Of Floods and Pestilence....

Well more excitment to report. Just when you think that everything is going smoothly, the travel gods make sure you don't get too comfortable.

Late Friday afternoon we returned to our villa after a nice walk. You can imagine our surprise when we were confronted with a mini lake covering the floor of our villa. We were an inch deep in water all over most of the living area. As we soon discovered, a valve had broken in the unit next door (unoccupied) and water was gushing under the door into our place. A frantic call to reception had the maintenance staff their in short order, but as the hour was getting late and the light fading fast, it was obvious that we would have to vacate the premises. There was no prblem in getting another villa as the place was virtually empty (as previously reported) but we did have to gather up all our belongings, food, etc. and move across the lane to another place. The staff were very helpful and we were soon settled into our new digs....almost!

I was getting the kitchen stuff put away when Sue suddenly called out...Robb get your camera...we've got a scorpion in here. So I ran into the bedroom and sure enough, there on the wall of our clothes closet was a big, black scorpion...one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. Sue had been stowing shoes in the closet (as we had known, shoes are a prime hiding place for scorpions) when she glanced up and came eyeball to stinger with the creature. I stood there gawking at it for a few seconds unsure as to whether to take a picture or just run like hell. After a moment I figured our best course of action was to find someone who might know how to deal with this thing. I ran across to our old villa where several of the staff were busy mopping up, and cornered one of the maintenance guys...."Amigo, un momento por favor". I tried to tell him what the problem was but didn't know the right words, so just grabbed him and ushered him over to our new place. He took one look and became very serious. He confirmed our fears as he said "muy peligros!"....very dangerous, and indicated a swelling motion on his arm, obviously telling us that a sting would be very unpleasant. As we had hoped, he obviously had some experience with this insect as he took off his baseball cap and use the stiff brim to chop off the scropion's tail. That done, he squished the remaining parts into the wall, though it seemed to take some doing to finish off the bug. He carried the carcass out on the brim of his hat!


The incident left us a little shaken, obviously, as we then wondered what else might be lurking in dark corners. After a thorough search revealed nothing further amiss, we got on with things, though I must admit, my night at least was spent largely listening carefully for crawling sounds under the bed, till the morning sun put an end to a sleepless night. Luckily we had no more unwanted visitors, and our stay at the Amatique Bay resort came to an end with our departure for Guatemala City on Sunday morning.

It was actually sad to say adios to our taxista, Jose, whom we had got to know quite well during our week there. We left him with a little momento of our visit...a small calendar with scenes from the Rockies of Western Canada. And then we were off on the next leg.