Last night I decided the lightning
(electric) storms here are officially my new favourite thing, worth coming to
Costa Rica for almost alone! It is impossible to stop watching the bolts jump
upwards or to the sea and letting out involuntary "wows!"
So yes, at about 10:00 last night it
started raining whilst I was playing a little chess on my PC (so glad I
did). At this same time I heard a plop
or more like a loud thud about a metre away from me as I lay on my bed, and
sure enough as I looked to my right I saw that my snake friend was on the floor
by my door AGAIN! It was almost as if he appeared from nowhere and it must have
been the same guy as he was exactly the same size with identical patterns on
his head, besides… this one obviously had an obsession over my door. After removing the decorative sheet I have
hanging on it, that apparently he likes so much, I took more photos before again
wrangling him with two brooms.
 |
| I Can Live Here With You Yes? (D.Philpot) |
 |
| My Doorframe Is Your Doorframe (D.Philpot) |
 |
| Hiya Buddy (D.Philpot) |
 |
| Sid The Snake (D.Philpot) |
Obviously 20 metres was not enough and
so this time I took my buddy on a little walk 400-500 metres down the path past
the dorms and the lab, in the pouring rain! where I let him go far away by a
small wooden bridge by a dry stream. It's funny how easily you become a great
snake handler, and thanks mum for the previous comment "maybe he will come
back for you…" - another sleepless night? or perhaps I will hide in a
cocoon using my sleeping bag liner sheet forever more each night!
 |
| My Snake On A Broom, In A Monsoon (D.Philpot) |
Now I must summarise Saturday in the
minute of spaces (nothing much else happened anyway). I went snorkelling with
one of the volunteers - saw an Octopus, huge Surgeonfish, and lots of Azure
Parrotfish again. And again… no camera! I took a necessary nap, then we had
food (couscous etc.) and I made the best banana milkshake ever using bananas
that were going off.
This evening at the lab I saw another
interesting moth and bugs...
 |
| Green Bug Moth - Top (D.Philpot) |
 |
| Green Bug Moth - Front (D.Philpot) |
 |
Odd-Shape Moth (D.Philpot)
|
and I decided to read up about the snake in what is quoted to
be the only decent reptile book for the area.
The snake I whittled my friend down to was Leptodeira annulata and a
lovely passage of the book read "the venom of L. annulata is strong enough
to cause a severe reaction in humans…" good to know!
 |
| A Beautiful Reptile Passage (D.Philpot) |