Ok confession. I am terrified of snakes - just can't help it. Insects, bats and frogs are all ok but not snakes. Still I am well equipped for my jungle adventure, Leki pole, sturdy walking boots, jungle cape, and insect repellent. In my dreams as a little girl I had machetied my way through many a jungle spying on elephants and tigers, befriending sick macaws and gently encouraging baby monkeys to climb back up their trees to find mummy. Now, as out guide led us into the forest - along the well-constructed boardwalk - no dream could have matched the excitement I felt. I was euphoric. I had never seen anything like this before. Tiny frogs the size of your fingernail singing a song more suited to giant toads. Monkeys howled evocatively, the teasing glimpse of a wing, snails that really are the size my young son wishes they all were. The ferns, the orchids, the butterflies, the trees. I never wanted to wake up again. And then I saw a twig.
Just a little brown twig with two drops of tiny black blood on its diamond shaped tip and whisper of thread trembling in the breeze - what breeze? I had never seen anything so beautiful. As thin as a pencil but as fluid as the tiniest of streams it slithered over the ferns and moss, and then froze. Fixated and as motionless as the little snake, my eyes ran over its wiry body - past the little bulge (presumably a tree frog), sliding down, down to the thinnest of tails. My intoxication was just beginning...
Meg
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