Peace Corps Blog Panama

Our big (teeming jungle of a) backyard

Blazam, panafools! You know, we’ve talked snakes. And we’ve talked spiders. And we’ve talked snakes and spiders in such a way that you all might be forgiven if you thought Panama was infested with the things. Especially because it is. But it’s also infested with a lot of other cool stuff. Like, I don’t know…this BLUE FROG CARRYING TWO TADPOLES ON ITS BACK!:

That’s right: blue frogs. Here’s that same picture again, just to drive the point home:

I bet the frog would taste like blueberries. Julia bet it would taste like poison. She was right.

Anyway, to review, in addition to snakes and spiders, there are blue frogs. We also have gigantic beetles:

And your requisite camouflage-capable lizards:

Beetles and lizards=mostly harmless. Harmful, on the other hand, are the spindly caterpillars which took over one of the trees that the hammock hangs from:

(When alerted to their presence, our host grandfather Manuel made a torch and burned them alive. I got the impression he´d had a nasty run in before...)

Also potentially painful, I suppose, were the wasps carrying larvae on their backs that started to horde on a tree right outside the back door:

 

But they moved on without incident.

And let´s not forget the scorpions, which live in the cracks in the walls and only come out at night:

No one we have talked to here has been bitten by a spider. Almost half of the people have had a run in with a scorpion. Pretty scary stuff, I know. But, if you want to talk about real, heart-stopping, palm-sweat-inducing, makes-you-believe-that-pure-evil-does-exist terror, try looking into the face of a...

...wait on it...

FUZZY BABY DUCK!!!!

 

Spiders: the scourge that panablog forgot

With all of the talk about equis around these pages, you´d think that snakes are the only terrifying and potentially harmful wildlife Panama has to offer. I guess we can´t help but feel partially responsible for that. But we´re going to start rectifying the situation right now by taking a look at the rich and diverse offering of spiders we´ve encountered.

Like this gigantic and spasm-inducing white tarantula, which found its way into a bag of our oranges the other day:

Or maybe this baby tarantula, who wanted to get to know us so bad he tried to get through the mosquito net and join us in bed:

And let´s not forget the wonderful ¨scorpion spiders¨ which like to hang out in the corners of our house. Thanks for the company, guys!:

But not all of the arachnids we run into are cringeworthy. Take this li´l fella, for example. Despite the fact that he has eight legs and spends all day building his web, I can´t bring myself to accept that he´s actually a spider. He´s just...weird:

Of course, the ¨pointy white tank spider¨ (which we can only assume is its scientific name) above is the exception, not the rule. Most of the spiders we see here elicit only one response: abject fear.

Like this guy:

He´s really, really big. How big? Big enough that lesser spiders actually make their webs inside of his. Big enough that I´m pretty sure a small bird would be in trouble if it found its way into the web. Big enough that it covers about a third of my face:

Ughghgh. But perhaps we´ve been too harsh here. The spiders are living creatures, after all, just like you and me. And when you think about it, we -- spiders and people -- actually have a lot in common. Like the fact that humans and spiders both have the same number of legs as eyes. Unless you consider that our arms are kind of like some of their legs. In which case we don´t actually have anything in common and you should feel justified in being terrified of them.