A walk in the park - Parque Swinford

Parque Swinford, La Ceiba, Honduras

I took a walk through Parque Swinford with my camera the other day at lunch time and have a bunch of photos to show you. It was a dark, cloudy day, so I had to brighten all the photos.

Parque Swinford is the nicest park in La Ceiba. The park was built by Standard Fruit Company. It also includes some old train cars from the early 1900's which I'll show you in another slide show later.

The water sprinklers were on everywhere and they shoot out about 18 feet (5.5 m) in big circles covering the sidewalks everywhere. Even trying to estimate the range and make a run for it, I couldn't avoid them and was drenched a few times.

I was chastised for walking on the grass by a security guard (just about every place has a security guard) who kept wagging his finger at me as he explained to me that walking on the grass would kill it. I smiled and tried to explain that I only walked (actually ran) on the grass because my clothes were getting wet − I even showed him my wet clothes, but he was having none of it!

Rules are RULES and no logic can intervene. My few little footsteps in the grass would cause instant death and ruin to the "lawn." Once he realized what a dastardly character I was, he had to hang up his cellphone and get off his bench to trail me around the park to keep an eye on me. I was busy taking photos (from the sidewalk!) and would look up to see him peering at me from around a train car.

I tried to be friendly and asked if I could take his photo. Once again − the finger wag and NO! as he turned his back and walked away. I guess I wasn't thinking about how security personal need to keep their photos out of the public so as not to attract retaliation from criminals and international terrorists. This guy, like so many guards in Honduras, was really enjoying his power over me.

I wanted to give him a lecture about wasting a precious natural resource by watering (for hours apparently, based on the depth of the puddles) on a rainy day during rainy season, but I don't think he could have comprehended the concept. After all, rules are rules, and they probably have a watering schedule to stick to, rain or shine.

Despite the unpleasant guard, it is a pretty park. I especially like the use of the big boulders as part of the landscape. The animal figures are nice, too. A stone marker indicates the park was built in March 1999.

Enjoy the slide show:

The train car slide show is here.

Baking the newspaper

Would you like that rare, medium, or well done?

Yesterday was a cool, dark, and rainy morning making it so easy to sleep in.

Apparently, Chloe thought so, too, and felt no urgency to retrieve the newspaper. The newspaper always comes in a plastic bag but it landed in a low spot and the rain seeped in.

Other strange things that I've baked in Honduras have been salt, printer paper, and those little desiccant packages that I keep with my plant seeds.

Today, again, the newspaper is out in the rain. Sigh...I guess I'll read it on the internet.

A senseless murder and another rescue

Chloe and snake

Right after I posted yesterday's article saying, "Today was another first for me," I had yet another first.

I killed a snake.

Actually, Chloe and I working together killed a snake. I'm not proud of it and looking at it today in the light, I doubted that it was venomous. I was scared to death last night, though. I was afraid that Chloe was going to be poisoned or that the snake might hurt the baby chicks, so I did it.

Here is a blow-by-blow of what happened: Chloe was bark, bark, barking all evening making me very nervous. Finally, she started making a different bark/guttural growl/"I've got you now" sort of sound. I looked out the front door and saw that she had a small snake cornered. I ran to get the camera thinking I would get a video of her with a garden snake and then bring her inside so the snake could slither off somewhere.

As I went through the front door with the camera, I saw that the snake was no longer there on the sidewalk. I walked down the two steps and just as I stepped onto the sidewalk....

the snake came flying through the air from above my head!!

It missed landing on my head by a mere 2 inches and fell at my feet!! Well, you can imagine the screaming, barking, and heart-pounding that was going on at that point.

(I still don't know how that happened, but I think that Chloe may have captured the snake in the bushes and flung it in the air.)

I SCREAMED some more as I jumped back while Chloe began attacking it. I was watching and videoing (always the blogger even when suffering from complete terror), mesmerized for a minute or two, when I noticed that it had a wedge-shaped head much larger than the width of its triangular-shaped body − or at least it appeared that way last night. It was hissing and lunging at Chloe as she nipped at it's body. In the dim light, I thought I saw blood in Chloe's mouth. I was scared to death that it was venomous and that it would be a battle to the death for both of them.

I ran inside and down to the garage to get the machete, as all good Hondurans do when they find a snake. I couldn't find it anywhere so I grabbed this square-edged shovel, ran back outside, and crushed its neck a few times until it quit moving. Chloe kept wanting to bite it even though it wasn't moving. Then Chloe laid down on the front step and started whining/growling, panting heavily, and drooling − I was sure she had been poisoned.

In case you are wondering, no, El Jefe was not at home so it was up to Pioneer Gringa to handle the situation and protect the livestock.

We watched it awhile to make sure it was dead and then I scooped it up into the shovel. I checked Chloe's mouth and face and didn't see any blood or signs of a bite.

As I was taking a closer look at the snake under the light, it came back to life, raised its head up, opened its mouth very wide, and hsssssssd! Another heart-stopping, paralyzing moment. I think if it came at me, I wouldn't have been able to move.

Chloe went off sniffing the ground, apparently smelling the snake trail or, heaven forbid, more snakes.

If you been reading this blog for a time, you know that we have had a lot of different snakes around and that I've done my best to try to save them from the fate of the machete. I don't like snakes but I do understand their importance to the environment.

Today, I really feel badly about killing it. Last night, I was so terrified. It was dark, I couldn't get a good look at it, and I sure didn't have time to research it on the internet. As I was trying to decide what to do, all I could think of were the stories I've been told about dogs dying in horrible agony from snakes bites. Maybe it is just too much coffee, but I'm still a little shaky today.

I spent more hours today than you can imagine trying to identify this snake and I think it may be Stenorrhina degenhardtii, common name Degenhardt's scorpion-eater. Scorpion eater sounds like a very good thing to have around, but if it is this snake, it is venomous after all.

The Complete Guide to Snakes in Honduras (in Spanish) states that it can reach 70 cm. (28 inches). This one was about 60 cm. (24 inches).

Just to ease my conscience a little and hopefully assure you that generally I'm not a callous murderer of wildlife, here are some photos of the latest bird that I saved a couple of weeks ago. It crashed hard into our terraza glass door and was laying on its side breathing heavily with its beak open, not a good sign.

I think this may be the same bird that we've rescued before − once from Chloe, once from the drainage canal, and another time I rescued a baby and put it back in the nest. Expert Daniel of Hondubirding identified it as a Zorzal (Turdus grayi - Clay colored robin). I'm not sure if this is the same bird though because the belly looks more yellow than the photos I've seen.

I held it for a while and then put it in a safe place to recuperate where the dogs wouldn't bother him. When I checked on him a little later, he flew away.

Oh, by the way, the nighttime snake videos came out black and I thought that listening to a few minutes of Chloe barking and me screaming would be boring.