Thursday, May 19, 2011

Chapter 69 - A Hurtful Story


    We knew that there were villains here, we just didn’t know how close to the house they were.  Melaney goes out for a mile walk every other day with the dog, and this morning she had a tale to tell.  When she got back, she said she saw a coiled snake that had been run over in the road.  It was black and yellow and red……..Eeek!  I recognized that from the color.  It is a coral snake.  She looked up the snakes of Costa Rica, and found the picture immediately.  Apparently, they are very common…..I don’t like that a lot.
     I had to think back to my childhood, when I lived in rattler country for many years of my life, and yet I never saw one.  They were so thick one year that the girls’ father said they were all over the road where he was trucking, and getting run over right and left, but I never saw one.  Whoop Up Hill was a common picnic area just a little way from the Old Man River, and I had heard stories of kids climbing up that hill and being chased down by rattlers.  I think it was a story.  I was there several times, and still never saw a snake.
     We had a lot of garden variety snakes in that area, and I saw plenty of them, but they are only a foot long, and are more afraid of humans than humans are of them.  Mel’s sister, Laura, didn’t like to have baby sitters.  She was still young enough (about eight) that I needed to have a sitter if I left for any length of time.  She chased one home with a garden snake.  We have laughed about that many times.
     Costa Rica is different.  We are in an element that we aren’t familiar with and there are many creatures here that must be respected and avoided.  In Mel’s reading on the internet about the coral snake, she found that they have a reverse fang, and can’t bite anything that is very big.  The article said that if a person wears boots when hiking, they can’t bite.  Most people who get a coral snake bite try to pick them up and then they got a bite on the hand.  I won’t be picking them up really quickly…..
     Rita and Victor were here this morning, and we told them about the snake.  They just shrugged it off, and said there weren’t any snakes here at the orchard.  I replied by saying this dead one was only a block away.  Victor said the only coral snake that is dangerous is the RANI Coral and they weren’t around here………Good hope!  Sometimes I am sure they just don’t want to take a chance on losing a good tenant.
     It is Good Friday today, I hope something good happens.  I made empanadas last evening, and we have lots of masa and filling for some more today.  I put some curry powder in the dough and made them with beef.  I have only a tiny bit of beef left, but I can use the rest of the dough with potatoes and cheese.  I am getting pretty handy at this food item.  I can’t understand why people that I have talked with think it is such a great thing to have empanadas.  They are tasty, with a little salsa, but quite easy to make.  I guess I will forget the snake, and be a Tica after all.  (That’s a feminine Tico).

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