Wake up call by a Scorpion!

Most people wake up to their alarm clocks buzzing but not for me....on this raining Sunday morning I had the pleasure of waking up to a scorpion nabbing me on my leg! Feeling the sudden sting and crazy intense burning I knew straight away what it was but prayed for the first time that it was a bug or mozzie or just anything else biting me! After shouting like a lunatic and waking everybody in the house we phoned Rosario (the guy who takes care of the reserve) who came to my rescue with cotton wool and ammonium to draw the venom out. The burning spread around the site with a type of rash and man did it burn! As you can imagine there were plenty of choose words said! Thank god Rosario didn’t seem to be too worried about it so I have just spent the day dabbing ammonium on this hole in my leg which has now come up into some lovely blisters! Ahh what a fantastic start to the week! As I have said before there is never a dull moment at Laguna Blanca!!! We haven’t seen this type of scorpion around the place so it’s in a bottle for the time being until we can put a name to it but personally I hope it stays there.....for a very long time! I suppose the good thing that came out of this is we have now swept the place top to bottom and I know for sure I’m going to swat up on scorpions because not knowing what it is that’s just injected you with god knows what is not very fun.

We are still experiencing the joys of living in a country which has frequent thunder and lightening storms cutting off the electricity sometimes for hours and sometimes just a few minutes....keeps you on your toes and I think my night vision is getting better, I only say that because I haven’t walked into any doors....yet! But it is definitely great weather for frogs! They love it; you can hear new frogs calling now, one which gives me the creeps, it reminds me of a screaming banshee! A little bit unsettling especially when you are in the middle of a reed bed with all sorts of spiders and snakes around you and there’s this banshee screaming from every direction! We have found some really interesting frogs, some with the most spectacular markings you have ever seen, just beautiful!

We had another visitor during the night the other night. Karina woke me at about 1am to tell me there was an owl in her room, ordinarily I would have thought she was going crazy but living here I have come to accept the weirdest of things. The burrowing owl that lives in front of the horse corral had some how got into our rafters. It swooped down at us so we were able to catch it at the end of the bed. It’s now back on its mound in front of the corral bombing Peluza (our dog) every time she comes to close! Very funny stuff!

Hasta la Proxima!