat down at his computer.
  • Rocco is still a hilarious bulldog who does not seem to have mastered the art of breathing properly. He did, however, have a bath and looks years younger. During our most recent encounter with him, he claimed Eric as his own, as his owner Itzick is out of town and Eric has been known to scratch his rear for him (Rocco’s rear, not Eric’s).

The time I wished I had married an exterminator.

We had a little bit of drama on Wednesday night. We got back from the beach around 7, as usual, after Eric’s nightly kiting session. Eric jumped into the shower. When I went upstairs to our bedroom a moment later, I saw a giant creature crawling around near Eric’s suitcase. It seriously looked like a mouse, but it was dark black and flatter. I screamed and ran to the bathroom to ask Eric to do something about it. He was, well, mid-shower and not exactly in a position to take care of the situation, so he asked me to breathe and see if I could keep an eye on it. I put on some shoes – heaven forbid this thing should crawl on my feet – and peered around the bedroom door. The thing jumped out at me – a GIANT cockroach. I screamed my best horror movie scream, not on purpose, but just because this thing was horrifying. It was at least 3-4 inches long and built like a freaking tank. It had to be an inch tall. I kept screaming, then started crying hysterically and shaking.

Eric got out of the shower and search the whole room for the thing, but never found it. That’s the worst part. I had no idea where it was going to come from next, but I was pretty sure that it would crawl around on me in bed that night.

I kept crying and shaking while I showered, while I got dressed, and while Eric calmly searched the room again and ushered me towards the door so we could go to dinner, as planned.

Y’all…I DO NOT do roaches. And I have never in my life seen one this size. We have lizards around the house to take care of the mosquitos, but this thing was 4 times the thickness of any of our lizards. All I could think about was how I wasn’t going to be able to sleep in our house that night, how we were going to have to leave Panamá and go back to my fully enclosed and insulated house, and how horrible I would feel asking Eric to go back home with me when I’m supposed to be supporting his awesome kiting hobby.

Luckily, my husband knows me. He suggested an anxiety pill and a glass of wine at dinner. I stopped crying by the time I got to the restaurant, thought I didn’t want to stop. We had a really nice dinner at the small hotel across the street that is owned by a lovely French couple – Casa Amarilla.

On the way home, Eric even offered to sleep in the car with me that night if that would make me feel safer. We ended up being fine back in our house, but y’all, that can’t happen again. It was awful. It’s official, I’m not supposed to live in Savannah or Florida or any place where the bugs are wider than my shoes. I’ve decided to embrace it. I’m an inside girl, unless wildlife can be kept at bay. I like outside, but I like the sun and trees and flowers and lakes and beaches part, not the creepy-crawlers.

I’m just really glad I hung up the phone with Laine, my 7 year old niece, before I freaked out. My sister Jennifer is considering bringing her down for a visit in March, and I don’t think my reaction would’ve gone over well with her.

On another weird wildlife note, our car got attacked by a pack of wild dogs today. We were on the way to town for a grocery store run, when two dogs appeared on the road ahead of us. Eric slowed down. Three more dogs appeared, barking and running towards our car. They immediately reminded me of hyenas and the Lion King. Eric slowly moved the car forward, but we heard a few bonks and bumps and both of us thought he might have run over one of them. Thank goodness all of them were safe…it had been them running into us rather than the other way around. What in the world?! So bizarre. Panamá always has a new surprise for us.

Tonight we’re expecting our good friends Mono (the head of my capoeira group), Lourdes (his wife), and their daughters Cari and baby Sereia, who is only 2 months old!

Two days after they leave, Eric’s cousin David arrives. The day after David leaves, we pick up our friend Sarah Jessica at the airport! It’s going to be an exciting few weeks!

Power outage, our community, and more kiting.

By the time our guests left on Sunday afternoon, our power and water had gone out. There is no great story here. We were just without power and water all afternoon and evening. We ate leftovers for dinner by candlelight – more spooky than romantic, given the spiders and creepy-crawlers around, then went for a short drive around town to see who had electricity. Then…what else were we going to do? We fell asleep.

Eating leftover chorizo and yogurt in the dark

On Monday and Tuesday, I started to get into a routine. I did some writing each morning poolside, then yoga, then dishes. On Monday I also took a walk to explore the neighborhood, as it were. Here are a few pics from that walk, to give you an idea of what’s around. These aren’t necessarily representative of Punta Chame as a whole, but rather just things I thought were interesting.

Both evenings we went down to Machete. The wind was too strong for Eric’s kite size (10 m) on Monday evening, so we just got drinks at the bar and sat on the beach to watch the sunset kiters…my favorite thing ever. On Tuesday, we walked the 1.4 miles to Machete together, and Eric went out in a mass of 25 or so kites and did a great job in all the traffic! I sat down with Itzick and Roco for a bit, and Itzick commented on how well Eric was doing. Then both Itzick and I took pictures of the bulldog in the sunset b/c, well, Roco’s awesome.

 

 

Itzick and Roco – can’t tell if Eric’s in the background or not. Sometimes it’s hard to tell at sunset.