Thursday, January 15, 2009

Creepy Crawlies and other Creatures living (and dying) in my House

Last week I was quietly sitting in my kitchen when I heard a rustling sound. I looked up to the ventilation space between the top of the wall and my roof and saw a dark thing moving around. First my mind went to the small furry animal my landlord told me about that's common in the area but is completely harmless. Then I saw a tail, a loooooong tail and automatically thought: RAT! Luckily the thing moved its head into the light and this is what I saw:

La semana pasada estaba sentando en la cocina cuando eschuché un ruido y encima de la pared miré algo oscurro. Primero pensaba en algo que la dueña me ha dicho sobre un animal comun que no es una molestia ni nada. Proximo, ví una cola larga y pensé: raton! Pero el animal se movió y ví esta:



I was finally able to take a picture of my new iguana friend yesterday, he's been quite camera shy (or probably movement shy because whenever I went to get my camera he would quickly slip away). I think this is ridiculously cool. Iguanas aren't exactly dangerous animals and I've only ever seen him in the ventilation spaces in my house so I don't think he even comes down to ground level. It also explains some of the sounds I've heard in my house. Since I have a zinc roof, anything up there makes a lot of noise. I recognized the sounds of birds hopping around on the roof long ago but I was never able to identify the other critter that I could hear moving about. Now I can. I guess I should name the little feller, so any suggestions are welcome!

Pienso que esta iguana es super bien. Iguanas no son peligrosas y creo que queda en la pared entonces el es mi nuevo amigo. Tambien la explica ruidas raras en el techo que no fuera los aves. Si tiene ideas para un nombre, avisame!

I had a much less welcomed guest several weeks back. I woke up and stumbled into my bathroom one morning and was startled to hear plastic rustling, through the shadows (because I hadn't turned on my lights yet) I saw a spindly leg heading from a black plastic bag sitting on the ground for the wall. I slowly moved to turn on the lights and was horrified to find a large spider crawling up the wall:

Tenía otro visitante hace algunas semanas. Me despertaba y fuí al baño y un ruido me sorprendí. En el oscurro (todavia las luces estaban apagado) ví algo moviendo. Encendí las luces para encontrar esta araña en la pared:



The last time I saw a large spider (which was an enormous tarantula) I didn't have my camera so I was determined to document this one. I'm generally pretty good with bugs, but I don't like squishing large things that move fast so I got my trustiest weapon: the broom. I smacked it once and it fell into a pile of stuff, so I slowly pulled the bags away and smacked it again and again as it tried to hide behind the toilet and then threw a couple shoes at it just for good measure. By that time it seemed to be pretty well vanquished so I swept it outside and thought I was done with it.

While the spider itself was dead, its memory lived on. For a good week or so, every movement caught my eye. Every rustling sound made me jump. I was on edge waiting for another scary thing to enter my life. At this point, I'm pretty well used to cockroaches and random semi-large bugs that generally get swept out of the house or smushed or both, but that spider sure brought back every fear of scorpions and tarantulas I ever had in this country (knock on wood, I still haven't had to deal with a scorpion).

There's a little slice of life from Nicaragua. In addition to finding my cold-blooded friend last week, I also started my first community class with the staff at a local NGO and next week the teachers head back to school for workshops and such. My summer vacation is almost over.

Saqué la escoba y la pegué algunas veces y tiré zapatos hasta que estaba segura que estaba muerta. Desafortunadamente, por una semana o mas, cada movimiento o ruido me asustó. Ah, la vida en Nicaragua. Afuera de mis amigos con muchas piernas, expecé una clase con los de CEDRU, un ONG local, y proxima semana los maestros va a entrar en el instituto para tallers. Es el fin de mis vacaciones.

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