I know what you´re thinking. Sure, we just returned from the couples retreat that I mentioned in a previous letter, so we should be running on a fresh set of spark plugs with a new look on life. Well, I´m not in the doghouse for bad behavior. Like so many dogs, I´m in the doghouse because I´m covered with… ticks!
click on the picture for a larger, more disgusting view of this single blade of grass
Apparently, cutting down all the jungle and turning it into pasture affects the ecology, so every dry season, which coincides with the only time to measure the lowest flow rate of spring water sources for aquaducts, all the pastures and everything that passes through gets covered in ticks; all shapes and sizes of ticks, ¨garrapatas¨ as they´re called here, literally ¨clawfeet.¨
This slick 2¨pvc pipe was lightly brushed against the blade of grass. Can you imagine how well they grab onto clothing? Maybe I will douse myself in kersosene next time.
One would think that ticks are dumb, but these here have figured out how to locate the most frequently used paths and congregate by the hundreds or even thousands on the tips of grass blades and twigs. When something touches the grotesque blobs of ticks, those on the outside latch on and they quickly disperse themselves over the object… or person. I´m quite certain that ticks must have evolved after creation because they are clearly minions of the devil. Enjoy the cold back home!
if this doesn´t get your mind off those nasty bloodsuckers, nothing will. Watermelon does taste better in a rubber ducky.
