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Tarantulas and Diarrhea
A lesson in how to
avoid missing out on your trip plans.
We had been driving the whole of the last day along the Pacific
Coast of Mexico heading up towards Mazatlan when we decided we had
had enough driving and were ready to pull the van off the road somewhere
and camp. We knew we wanted to get off the road and away from sight
so that we wouldn't run the risk of meeting someone that could cause
use trouble. Sooner or later we found a side road that pulled into
a large vacant area. Having pulled into these large areas before
and finding out the next morning that they were dumps, we were good
at spotting them. Most of the time they're pretty clean as it seemed
they didn't really have a good system for collecting garbage and
putting it there. So we pulled into one of the corners and hopped
out.
Upon getting out of the van, Hazen was instantly off with the flashlight
looking for critters. Then he yelled, "Wow, there's
all kinds of Tarantulas here." I thought to myself
how cool this would be. I grabbed my camera and light and went off
to film the red-legged tarantulas. There must have been a hole every
square meter, each with a red-legged tarantula in it. It was pretty
stunning to see the numbers of these spiders around. These spiders
come out to the entrance of their holes and then when a cockroach
or other critter comes by, they pounce on it. I guess since we were
in a dump the number of roaches was large, thus supporting these
large numbers of spiders. After an hour or so of filming, my battery
ran out and we had to recharge it. In the meantime, Hazen decided
to go out looking some more. Joseph who, had been having a sudden
case of Montezuma's revenge decided to join him.
Then came the weirdest situation I had come across. Joseph, who
could only describe his situation as, "explosive diarrhea"
explained that he didn't want to get his clothes soiled. Thus, he
said he was going to walk around naked. Hazen didn't mind, but said
he should at least bring a pair of underwear with him so that if
or when the Mexicans around decided to see what we were doing in
the dump, we could be semi-descent. But Joseph not wanting to cover
the explosion area, decided the best way was to walk around with
them on his head. So off they went exploring through fields
of Tarantulas, with Joseph totally naked, except for his flippers
and underwear on his head. It made for quite a sight.
I wish I would have taken a picture, but at this point I was so
tired. I was laid down in my usual sleeping spot on the top of the
'76 Chevy van and faded into my thoughts of Mexico's wonderful wildlife.
by Rob Nelson
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