Jungle delights

May 24, 2008

The sun came up this morning casting hazy glows over the moisture drenched jungle and glistening off the snow covered peaks of El Altar. El Sangay is smoking away in the distance, it’s delicate white plumes rising gently from it’s snowy crater. The traffic rumbles on, a constant hum on the road, lapping the jungle shore as it passes through. There is no rain yet today, but it is sure to come.

I was walking to work in a downpour earlier this week when I came apon a small creature charging me just after the suspension bridge. It was about half a foot long with outstretched pinchers and was moving fast enough that I jumped off the path and into the rocks of a small creek to get out of it’s way. I thought it was a scorpion! After careful scrutiny from my vantage point under my umbrella, I realized I was actually looking at a crab! The bold little fellow had been running sideways (as crabs do) with both it’s crab claws outstretched and clacking. Never in my wildest dreams would I have supposed I would encounter a crab on a jungle trail. It’s raining so much the marine life are becoming terrestrial because they think they’re still in the ocean!