Yep, it's the Tropics

DRAGON SLAYER

In the middle of the night Jim (again) got up because of his coughing.

He says "As I stepped onto the floor mat in the dark, I felt something large immediately come on top of my toes on the right foot. I already had my weight on my left foot so I did a reactionary hard kick with my right foot. I heard whatever it was slap against the bathroom door - with a good thump. I could see a large something in the shadow and I assumed it was a gekko.
I turned the light on in the bathroom and came out to see what it was and found a large 4 inch centipede with 3/4 in pinchers on it's backend.

It wasn't moving so I picked up a piece of paper to handle it and when I touched it, it curled up and I could feel the pinchers on each side of my thumb. I quickly jerked my hand back and tried again, with the same resultant attack. When I dropped it this time the critter started across the floor so I grabbed Pat's nearby sandal and gave him a good smack with it. This disabled the front end of it but the back end was still ready to do battle. Two or three more whacks brought him into subjection!!!
I carted it off to the garbage can.
Needless to say, my next few trips to the bathroom were done with more trepidation."

Pat got the story in the morning.


MANGO TREES

Mango trees are beautiful, large shade trees. Their leaves are shaped like a peach tree, long and narrow and slightly curved in but the mango leaves are much longer.
They produce an astounding amount of blossoms and then as the fruit sets on it seems to eliminate the extra fruit automatically.(self pruning?)
At this time of year they are just beginning to be in season. We should be able to buy them inexpensively soon. They are available at the store now and I did see some at the market too.













SCORPION WARNING

We have been warned to watch for scorpions when walking on dirt paths. The huge ones are not so much of a problem as they are obvious if you're watching where you walk. We were told to watch for smaller ones. They are more likely to bite. The bite would probably leave your hands and feet feeling numb and tingly for a couple of days but that's about it.

We haven't seen one or heard of anyone recently having a problem with them. Of course we do our hiking and walking in sandals (thanks Merrills for your support and comfort - if not beauty or protection!).



We have learned to walk with our head down for many reasons. The roads and paths are so uneven, the stairs are not consistent either in depth or height. As soon as you start looking around you're bound to stumble! The best thing to do is stop, take a look at your surroundings, and then carry on.



BIRD NEST
Right outside our patio window are several small palm trees. We see a pair of small birds making a nest at the very base of one of the long palm fronds. Fun to watch but they are very timid.