Las culebras mejores!

So I have seen dozens of fer-de-lances in my groundpounding around Central America, but I am pretty sure I haven't seen one this size:

This lil' puppy was hanging out on the trail to my cabana (which was about 1km from the main area--imagine walking that in the dark, completely lit [and we aren't talking light], and meeting this 'un--or worse, not even realizing he's around...) at least a couple of nights running. We heard about him one evening in el comedor but didn't find him that night. (To be fair, Bill and I couldn't find our ass with both hands that night.) The next night we wandered out again, and lo and behold, there he was. I'm guessing (knowing the average person's proclivity to overestimate snake sizes) he was about a 4 footer. My estimate is also based on the fact that after I spooked him, he uncoiled and took up a good portion of the 1.5m trail, even while remaining sinuous. Damn big snake.

So Bill was shooting pics (including these) and we were all holding flashlights to help him focus. I spooked the snake into the brush, where it hung out for awhile, facing away from us, and then coiled up in striking position again. Bill shot more pics as the skeeters swarmed (luckily for the rest of us, Michelle always smells good so the bugs were flocking more to her) and we lit up the snake with our massive 2 candlepower lights. After awhile, we were more interested in seeing the shots Bill got, so we were checking out his screen whenever he said "that looks like a good one!" Great shot, said Bill once, so we went over to check it out. Did look damn good. He thought it might be a little out of focus, so we shined our lights back into the bush alongside the trail, and ... no snake. Quick shining along all the nooks and crannies right by the trail, as well as the bare dirt itself, assured us (HA!) that the snake was not going to latch on to one of our legs immediately. We took that as the point at which intrepid snake hunters bid one another good night, and I took off (a quick walk) to the cabin and the rest of the crew headed the other direction back to theirs.

All in all, a highly successful night: good pics, BFS (big f-ing snake), and no permanent injuries.

My first day there, thanks to Mel and Shea's direction and Brenda's blog (for the pic, shamelessly stolen from her), I also got to see an eyelash pit viper--never seen one before, though I have spent lots of time in areas where they'd been sighted. They have "eyelashes"--thus, their name--but some say the name also refers to their habit of hanging out on small branches, large leaves, or vines, right about eyelash height on a person. Beautiful image, eh? A little snake latched on to my forehead doesn't sound like fun, especially one this venomous. (For those of you keeping track at home: venomous means that if they bite you, you die. Poisonous means if you bite them, you die.) Anyhoo, a gorgeous snake, and thanks to the crew for showing it to me.

A final aside to the commentors on the beans and rice post--when you guys amass as much time taking dumps out in the woods in the tropics as I have, you can harrass me about beans and rice (which I secretly love anyway). Actually, that brings to mind a pretty fun activity--next time you have a field day, save up your need to crap and do it out there. Within 10 minutes, you'll have a circus of dung beetles, flies, parasitic wasps, and all sorts of entomological excitement to watch. (Why is it that biologists have more fun with bodily functions than 4 year olds???)