Another Year Another Ant Bite

We're back in Costa Rica and I've been pretty quiet. No blog posts. Not much Facebook. Until yesterday. You could have heard me in Nunavut when I got stung by a Bullet Ant. HOLEEE DUCK!!! 

We were bringing some wood indoors because it had started to rain. I picked up a board and immediately flinched because I thought I had gotten a bad splinter in my finger. Then I saw the large ant fall onto the floor from my hand. I have no idea what it feels like to be shot by a bullet, but this pain was excruciating. I ran for the ice and had to sit holding onto an ice bag for the rest of the day. If I let go of the ice, the agony would return in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, it only lasts for 12-24 hours, and, in my case, it was closer to 12.

To be fair, Sue has been stung twice by Bullet Ants, once on her foot. The first time she spent the day sitting with her foot in a bucket of ice water. I now readily admit that I wasn't as sympathetic as I should have been!

Missy and Mary came down on May 1st for vacation. Mary asked me what was the scariest animal that I had encountered in Costa Rica. I didn't even have to think about it. "Ants," I replied. They both thought I was loco until the day Missy accidently stepped on an ant nest. Her foot was immediately on fire from the tiny ant bites that happen before you even realize what you did. I think the small ones that attack our feet are fire ants, but I'm not really sure. I just call all of them fucking hormigas (hormiga is the Spanish word for ant). 

Those small ant bites are very painful at first, and then they get annoyingly itchy for days, even weeks. I currently have a large scab on my ankle from scratching and scratching and scratching. 

Before we leave the world of ants, I have to mention the leaf-cutters. These are fascinating ants that can carry pieces of leaves larger than their bodies straight up a vertical wall. Seeing leaf-cutter ants was at the top of Mary's CR wish list. We were able to deliver immediatly - they're all over the place. There's currently an army of them who seem to be moving a tree from the property on the right of us to the property on the left of us, cutting through our yard. They actually make a path where they walk, there are so many of them going back and forth!

I admit to being fascinated by leaf cutters, but other than that I have grown to hate ants, so let's move on. 

Missy and Mary (M&M) were supposed to visit us here in March of 2020. Remember when COVID hit? March of 2020. None of us knew very much about it, and they were trying to decide whether to travel or not, and then the decision was made for them - Costa Rica closed its borders. They didn't get here and we ended up staying for 7 months, until mid-September when the border re-opened. 

Fast forward 2+ years. M&M were able to re-book their cancelled flights for this May, which is when we finally returned (we skipped coming in 2021 because we were so confused about whether to travel when Omicron hit). We arrived on April 27th. The next day Heather drove me to Nuevo Arenal to meet a guy who had agreed to rent me a car for the days M&M were here. We share a car with Heather, but I knew we would be taking M&M on day trips and didn't want to leave Heather without a car all day. 

Nuevo Arenal is across the lake. About 3.5 miles as the crane flies. It takes at least 45 minutes to get there though, around the lake on very curvy roads. Nuevo means 'new' in Spanish - this town is the new Arenal because the old Arenal is under the lake since they built the hydroelectric dam in 1979. Old Tronadora is under the lake too. 

Anyway, we met the guy at the center of town gas station. He had written up a simple contract and was charging me $400 for 10 days. WAY cheaper than a real car rental agency! I paid him and he proceeded to explain to me everything one could ever possible need to know about driving a car. I mean everything! I drove him home with Heather following and then he told me a whole lot more. The car was basically a piece of shit, but it ran well. He said that it had an electrical issue so sometimes the power windows would go up and down on their own. We actually experienced the issue with the power locks. Lock unlock lock unlock over and over.  Good thing it was a short trip into town! 

So, we had the car and would be using it to pick up M&M the next day in Liberia. They were departing PVD at 6:30am, connecting somewhere I can't remember, and then they were due to arrive at LIR about 1:30pm. The fun started when they got notified at 9:30pm the night before that their flight was changed to 6am (from 6:30). What if they had already been sleeping??? It also had 2 stops instead of 1 (yuck!) and was now slated to arrive in LIR at 7:30pm. 

M&M were none too happy about the change, but they were dealing with it. They landed in Houston, their 2nd connection, and were just about to take off when thunderstorms hit and takeoffs were halted. First it was for 15 minutes. Then another 10. Then 15 more. Then the pilot let people get off the plane to stretch their legs. And on and on... Meanwhile Sue and I were making the hour and a half drive to the airport. We didn't take the rental because the guy had told me the headlights weren't too good. I had said no problem - I won't be driving at night anyway. Ha! 

We got to the airport about 7:30 and kept watching FlightAware and reading Missy's increasingly angry texts with their next, next, next, next, and next estimated takeoff times. They finally took off and then landed about 8:55pm. They got through passport control and customs quickly because they were the only flight coming in so late. Missy said she had been ready to get off the plane in Houston and fly back to RI, if that had been possible! I'm glad it wasn't!!! 

So back to the rental car. It was manual transmission, which I like, although on these curvy, hilly roads you have to do a LOT of down-shifting and up-shifting. The first (and only) trip we took with the rental car was to the Baldi Hot Springs near La Fortuna. About a 2 hour curvy, hilly ride around the lake, through Nuevo Arenal, past the dam, and right next to the Arenal volcano. All these local roads have 1-way bridges when they need to cross a rio (river) or quebrada (creek). One direction has a sign that reads 'CEDA', meaning yield. That's the side that has to stop if a vehicle is coming from the other direction. There are several of these bridges on the road around the lake. 

Towards the end of the ride to Baldi, I was going down a hill with a bridge at the bottom. I stepped on the brake and the pedal went right to the floor. My body jerked as I reacted and I hit the brake again. I also down-shifted to use the engine to slow us down. Missy saw it all and asked me what happened. I told them about the brakes while I gradually sped up and tested and retested to make sure the brakes were working again. They were, although they were now squealing pretty loudly when I applied them. We decided we would drive to Baldi, call the guy and tell him to pick up his car, and somehow arrange a ride home. 

So that's what we did, but first we had a wonderful time testing the various hot pools, having drinks at the bar in one of the pools, and totally forgetting about the piece of shit in the parking lot. Afterwards, the guy came and said he would take the car to his mechanic, and then return the car to me the following day. I thanked him profusely, but declined. We wanted no part of the piece of shit rental with bad brakes. A gal at the counter at Baldi knew someone who would drive us back home, and I got on my phone to start the process of finding a real rental car. 

Before I got that done, Heather let me know that a neighbor on our street had an extra vehicle (a pickup truck) that she would let us use while M&M were here. Everything always seems to work out!

PURA VIDA!