We usually don’t see many scorpions but this week we have seen four. There was a mother with babies in the corner of the terrace. Joel was surprised in the kitchen by a baby who ran across the counter top. He found this nice one today between sheets of plywood behind the house, no surprise since they are frequently seen there. And then there was one in the laundry room when he went to move the gas can. That one got squished by the gas can.

My Panamanian friends say that the best treatment for a scorpion sting is to kill the scorpion and put the material inside the scorpion’s body on the sting. If you can’t catch and kill the scorpion, the next best thing is scorpion juice made of alcohol with a dead scorpion in it. So, if we ever get stung by a scorpion we are ready now.

Panamanians have also told me that the baby scorpions eat their mother! I have looked for information and none of it says this, but what do I know? I did read that some scorpion mothers eat their mate though, or their young.

Avoiding problems with wildlife here isn’t much different than Florida and other places. Shake out your clothes and shoes before you put them on. Don’t put your hand in places you can’t see. Wear shoes outdoors. Be aware that you share your environment with various forms of wildlife who have ways of defending themselves.

I’m sure that is more than enough about scorpions for one day. I was house and dog sitting last week, and the iguanas were driving the dogs crazy. The iguanas seemed very interested in the seeds of a tall palm tree, but their activity caused noise in the tree which sent the dogs running every time. One time I went out and managed to catch the iguana with my camera.

Do you see the head of the iguana right in the middle of the photo?

Another fun thing today was Enrique, our fruit and vegetable man who comes every week. He gets up at 4AM to go to Cerro Punta and other places for his produce, and then drives around town the rest of the day selling it. His stuff is always really fresh and now that he knows what we like, he picks out the best broccoli and green beans and stashes them under the seat just for us. This is what I bought today – $15. I see people on line complaining about high costs and bad customer service, but this certainly hasn’t been our experience. I enjoy having a really nice guy show up at our door every week with yummy produce.

Lots of nice things today. The band is practicing here today too. And, I had better gardening karma. I went to do some work and it didn’t rain a drop! Another good day in Panama.